Infamous moments in Saturday Night Live history

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Since it is broadcasted live, the American sketch comedy television series Saturday Night Live has had several infamous events throughout its history that were either unplanned or provoked sufficient controversy to receive media coverage. Several hosts and musical guests have also been banned from returning due to their actions during the show.

Contents

1 Infamous moments on the show
2 Banned from the show
3 Cursing on the air
4 Controversial sketches and performers
5 Miscues and Mistakes
6 References
7 See also

Infamous moments on the show

On the second season premiere (September 18, 1976), Chevy Chase, playing Gerald Ford during a Ford/Carter debate sketch, fell over an unpadded podium and suffered a groin injury in the process. He missed the next two shows.
October 30, 1976, John Belushi accidentally gashed Buck Henry on the forehead with a sword during one of his samurai sketches. Henry had to wear a bandage for the remainder of the show. The rest of the cast also wore bandages on their foreheads for the rest of the show, as a tribute to Henry.
On January 18, 1986, the influential alternative group The Replacements appeared on SNL to promote Tim, their first album with Sire Records. In the past, the band had a reputation for indulging in alcohol just before their concerts, and as the show went on the air, the band did not hesitate to consume much of the beer in their backstage dressing room. When it came time for them to perform their first number, "Bastards of Young," they were clearly intoxicated and several cast members were unsure whether they could perform, unfamiliar with their history of performing under such circumstances. Their performance was later described as "transcendent" by music critic Robert Wilonsky^{[[Citing sources citation needed]]}, but lead singer Paul Westerberg would further aggravate their relationship with the show when he yelled "fuck" during "Bastards of Young." The band went on to perform one more song, "Kiss Me on the Bus," but at the end of the show the cast members did not interact with them, reportedly because of their behavior. When Lorne Michaels later discovered that The Replacements had also trashed their hotel room, he demanded that Sire Records pay for all damages or else their entire label would be banned from the show^{[[Citing sources citation needed]]}. The Replacements were banned from the show, and in subsequent rebroadcasts of this episode, "fuck" is censored out of "Bastards of Young."
On the March 15, 1986 episode hosted by Griffin Dunne, Damon Wayans decided on-air to portray his cop character in the sketch, "Mr. Monopoly" (about a lawyer who uses Monopoly cards to get his clients out of trouble) as a gay character. (The voice he used in the sketch was similar to the voice he would later use for his character Blaine Edwards, the homosexual movie critic in the recurring sketch, "Men on Film", on the FOX sketch show In Living Color.) According to the book, Live From New York: An Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live, the change was made in response to Lorne Michaels cutting out a sketch from dress rehearsal that Wayans liked. The deviation from the script ultimately resulted in Wayans being fired. Damon Wayans came back on SNL to do stand-up on the last episode of the 1985-1986 season (Anjelica Huston and Billy Martin with musical guest George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic), and return to host SNL during the 1994-1995 season.
In 1988 a sketch written by Conan O'Brien set in a nudist colony used the word "penis" a total of 42 times, culminating in a performance of the nudist club anthem, "The Penis Song" http://snltranscripts.jt.org/88/88bnudebeach.phtml].
In 1990, comedian Andrew Dice Clay was chosen to host; cast member Nora Dunn and scheduled musical guest Sinead O'Connor boycotted the show in protest, due to perceptions that his jokes were misogynistic http://snltranscripts.jt.org/92/92amono.phtml.
One particularly infamous incident came in 1992, when Sinéad O'Connor appeared on the October 3 episode with host Tim Robbins. In her second set of the show, she performed an a capella version of Bob Marley's "War". At the end, she picked up a picture of Pope John Paul II, ripped it up, and shouted, "Fight the real enemy!" http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c340/zdell78/sinead4.jpg. From the booth, director Dave Wilson immediately turned off the "applause" cue and the audience reacted with complete silence. NBC received many complaints about this within a matter of minutes. At the end of the show, Robbins refused to give O'Connor the customary "thanks" for being the musical guest. O'Connor was heavily criticized by many other celebrities and public figures. To this day, NBC refuses to lend out the footage of the performance to any media outlet. They have also edited out the incident from the syndicated version of the episode, replacing it with footage from the dress rehearsal taped earlier in the evening. However, it was finally released in 2003, with an explanation from Lorne Michaels, on Disc 4 of the Saturday Night Live - 25 Years of Music DVD set. Madonna would spoof the incident in a later show by ripping up a photo of Joey Buttafuco, quoting O'Connor's words.
In 1998, a TV Funhouse segment entitled "Conspiracy Theory Rock" aired. A parody of the public service Schoolhouse Rock! cartoons of the 1970s, this segment vilified the "media-opoly" (buyouts of media stations by large corporations with whom they may have a conflict of interest) and those corporations' alleged use of corporate welfare to pay off and campaign for congressmen, and why SNL castmember Norm MacDonald was fired from the show. The cartoon aired only in the original broadcast and was edited out of all reruns, with Lorne Michaels claiming that the cut was made because he didn't feel the segment "worked comedically." Later, Harry Shearer said in an interview that the move was actually made because "he [Michaels] wanted to keep working at 30 Rock."
During the build up to the wedding between Tom Green and Drew Barrymore (who got engaged in July 2000), the two frequently joked with the media about when and where they were going to wed. The most memorable incident came on November 18, 2000 when Green hosted Saturday Night Live. During the monologue, Green brought Barrymore on stage and teased the audience about the couple marrying at the end of the episode. Ultimately, the stage was set for a wedding before Barrymore in the end, got "cold feet." The SNL incident initially left viewers and the media confused about whether the couple had actually planned to marry on live TV, or were simply staging a publicity stunt.
When Gwyneth Paltrow hosted in 2001, a TV Funhouse cartoon featuring Michael Jackson was aired. The cartoon featured numerous comical attempts by Jackson to come in contact with young boys. It was only shown on the East Coast, while on the West Coast, a cartoon featuring Pat Robertson hosting the 700 Club and showing a fake cartoon called "Harry the Embryonic Cell". The reason for the substitution was not announced, but the Michael Jackson cartoon can be seen on the Internet, while most SNL fansites have no trace of the Pat Robertson cartoon. The Jackson cartoon was aired again as part of the TV Funhouse special on July 8, 2006.

