How will “Saturday Night Live” deal with the hubbub it created by hiring — and then hurriedly firing — the comic Shane Gillis a few weeks ago? Will it at all?

This wasn’t an issue that could be addressed on-air while the show was still dark. But with its return this weekend for the first episode of Season 45, it will be interesting to see whether “S.N.L.” will acknowledge its lapse in judgment in hiring a comedian who was known in the comedy world for racist, sexist and homophobic humor, which stirred up plenty of criticism.

There are a number of ways the show might attempt to make amends — over the last 44 years, it has had occasion to try most of them. While we wait to see what happens on Saturday night, here’s a look back at how “S.N.L.” has handled past flaps. (Note: We’re focusing on responses that happened within the show itself, so won’t get into things like Mike Myers’s apology to the Clintons over a tasteless “Wayne’s World” joke about Chelsea.)

The Claudine Longet Invitational

The French pop singer and actress Claudine Longet was arrested in 1976 for shooting and killing her lover, the pro skier Vladimir “Spider” Sabich. Longet claimed the shooting was an accident, which “S.N.L.” spoofed near the end of its first season.