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List of Saturday Night Live incidents

As a live sketch comedy show, NBC's Saturday Night Live (officially abbreviated to SNL) has had a number of technical problems, performer mishaps, and controversial content. Several hosts and musical guests have received negative press due to their appearances on the program, including musician Sinéad O'Connor, comedian Andrew Dice Clay, then-Presidential candidate Donald Trump, and the bands Rage Against the Machine and Fear. In the course of the show's forty-plus-year history, several technical issues have occurred live on air, most notably with singer Ashlee Simpson. Other times, controversial content has been edited out of syndicated reruns and online-distributed editions of the show, including coarse language. The show has "banned" certain hosts and has also been accused of plagiarism.

Controversies[edit]

Fear[edit]

In 1981, director Penelope Spheeris made a film titled The Decline of Western Civilization; the film featured an appearance by the punk rock group Fear. This appearance in particular caught the attention of former cast member John Belushi, who lobbied successfully to get the band a spot as a musical guest on the 1981 Halloween episode of SNL.[5] Belushi had originally offered Fear the soundtrack for his major motion picture Neighbors. The film's producers eventually forced Fear off the project, and Belushi got them the infamous SNL gig as compensation. The band's appearance included a group of slam dancers, among them Belushi, Ian MacKaye of Minor Threat (and later Fugazi), Tesco Vee of The Meatmen, Harley Flanagan and John Joseph of the Cro-Mags, and John Brannon of Negative Approach. The show's director originally wanted to prevent the dancers from participating, so Belushi offered to be in the episode if the dancers were allowed to stay.[5] The result was the shortening of Fear's appearance on TV. Frontman Lee Ving started the band's second song by stating, "It's great to be in New Jersey", drawing boos from SNL's New York live audience. Fear played "I Don't Care About You", "Beef Bologna", "New York's Alright If You Like Saxophones", and started to play "Let's Have a War" when the telecast faded into commercial. The slam dancers left ripe pumpkin remains on the set. Cameras, a piano, and other property were damaged in a situation that was close to a stage riot.


After their SNL appearance, which resulted in $20,000 in damage,[6] some clubs chose not to hire the band. A New York Post article later reported the figure to be $500,000. This is believed to have originated from Ving, who told the Post that "...we caused $500,000 worth of damage, a cool half a million dollars worth of damage, ‘cause we’re professionals, and I counted the damage myself."[7] Since this incident, Fear has not appeared on Saturday Night Live again.

Andrew Dice Clay[edit]

When Andrew Dice Clay was scheduled as a host for the May 12, 1990 episode, cast member Nora Dunn immediately announced to the press that she was boycotting the show in protest. She stated the protest was in view of Clay's perceivably misogynistic act, and did so without informing Michaels, the cast, or most of the crew about her intent. The public backlash was immediate; the selection of Clay was compared to the Holocaust by an audience member during an interview with Michaels. Female members of the cast and crew were harassed by phone and mail for sticking with the show, and metal detectors were installed at the studio to enhance security. NBC censors insisted that the episode be aired with a delay to compensate for anything Clay might say on air. During the live show, some audience members heckled Clay but were immediately removed by the increased security detail. Dunn's contract was already coming to an end, and with one episode left in the season, the staff voted against having her take part in the final episode of the season, and her contract was not renewed.[8] Dunn later expressed her surprise at the lack of support she received from her colleagues in her refusal to participate.[9]


Sinéad O'Connor was scheduled to be the musical guest for the episode, but she also boycotted the show because of Clay's involvement, forcing the producers to find two musical replacements, with one performance by Julee Cruise and a second by Spanic Boys.[10][11]

On December 13, 1975, the show was ordered by NBC network officials to run the episode hosted by comedian on a five-second tape delay.[38] Engineers at the show later said they did not run the delay because no one knew how to achieve the effect.[39] However, the first edition of The Book of Lists, describing the broadcast, indicated that two words were deleted during the broadcast, although what was censored is not specified.[40]

Richard Pryor

On the December 17, 1977 episode hosted by (winner of the "Anyone Can Host" contest), Elvis Costello was the musical guest. Costello was slated to perform "Less Than Zero" due to pressure from his record company. Costello disagreed, and felt that the song, which was about British Union of Fascists leader Oswald Mosley, would not be understood by an American audience and was too low-key to make much impact.[41] After only a few bars, Costello stopped his band, and said to the audience, "I'm sorry, ladies and gentlemen, but there's no reason to do this song here."[42] The band then began to play "Radio Radio" instead. Costello was not invited back until 1989. He parodied the incident on the 1999 25th anniversary special by interrupting the Beastie Boys' performance of "Sabotage", which quickly morphed into a joint performance of "Radio Radio" with the Beastie Boys as his backing ensemble.[43]

Miskel Spillman

The December 15, 1979, episode featured three songs by musical guest , concluding with a performance of "Boys Keep Swinging", which used a green screen effect to superimpose Bowie's head on the body of a marionette he operated while singing. Censors muted the lyric "other boys check you out" during the performance, but were unable to react in time when the song concluded with a large phallus repeatedly popping out of the marionette's pants. The episode was not edited further for rebroadcasts.[44] Rolling Stone later ranked Bowie's appearance the seventh best musical performance in SNL history in 2017.[45]