Banned from the show

Saturday Night Live's producers, especially Lorne Michaels, have sometimes been accused of governing the show in a heavy-handed authoritarian manner^{[[Citing sources citation needed]]}. Over the years, the producers have famously and dramatically "banned for life" several celebrities from ever appearing on the television show. Reasons for these bans vary; sometimes they can be seen as a rational response to a star's grossly innappropriate on-stage behavior, while at other times the reasons are harder to understand as they stem from far more mild, or even superficial transgressions.

Louise Lasser, who hosted at the end of the first season on July 24, 1976 was the first host banned by the producers. Lasser was said to be going through personal problems at the time and was reportedly nearly incoherent throughout the broadcast. This episode was such a disappointment to producer Lorne Michaels that it was also barred from syndication until 2002.
In October 1977, on his one appearance on the show, Charles Grodin gave a clumsy performance. Grodin had missed rehearsal, stumbled his way through the show, and ad-libbed many of his lines. Grodin has never been asked back to host.
On December 17, 1977, Elvis Costello and the Attractions were slated to perform as a last-minute replacement for the Sex Pistols, who were unable to obtain passports. NBC and the show's producer Lorne Michaels didn't want the band to perform "Radio, Radio", since the song protests the state of the media. The band defied them by beginning to play their song "Less Than Zero", stopping, with Costello telling the audience that there was no reason to do that song, and telling the band to play "Radio, Radio" instead. Besides the defiance, it also infuriated Michaels because it put the show off schedule. Lorne spent the duration of the song staring at Costello with middle fingers raised.^{[[Citing sources citation needed]]} Costello was finally invited to come back and play in 1989, and even reenacted his act of defiance on the 25th Anniversary Show with the Beastie Boys in 1999.
Frank Zappa was banned from the show after his hosting stint on October 21, 1978. His distinct sense of humor made him unpopular with the cast and crew. During his performance, he made a habit of reading cue-cards and mugging for the camera. Many cast members (save for John Belushi) deliberately stood far from him during the goodnights.
The April 24, 1979, episode of the show hosted by Milton Berle resulted in his banning due to his habit of upstaging other performers, overacting, mugging for the camera, insertion of "classic" comedy bits and his maudlin performance of "September Song". This episode was also barred from rebroadcast for over twenty years until February 2003, when an edited version was shown on E!; it aired in full several times in Canada on The Comedy Network beginning in the late 1990s. Lorne Michaels felt that the broadcast, and Berle in particular, brought the show down.
The 1981 Halloween episode aired on October 31 with Donald Pleasence and musical guest, the infamous LA punk band Fear, by request from Fear fan John Belushi. The band proceeded to play some offensive songs ("I Don't Care About You" and "Beef Balogna," among others) and bussed in "dancers" (many were in well-known East Coast punk acts). The band used obscene language and the dancers destroyed the set with their slam dancing onstage. The situation was out of control in the studio, and the damage of studio equipment forced Dave Wilson to cut off the three-song performance; as they played "Let's Have a War" the audio and video cut to a commercial. The end result was Fear were banned from playing again.
* In an interview with the drummer from Fear Spit Stix, Stix explained Belushi hadn't been on SNL for years, but "for the show that we were on, he did make an appearance. In the beginning, he's at the urinal and he turns around to the camera, 'Live! From New York!' That was a favor he did for us because during rehearsal some of our crowd—bussed-in slamdancers—tripped over a cable or something, and the union people didn't want any dancers. So as a trade-off, he went up to Grant Tinker's office for us and said, 'I'll make an appearance on the show if the dancers stay.' John was such a generous guy" http://markprindle.com/stix-i.htm.
