SNL host Shane Gillis may be offensive, but he isn’t the devil some are making him out to be

This Saturday, returns to with his head held high. The comedian and first-time host is less a prodigal son than a prodigal guy-you-met-at-a-party-once – Gillis was infamously hired and then fired by the popular NBC variety show . This was , after offensive jokes involving racial slurs he had made on a podcast the year before . Gillis’s return to the show, as its star for the week (alongside musical guest 21 Savage), represents a considerable eating of humble – and a smaller, markedly less humble slice of pie for Gillis himself, who once joked that he would shoot himself in the head on live TV were he ever to be invited back.