David Bowie

Dallas

A stand-up routine by during the October 18, 1986, episode was edited for the West Coast telecast and later airings, replacing two sections of the routine with a silent image of the previous season's cast. The first cutaway occurred when Kinison encouraged the legalization of cannabis and said: "You can't get any more pot. If you give us back the pot, we'll forget about the crack."[47] The joke violated NBC policy of the time that all references to drugs must be negative. The second, longer cutaway occurred when Kinison made a joke about the Crucifixion. During rehearsal, Kinison had not performed the drug joke but he had performed, and been asked to remove, the Crucifixion joke.[47]

Sam Kinison

In a December 5, 1992, "" sketch, the characters Wayne and Garth (portrayed by Mike Myers and Dana Carvey) made fun of Chelsea Clinton, daughter of President-elect Bill Clinton. Wayne noted that while "adolescence has been thus far unkind" to the then-twelve-year-old Chelsea, Garth opined that "she could turn into a babe in waiting." First Lady Hillary Clinton was publicly critical of the jokes. "We felt, upon reflection, that if it was in any way hurtful, it wasn't worth it," said executive producer Lorne Michaels. "She's a kid, a kid who didn't choose to be in public life."[48] Myers himself wrote a letter of apology to the White House.[49]

Wayne's World

The 13th episode of SNL's , aired the weekend before Valentine's Day in 1994, featured a sketch in which host Alec Baldwin portrays a scoutmaster making overt sexual advances towards the Boy Scout character Canteen Boy (played by Adam Sandler). The sketch generated a considerable amount of complaints from viewers, who felt it was homophobic and trivialized pedophilia.[50] Chicago Sun-Times columnist Richard Roeper stated that he received calls from his readers claiming they stopped watching the sketch before it finished, while the Boy Scouts of America said: "We see nothing funny about child molestation, and are surprised that this unfunny subject would be selected for a comedy sketch."[51] Baldwin said that NBC received 300,000 phone call complaints and lost seven affiliates due to the sketch, though this was proven false. Nonetheless, the sketch frequently appears in lists of the most controversial SNL moments, and reruns add a disclaimer that Sandler's character is 27 years old.[51]

19th season

During an April 12, 1997, story about Tabitha Soren, anchor Norm Macdonald appeared to cough and choke momentarily, causing him to pause and then mutter, "What the fuck was that?" The audience applauded, and Macdonald laughed the error away, saying at one point that he hoped everyone was enjoying "my farewell performance" and, in closing, "Maybe we'll see you next week". He was fired at the start of January 1998, partly because of this incident and partly (according to NBC's management, and disputed by much of the cast) due to a "drop in ratings and general reduction of quality." Macdonald and others believed that the real reason for his dismissal was the inclusion of a series of jokes calling O. J. Simpson a murderer during and after his double murder trial in Los Angeles. NBC Entertainment president Don Ohlmeyer was good friends with Simpson, and had thrown a party for the jurors who acquitted Simpson after the trial.[52] The jokes were written primarily by Macdonald and longtime SNL writer Jim Downey, who was fired from SNL outright at the same time. Downey was re-hired in 2000.[53] Macdonald was replaced on Weekend Update by Colin Quinn, beginning on the January 10, 1998 episode.[54] Macdonald's firing was widely criticized, most notably by comedian Chevy Chase, who is widely credited with originating Weekend Update. Chase argued that Macdonald's "time in the chair [was] among the funniest and [most] well-written of all the Weekend Update stints".[55]

Weekend Update

In March 1998, a animated short film called Conspiracy Theory Rock, a parody of the show Schoolhouse Rock!, aired as part of the TV Funhouse segment. The blatantly political short accused big corporations, including Time Warner, Disney, Fox, Westinghouse, and then-owner of NBC General Electric, of developing a media monopoly to manipulate public perception and conceal questionable actions. The clip aired only once as part of the original SNL episode and was removed from syndicated repeats (thereby ironically seeming to confirm the semi-satirical accusation), with Michaels explaining that it "wasn't funny". The clip was eventually released as part of the Saturday TV Funhouse compilation DVD in 2006.[56]

Robert Smigel

While performing their single "" on May 7, 2005, System of a Down's Daron Malakian exclaimed "fuck yeah". The band had previously refused to self-censor their performance, leading NBC censors to mute "fuck" each time it was sung, but miss Malakian's impromptu yell. It was edited out of the West Coast and other subsequent telecasts of the show.[57][58]

B.Y.O.B.