On November 13, 1982, host Robert Blake, who was very dissatisfied with the scripts that he received throughout the week (even crumpling up a script presented to him by cast member and writer Gary Kroeger, and threw it back in his face), was barred from ever performing on the show again.
Exactly one week after Robert Blake's, a proposed banning of a frequent guest was left in the hands of viewers. Andy Kaufman, who had appeared in the very first episode in 1975 and periodically thereafter, was the subject of a viewer poll to decide if Kaufman should be allowed to stay or be banned for life from the show. Viewers had to call a 900 number to cast their vote. They decided to kick him off and Kaufman never returned to the show. It was actually Kaufman who pitched the idea to Dick Ebersol weeks before, and Ebersol used the idea after he had a fight with Kaufman. When Kaufman heard the news that he was banned, he felt betrayed.^{[[Citing sources citation needed]]}
Steven Seagal, who hosted on April 20, 1991, was also barred from hosting because of his difficulty in working with the cast and crew, who made note of the occasion almost a year and a half later. During Nicolas Cage's monologue on September 26, 1992, Nicolas spoke with Lorne backstage, saying, "...they probably think I'm the biggest jerk who's ever been on the show!" to which Lorne replied, "No, no. That would be Steven Seagal."
Sinéad O'Connor was banned from appearing on SNL again after her October 3, 1992 musical performance (see above, in Infamous Moments)
Cypress Hill, who was the musical guest on the October 2, 1993 episode, was banned from appearing on SNL again after DJ Muggs lit up a marijuana joint and the band trashed their instruments while playing their second single "I Ain't Goin' Out Like That."
Comedian Martin Lawrence has also been banned from the show. His opening monologue on the February 19, 1994 episode included comments about female genitalia. The monologue has been completely edited out in both the network repeats and syndicated version, with just a graphic describing in general what Lawrence had said. The graphic also told viewers that it was a lively monologue and it almost cost many SNL employees their jobs. http://snltranscripts.jt.org/93/93nmono.phtml
Chevy Chase was banned from ever hosting the show again after the February 15, 1997, episode due to his verbal abuse of the cast and crew during the week. Chase became notorious for his treatment of certain cast members when hosting past episodes, particularly his remarks to openly gay cast member Terry Sweeney in 1985 when he suggested that a perfect skit for Sweeney would be one in which Sweeney plays an AIDS victim who gets weighed every week. Chase's abusive behavior during the 1985 episode and others are detailed in the Live From New York: An Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live book. Although Chase has not hosted the show since 1997, he appeared on the 25th anniversary special in 1999, was interviewed for the 2005 special "Live From New York: The First Five Years of Saturday Night Live" (about SNL's creation and the original cast from 1975 to 1980), and cameoed in two episodes (one hosted by Bill Murray in 1999 and another hosted by Seann William Scott in 2001).
The latest person banned was host Adrien Brody (on May 10, 2003). He came out to introduce reggae musician Sean Paul, while wearing Rastafarian attire (including faux dreadlocks). Without any prior notice, Brody began rambling in a Jamaican accent for close to 45 seconds before finally introducing the act incorrectly, misannouncing "Sean Paul" as "Sean John." Michaels is notorious for his dislike of improvisation and unannounced performances (as was also the case in Costello's incident), and therefore was furious with Brody for not obtaining clearance before performing this "monologue."

