The controversial comedian will host the show on February 24 alongside musical guest 21 Savage -- a little over four years after he was fired from the program after jokes featuring racist and homophobic slurs came to light.

As we previously reported ... SG was hired back in 2019 before a comment he made on "Matt and Shane's Secret Podcast" the previous year. You can watch the clip above ... it's pretty demeaning language.

Obviously, this comment caused a firestorm ... with an 'SNL' spokesperson saying Lorne Michaels and other execs had sat down with Shane and decided he wasn't the right fit for the show.

Shane responded at the time with the statement, "I'm a comedian who pushes boundaries. I sometimes miss. If you go through my 10 years of comedy, most of it bad, you're going to find a lot of bad misses." He also said he'd personally apologize to anyone who was offended.

Bowen Yang -- the prominent Asian American cast member of the iconic sketch show, who was hired the same year as Shane and is still on the show -- said he was going to sit down with Shane after the decision was made.

Yang will almost certainly appear alongside Gillis in the episode ... unclear if their convo ever went down or how he feels about the embattled comedian.

FWIW ... Gillis hasn't stopped saying controversial jokes over the years -- though perhaps they aren't as inflammatory as his 2018 comments.

However, he's still got fans up in arms over his hosting gig ... with many taking to social media to blast the NBC staple for allowing Shane the platform.

We'll have to wait and see if Shane addresses his firing on the show in a few weeks.