The episode hosted by , aired on February 24, 2007, featured a sketch entitled "Danny's Song", wherein bar patrons listen to the titular song and reminisce about inappropriate memories. A character played by Bill Hader says his dad "loved this song. I remember we had this one great day at the park. We just had so much fun. He was running in the grass and chasing squirrels. They had this fountain and we threw pennies in it for hours. So great. It was the first day I ever thought to myself just, 'I have a dad', and not, 'I have a dad with Down's syndrome.' [...] He loved crayons." The skit prompted criticism from Jon Colman, the CEO of the National Down Syndrome Society, which led to the words "Down's syndrome" being bleeped in later rebroadcasts.[59]

Rainn Wilson

On September 26, 2009, made her SNL debut in a "biker babes" sketch alongside Kristen Wiig and actress Megan Fox in which their characters repeatedly use the word "frickin'". In one instance Slate accidentally said "fuckin'" instead, which was dubbed over with "freakin'" for subsequent airings.[60] Slate was "pulled back" in subsequent episodes.[61]

Jenny Slate

On December 15, 2012, actor , appearing on the recurring Kenan Thompson sketch "What Up with That?" as a talk show guest whose segment was cut for time, exclaimed what sounded like the words "fuck" and "bullshit". Thompson ad-libbed in response, "C'mon, Sam, that costs money!" Jackson later claimed he had not said the full word "fuck" and that Thompson was supposed to cut him off before he swore.[62]

Samuel L. Jackson

On March 12, 2016, uttered the word "shit" during her opening monologue. The profanity was "expected" to be edited out of the West Coast broadcast, but was not.[63]

Ariana Grande

On November 12, 2016, host deliberately used the words "goddamn" and "nigger" throughout his monologue and in several sketches. Although NBC did not censor Chappelle, Raleigh affiliate WRAL-TV, which had only joined the network earlier in the year, did so, as it found airing profanity to be in violation of its own policy.[64]

Dave Chappelle

On February 4, 2017, host said that hosting the show was "the coolest fucking thing ever" during her opening monologue. Stewart realized her mistake, apologized and joked that she would never be invited back.[65] She hosted again on November 2, 2019.

Kristen Stewart

The episode hosted by aired on October 7, 2017, and featured a sketch entitled "Safelite AutoGlass." The sketch drew controversy for a scene in which a Safelite windshield repairman purposely breaks a customer's windshield in order to attempt to flirt with the customer's 17-year-old daughter. The sketch was subsequently pulled from rebroadcasts and the internet. Rebroadcasts replaced the sketch with a previously unaired sketch entitled "The Last Fry".[66]

Gal Gadot

[67]

On September 12, 2019, the night before SNL planned to announce the three new cast members hired for the 45th season, several offensive remarks made by incoming cast member were made public. Freelance comedy reporter Seth Simons posted clips, since removed from YouTube, of an episode of Matt and Shane's Secret Podcast from 2018 in which Gillis made racist and mocking remarks about Chinese people.[69][70][71] A video of the podcast, removed before Gillis's hiring but reposted to Twitter, showed Gillis using racial slurs against Asian people, making derogatory references to the food they eat, and discussing his frustration with their inability to learn English, later referring to it as "good racism". Early in 2019, he called Democratic presidential nominee Andrew Yang a "Jew Chink". Gillis responded to the backlash with what Vox and The Huffington Post characterized as a non-apology.[72][73] Four days later, on September 16, a spokesperson for Michaels announced that Gillis had been removed from the cast.[74]

Shane Gillis

On the November 7, 2020, episode, said "nigga" several times during the opening monologue. It was unclear whether or not this would result in a response from the FCC.[75]

Dave Chappelle

On the February 20, 2021, episode, Weekend Update co-host said, "Israel is reporting that they've vaccinated half of their population, and I'm gonna guess it's the Jewish half". This joke was criticized by Israeli officials and by several major U.S. Jewish groups, including the American Jewish Committee, who accused Che's joke of being an antisemitic trope.[76][77]

Michael Che

On May 8, 2021, a sketch titled "Gen Z Hospital" that played on popular Internet phrases, derived from was met with criticism by Twitter users calling the show out for poking fun at it. Sketch writer Michael Che responded on Instagram on May 10 writing: "I've been reading about how my 'gen z' sketch was misappropriating AAVE and I was stunned cause what the fuck is 'AAVE'? I had to look it up. Turns out it's an acronym for 'African American vernacular english.' You know, AAVE! That ol' saying that actual black people use in conversation all the time...look, the sketch bombed. I'm used to that. I meant no offense to the 'aave' community. I love aave. Aave to the moon!"[78]

African-American Vernacular English

On May 22, 2021, rapper had a wardrobe malfunction during the conclusion of his song "Montero (Call Me by Your Name)."[79]

Lil Nas X

The October 8, 2022 episode hosted by featured a sketch that parodied a recent cheating controversy from the American online comedy group The Try Guys. The sketch was accused of downplaying the severity of the situation as The Try Guys were handling workplace misconduct, and the sketch undermined how a situation like this should be handled.[80]

Brendan Gleeson

The cold open of the December 9, 2023 episode was a parody of the which had taken place earlier in the week.[81] The sketch was criticised by Jewish groups like the ADL for its complacency with antisemitism.[82] Also, former cast member Cecily Strong was set to play Republican congresswoman Elise Stefanik in the sketch, but pulled out before the live show because the content of the sketch made her feel "uncomfortable".[83] Chloe Troast played the role on air.

Congress hearing on antisemitism on college campuses