Cursing on the air

In 1979, on the show's 100th episode, featured player Paul Shaffer starred in a sketch about a medieval rock band who constantly uses the curse word "flogging". At one point, Paul slips and shouts at drunken drummer Bill Murray that his playing "throws the whole fucking timing off!" The audience reacts with shocked laughter, and Shaffer noticeably breaks character. Surprisingly, this incident was not edited from the reruns.
On the infamous February 21, 1981 episode hosted by Charlene Tilton, Charles Rocket, portraying the gunshot victim in a parody of the "Who Shot J.R." plot on the program Dallas, said, "I'd like to know who the fuck did it," during the live feed of the "goodnights" segment. The Comedy Central version of this episode trimmed the beginning from the goodnights to bypass the incident, whereas the Canadian Comedy Network rerun played the goodnights in their entirety, leaving the word "fuck" intact.
On the same episode as the above incident, musical guest Prince performed his song "Partyup", which included the line, "Fightin' war is such a fuckin' bore". However, this incident was allowed to slide as the crew were unable to decide whether or not he actually said "fuckin'" or "friggin'". Incidentally, an uncensored clip of this line was included in a montage of musical guests that was shown during the 25th anniversary special.
On the October 20, 1990 episode hosted by George Steinbrenner, musical guest The Time performed "Chocolate" as their second song. In the few seconds of silence before the song's 'finale,' lead singer Morris Day looked at Jerome Benton and says, "Where the fuck this chicken come from? I thought I ordered ribs!" On subsequent broadcasts, "fuck" is censored, leaving a silent gap in its place.
In 1995, Cheri Oteri said the word "shit" during a sketch. Her recurring character, Rita Delvecchio, gets her sleeve caught in a hockey net and mutters, "Look at this shit!" Little was made of the incident, except that in all reruns of the episode, the word "shit" is muted out. During the goodnights segment, cast and crew poked fun at Oteri's mistake by making a contrite-looking Oteri deposit a dollar bill into a glass "swear jar".
In 1997, during his Weekend Update Norm MacDonald fumbled with his words and then said, "What the fuck was that?" Realizing what he had done, MacDonald ad-libbed that this would be his "farewell performance" http://snltranscripts.jt.org/96/96qupdate.phtml. He was not fired, and in the next new episode, he again fumbled on some words, stopped, looked right at the camera and said "Oh drat!"
In 2004, during the "goodnight" segment at the end of the show, host Colin Farrell thanked the cast and crew for "one of the finest weeks I've ever had, I shit you not." All reruns of this episode bleep out the "shit".
In 2005, musical guests System of a Down performed the song "B.Y.O.B. (Bring Your Own Bombs)". At the end of the performance, guitarist Daron Malakian screamed, "Fuck yeah!" which was missed by the censors. This caused some mild controversy for the next few days that eventually died down.

