Bill Hader and his dark comedy series, Barry, did well at the Emmys a second year in a row. Even though Barry is a successful show, Bill is probably still best known for his stint on Saturday Night Live (2005-2013). So well-known that he was made to answer for the firing of Shane Gillis. Gillis, for those who don’t know, is the latest racist homophobe to hide behind the “comedy” shield for a bunch of crappy things he said that ultimately lost him his job at SNL. A job he held for three days. Good riddance, sucker. So Bill, fresh off the stage with his Emmys still in hand, was asked to answer for the SNL mess and he chose to speak in general terms about the need to evolve in comedy instead.

[Video from USA Today]

I’m transcribing Bill’s response rather than using the article because I liked the full response more than what was excerpted:

I want to know if you have any thoughts on the firing of Shan Gillies with SNL and all the drama that’s going on there?

No. I have no thoughts on that.

Do you have any thoughts on sensitivity in comedy, if things are changing?

Yeah. I mean, yeah – I just feel like you shouldn’t want to hurt anybody’s feelings. I think also, in comedy, you do stuff six or seven years ago that wouldn’t be okay now and probably with good reason, you know what I mean? So, I think a lot of us, I only speak for myself, but there’s, like everybody, you have to kind of grow. I think it’s a good thing. I’m never interested in upsetting anybody.

“I’m never interested in upsetting anybody,” said the guy playing a sociopathic gun-for-hire. I kid! Bill Hader is a sweetheart; I know he’s not Barry. I get why Bill is being asked about Gillies, but I don’t think he should have to answer to it, especially when his own victory didn’t involve an apology tour to get there. I appreciate that he refused to speak on Gillies specifically. I also appreciate his caveat that it’s a good thing for comedy to evolve. As we say often here, it’s not that things weren’t offensive yesteryear, it just wasn’t called out. Removing stigmatizing language from our vocabularies is a good thing. Not belittling large numbers of the population is a good thing. And societal norms changing to acknowledge that is a good thing. I also like Bill’s point that a comedian “shouldn’t want to hurt anybody’s feelings.” Some non-vile comedians try to push boundaries and end up going too far. They also acknowledge when they’ve crossed a line and adjust. But people like Gillies went on-air with language designed to be offensive and to hurt others. And he did it only last year.

Odd that Bill was asked about Gillis’s firing instead of Lorne Michaels or the rest of the SNL cast, who also won an Emmy.

Photo credit: WENN Photos and USA Today