Ayo Edebiri Hosts, Fired Cast Member Shane Gillis Books Return

The pairing of host Ayo Edebiri and musical guest Jennifer Lopez on Saturday Night Live could have been an awkward one, considering Edebiri once claimed that J.Lo’s career was “one long scam.” But the star of The Bear walked back those comments during her SNL debut, saying she was “24 and stupid.”

And speaking of backtracking, Nikki Haley made a surprise appearance on the NBC show and addressed the time she declined to say slavery was the cause of the Civil War. And Saturday’s episode also revealed that Shane Gillis, who has his own history of offensive remarks, will host the next SNL installment.

Ayo Edebiri eats her words about Jennifer Lopez

In the days leading up to Edebiri’s SNL hosting debut, her years-old comments about Jennifer Lopez resurfaced. In a 2020 episode of Scam Goddess, Edebiri called Lopez’s career a scam and said that “she thinks that she’s still good even though she’s not singing for most of these songs,” seemingly referencing rumors that vocals by other artists were passed off as J.Lo vocals, per Page Six.

And Edebiri addressed those comments as she played a contestant in SNL’s “Why’d You Say It” sketch on Saturday night.

“OK, OK, we get it,” her character told Kenan Thompson’s game show host after he brought up the contestants’ trolling comments on social media. “It’s wrong to leave mean comments, or post comments just for clout, or run your mouth on a podcast, and you don’t consider the impact because you’re 24 and stupid. But I think I speak for everyone when I say, from now on, we’re going to be a lot more thoughtful about what we post online.”

Nikki Haley retracts her Civil War comments

SNL’s cold open took the format off a CNN town hall for Republican presidential candidates, and the real-life Nikki Haley popped up in the audience to challenge the claims of James Austin Johnson’s Donald Trump.

But then Edebiri stood up to ask Haley a question. “I was just curious: What would you say was the main cause of the Civil War, and do you think it starts with an s and ends with a lavery.”

In case you missed it, Haley said in a December 2023 town hall that the cause of the war was “the role of the government, and what the rights of the people are.” And when an audience member said it was astonishing that Haley didn’t mention slavery in her response, she said only, “What do you want me to say about slavery?”

Shane Gillis gets another shot at Saturday Night Live

Perhaps the real surprise of Saturday’s episode, though, was the reveal that Shane Gillis would host SNL’s February 24 episode, nearly four and a half years after getting fired from the show. SNL added Gillis to its cast in September 2019 and then fired him days later, after his past racist and homophobic comments resurfaced. In various podcast episodes, Gillis dropped anti-Asian slurs while talking about Chinatown and Andrew Yang and uttered an anti-gay slur while discussing Judd Apatow, per The Hollywood Reporter.

Next show!!! pic.twitter.com/P6J6QQqOFY

— Saturday Night Live – SNL (@nbcsnl) February 4, 2024

At the time of Gillis’ firing, SNL creator Lorne Michaels called the comedian’s language “offensive, hurtful, and unacceptable,” but now it seems Michaels is willing to give Gillis a second chance.

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