Controversial sketches and performers

On May 10, 1980, writer Al Franken performed the sketch "A Limo for the Lame-o" which mocked NBC president Fred Silverman's failure to improve the network's ratings. NBC executives were furious, and Franken, who was being considered to replace Lorne Michaels as producer of the show at the end of the season, was forced to issue a written apology.
A battle raged over several sketches to be included in the 1980 episode hosted by Ellen Burstyn. The three pieces were "Our Front Door", a sketch about a clean-cut family who welcome a junkie (played by Charles Rocket) who sells potholders to earn money for his heroin addiction into their home; a sketch centered around recurring characters Valley Girls Vicky and Debbie (played by Gail Matthius and Denny Dillon) visiting a Planned Parenthood clinic; and, "The Virgin Search", a short film about NBC talent scouts searching for a female who has never had sex to be their newest castmember. Producer Jean Doumanian fought viciously to include the sketches in the live show (and was almost fired for wanting to air the "Virgin Search" short film because the censors at the time were offended by the scene where the talent scouts go to recruit a nun [played by Gail Matthius], but discover that she's not a virgin), and in the end, two out of the three pieces ("Our Front Door" and the Valley Girls at Planned Parenthood) were performed in that episode. The short film, "The Virgin Search" would emerge two weeks later in the Christmas episode hosted by David Carradine.
In the premiere episode of the 1985-1986 season (hosted by Madonna with musical guest Simple Minds), the original opening where the new castmembers at the time (Joan Cusack, Robert Downey Jr., Nora Dunn, Anthony Michael Hall, Jon Lovitz, Dennis Miller, Randy Quaid, Terry Sweeney, and Danitra Vance) are all issued urine tests to check for drug use only aired once because the censors and network executives saw it to be "in bad taste". All reruns and syndicated versions cut out the opening and go straight to the opening sequence (ironically, Robert Downey, Jr. would battle drug addiction years after being an SNL castmember).
In 1994, SNL aired a sketch in which host Alec Baldwin played a homosexual scoutmaster who made sexual advances toward Adam Sandler's Canteen Boy character http://snltranscripts.jt.org/93/93mcanteen.phtml. This moment generated more hostile letters than any sketch in the show's history due to audiences believing the sketch to be about pedophilia. Baldwin later returned to the show and explained that the sketch was done in innocence, as the Canteen Boy character was never intended to be a child.
In 1996, Rage Against the Machine performed "Bulls on Parade" on Saturday Night Live, hanging inverted American Flags from their amplifiers in protest of Steve Forbes, who was the host that night. However, the stage crew took the flags off, and cut the band's performance down to only one song instead of the normal two.
In 2006, The TV Funhouse Special aired several infamous animated sketches, though combined they only generated a handful of complaints on their original broadcast dates. They included:
*A Hanna-Barbera-esque Michael Jackson cartoon where Michael Jackson is fitted with glasses to make his sham girlfriend Tara Reid look like Emmanuel Lewis from "Webster" (originally aired on the Cameron Diaz/Green Day episode from season 30)
*Shazzang: Another Hanna-Barbera-esque parody based on a little-known cartoon called "Shazzan" where a powerful genie brutally murders a jewel thief and his mother just to please his father (originally aired on the Will Ferrell/Queens of the Stone Age episode from season 30).
*Divertor: a superhero cartoon where the superhero diverts the media's attention away from political crises and economical issues in favor of celebrity scandals. (aired on the Lindsay Lohan/Coldplay episode from season 30).
*The X-Presidents Fight The Constitution: The X-Presidents battle a sentient Constitution that comes to life after partisan rhetoric over what to do about Bill Clinton (this was during his impeachment trial for lying under oath about his affair with intern Monica Lewinsky) and end up burning The Emancipation Proclamation (to which a white Senator (Strom Thurmond) breaks out a pair of shackles and attacks a black Senator, shouting, "Hoo-wee! You're mine, boy!") and shredding the Constitution to bits (originally aired on the Gwyneth Paltrow/Barenaked Ladies episode from season 24).
*Inside the Disney Vault: a fake Disney movie promo about two kids who wish they could live in the Disney vault forever since all of their favorite movies are stored in there. Mickey Mouse takes them there, where the kids find the cryogenically frozen heads of Walt Disney and Vivien Leigh, Jim Henson taken hostage for not selling the rights to his Muppets, records of Disney ratting out animators for being Communists in the 1950s, several rejected sequels, screencaps of infamous scenes from Disney movies (the black centaur from "Fantasia", the shot of the mice from "The Rescuers" with the nude painting in the background, the scene from "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" where Jessica Rabbit's skirt flies up after being thrown around and it's revealed that she's not wearing underwear), and a director's cut version of Song of the South where Uncle Remus sings a version of "Zippity Doo-Dah" that defames black people (originally aired on the Lindsay Lohan/Pearl Jam episode from season 31).
*"Saddam and Osama": an anime-esque cartoon about the terrorist leaders defeating American forces. The skit contains many American pop culture references and unrelated segments featuring an Afghan happy about getting spoiled by having many virgins (with the Olsen twins' heads imposed). Another unrelated segment is an announcement of Batman fighting "the Jew," "the Other Jew," and "the Little Old Jew" (The Joker, The Riddler, and The Penguin, respectively, all portrayed with big noses). (Originally aired on the Adrien Brody/Sean Paul and Wayne Wonder episode from season 28.)
*Several Ambiguously Gay Duo cartoon clips (including "Blow Hot, Blow Cold" from Britney Spears's first hosting gig in season 25 and "Safety Tips from The Ambiguously Gay Duo" from the Pamela Anderson/Rollins Band episode from season 22").
A pre-shot segment parodies the vehicle, Mercury, which is a model called the "Mercury Mistress". The announcer in the short skit said it was the first car to have sex with and it showed numerous scenes with a man penetrating his car with his pants down. It is never aired on reruns and it is the only skit to feature simulated sexual penetration and a blurred rubber opening vagina.[link]

