Shane Gillis

I'm not generally offended by people who inadvertently say something offensive. There was a kid in school who innocently said that the Jews killed Jesus. He didn't hold it against them. The ancient Jews certainly executed people in horrible ways for no good reason. The truth is, if they didn't kill Jesus, it was only because the Romans got to Him first.

There was poor Kelly Osbourne, dumb as she is, who blurted out something terribly offensive while attacking Donald Trump's racism. I saw Billy Connolly on Dennis Miller's old late night talk show---he tried to attack "political correctness" but blurted out that "we need MORE racism" then, realizing what he had said, talked and talked and talked trying to get out of it. When he was done, Dennis Miller complimented him on talking his way out of his pro-racism comment. I assume he wasn't actually calling for more racism.

I generally feel sorry for these poor dumb saps. Although Kelly Osbourne's thing was really awful.

But I decided a while back that I would just relax and go ahead and be offended by things that are intentionally offensive. Why not? I'm tired of pretending to be open-minded.

Most racist comments take the form of "jokes". Saying it's a joke is no excuse. How is it a defense for a comedian to say that he made his racist comments on stage speaking to an audience? Doesn't that make it worse? You can't judge Hitler if he was speaking into a microphone?

So, anyway, there's this fellow named Shane Gillis who got hired on Saturday Night Live who is now under attack for racist and otherwise rude things he's said on stage or on his podcast.

According to Variety:

In one episode about the Battle of Gettysburg, Gillis refers to screaming soldiers as “so gay” and uses the words “retard” and “faggot.” One joke finds Gillis and his co-host comparing “hot Southern boys” being raped in the Civil War to “having gay sex in jail.”

My first impression was that "screaming soldiers" referred to Confederates and their idiotic "rebel yell", although I don't know why I thought that. I'm not sure if I'm troubled by saying it was "so gay" in this instance. I'm old, so when they refer to "hot Southern boys" I assumed they meant especially attractive Confederate soldiers. I can't say I'm too concerned about a hypothetical Confederate male rape victim who's been dead a hundred years. To hell with those guys. I didn't know male rape was a thing in the Civil War, although I guess it must have been. There was no need to bring up "gay sex in jail".

But don't use the word "retard" in that way. We had some jackass in the local student paper defend his use of the term. There were comments from parents of developmentally disabled children who told him how painful this was to them. He said he only used it in casual conversation. Like anyone thought he was using it in formal discourse. And he finally backed down and said he'd quit doing it. I'm sure he was still rather insensitive, but at least he was capable of some self-improvement.

Like Shane Gillis. Let him reform himself. Then we can welcome him back with open arms into the human race.

On the other hand...

I don't know if that works in a highly competitive field. Do you get a second chance? Should they give you one when the world is full of talented people who never said terrible things?

In film, a filmmaker's first movie seems to set the course for their career. It could just be that the sort of movie you want to make when you start out is the sort of movie you want to continue making. But it could also be that that's the only sort of film anyone will consider you for.

There was an article about celebrities speaking to film school students. They kept advising them to drop out and make a movie. And this didn't seem like unreasonable advice. But if you make some zero budget horror movie now, will you really blossom a decade later and make serious big budget movies? Does anyone do that?

It could be that it doesn't make any difference---don't worry about your future success unless you have a real chance of achieving it.

In most careers, there's a clear continuum. Be careful how you start.

It's like me in that writing group. One of my English teachers from junior high school is there. He didn't like me at all in school and he hated the stories I wrote. Now he seems to like them, but as I see it, they're a late-middle age version of what I wrote as a kid. They're not really serious, they're heavy on the dialog with little description.