Former 'SNL' Cast Member Rob Schneider Defends Fired Shane Gillis Over Racism Storm

"SNL" dropped Shane Gillis over racial slurs -- and one former cast member is not happy about it.

Rob Schneider jumped to his defense on Twitter on Monday night, criticizing the decision to fire his fellow comedian because of "offensive, hurtful and unacceptable" language he used in the past.

"Dear @Shanemgillis," the 55-year-old tweeted, "As a former SNL cast member I am sorry that you had the misfortune of being a cast member during this era of cultural unforgiveness where comedic misfires are subject to the intolerable inquisition of those who never risked bombing on stage themselves."

Rob's tweet quickly amassed 24k likes, but the comments below were polarized.

"Racism isn't a misfire. There is no risk in developing 'jokes' that denigrate others in this way. He bombed because he was cruel," one popular reply read.

"I'm tired of celebrities and people in positions of power gas lighting us, especially when the topic of interest doesn't affect you," another agreed. "Gillis used derogatory language & then tried to scapegoat it for comedic range???? You dont get to be both a racist and good comedian. Pick one."

"said the guy who's probably most famous for dressing up in a sombrero and saying 'you ken doo eet!' D-bags travel in packs it seems," a third fired.

But just as many agreed with Schneider.

"SNL has sucked for a while now. But this PC nonsense has to stop. People are going to forget how to laugh," one replied.

"PC will kill comedy. How could Don Rickles have had a career? Pryor? We are lucky to have Chappelle in this era..and Spade, you..etc," a second chimed in.

A third opined: "remember when John Belushi dressed up as an Asian just to cut things up with a samurai sword..? Or when Eddie Murphy used to dress up in white face..? Or when Mike Myers used to dress up as a Chinese guy with a games show that cut people's hands off..? All of it was funny. A great comedian once said 'f**k millennials, you're a bunch of rats and you don't care.. you only wanna get people in trouble.' And, being a millennial myself, couldn't agree more."

As TMZ reported, Gillis has been under fire for the past few days for using several racial slurs against Asians in a podcast from about a year ago. According to reports, that was just one example of him hurling racial epithets against Asians.

On Monday, "SNL" producers announced they were dropping him just four days after announcing he would be a cast member.

"After talking with Shane Gillis, we have decided that he will not be joining 'SNL,'" a spokesperson on behalf of creator Lorne Michaels said in a statement. "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."

"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."

Gillis posted his own statement on Twitter shortly afterwards: "It feels ridiculous for comedians to be making serious public statements but here we are. I'm a comedian who was funny enough to get SNL. That can't be taken away.

"Of course I wanted an opportunity to prove myself at SNL, but I understand it would be too much of a distraction. I respect the decision they made. I'm honestly grateful for the opportunity. I was always a mad tv guy anyway."

Schneider joined "Saturday Night Live" in 1988, and was promoted to cast member for four seasons, from 1990 to 1994.

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