Miscues and Mistakes

In 1978, host Milton Berle delivered an over-long, rapid-fire monologue and, to cut him off, castmember Bill Murray claims he dropped a pipe loudly backstage to distract Berle and give the director an opening to go to commercial. This can be heard clearly on-air, and Berle was clearly thrown, though he did ad-lib, "NBC just dropped another show." The director flashed the "applause" sign for the audience and cut off Berle's mic to go to commercial. However, Berle can still be seen and heard yelling to someone off-stage, "What the hell is this...??" According to both the Saturday Night: A Backstage History and Live From New York books, Berle asked for the clang, to allow him an ad-lib, as just another reason why he is among the most reviled hosts in the show's history among the cast and crew.

In a sketch from the early 80s called "Black History Minute", Eddie Murphy plays a militant professor who is delivering a monologue about George Washington Carver. Upon flubbing the line "soil rotation" (saying instead "soul rotation") and hearing some muffled laughter in the audience, Murphy said in a mock-threatening shout "So I messed up. Shut up!" The audience then roared with laughter to which Murphy (still in character) said "stop laughin' before y'all make me smile". He later in the same sketch misspoke the line, "This tastes pretty good, man"; he immediately then said to the audience, "Yep, keep on smilin'".

In one of Candice Bergen's sketches from the 70s, she plays a character named Fern and Gilda Radner plays a character named Lisa. The sketch is supposed to be a paid announcement for a group advocating the right to extreme stupidity. Midway through the sketch, Bergen goofs and calls Radner "Fern". Realizing she's made a mistaken, she says "I mean...", begins to laugh, and finishes with "...whatever your name is." Radner then turns to deliver her scripted monologue to the audience, ad-libbing in the beginning, "You know, we all can't be brainy like Fern here". Later in the monologue, Radner ad-libs "and I should know—and so should Fern—because we are extremely stupid people," causing Bergen to collapse in hysterical laughter.

The May 1, 2004 episode hosted by Lindsay Lohan housed what is one of the most well-known instance of SNL actors breaking character. A sketch centering around a depressing woman named Debbie Downer (portrayed by Rachel Dratch) had several miscues and flubbed lines, and, by the end of the sketch, nearly every cast member involved, as well as Lohan herself, was unable to properly deliver their lines due to laughing.

In 2004, musical guest Ashlee Simpson became the first SNL musical guest to walk offstage when a pre-recorded backing track for the wrong song was accidentally played. To many it appeared that Simpson had been lip synching; the singer later claimed she was using a backing track due to acid reflux. The incident was the subject of widespread coverage in the news and was mentioned several times again on SNL, such as in the cold opening of the Kate Winslet/Eminem episode where Osama bin Laden (played by Seth Meyers) complains about how Americans are so immoral that they hire lip-synching pop singers to perform on live television and in a Weekend Update joke told by Tina Fey, "This Tuesday in Japan, Ashlee Simpson collapsed, and was not able to perform at her concert. However, the show went on as planned." Simpson returned as a musical guest in October 2005, mentioning that she wrote the song she was performing based on her previous SNL experience. She performed without incident http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/10/28/60minutes/main652196.shtml.