Newly hired  Saturday Night Live comedian Shane Gillis has been fired after videos of him making racist and homophobic remarks surfaced online.

Last week, SNL announced the three comedians joining its ensemble cast. Soon after Gillis' casting was announced, footage from his 2018 podcast in which he ridicules people of Asian descent and repeats racial slurs began circulating online. According to Vulture, his show featured a segment in which comedians were ranked according to by race, gender, and sexual orientation.

A spokesperson for Saturday Night Live creator Lorne Michaels released the following statement about the decision to fire Gillis:

“After talking with Shane Gillis, we have decided that he will not be joining SNL. We want SNL to have a variety of voices and points of view within the show, and we hired Shane on the strength of his talent as comedian and his impressive audition for SNL," the statement said.

"We were not aware of his prior remarks that have surfaced over the past few days. The language he used is offensive, hurtful and unacceptable. We are sorry that we did not see these clips earlier, and that our vetting process was not up to our standard.”

Read Gillis' statement on his firing below, and his previous response when the videos first emerged.