List of Saturday Night Live incidents

As a live sketch comedy show, NBC's Saturday Night Live (officially abbreviated 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, 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.

Technical issues

Ashlee Simpson

Singer Ashlee Simpson was caught lip-syncing during her first appearance as musical guest.

Ashlee Simpson appeared as a musical guest on the October 23, 2004 episode with Jude Law as host. Her first performance, "Pieces of Me", was performed without incident, but when she began her second song, "Autobiography", the vocals for "Pieces of Me" were heard again—before she had even raised the microphone to her mouth. Simpson began to do an impromptu jig, and then left the stage.^[1] During the closing of the show, Simpson appeared with Law and said: "I feel so bad. My band started playing the wrong song. I didn't know what to do so I thought I'd do a hoedown."^[2]

On October 25, Simpson explained that due to complications arising from severe acid reflux disease, she had completely lost her voice and her doctor had advised her not to sing. Her father wanted her to use a vocal guide track for the performance after she had suffered vocal issues during rehearsals.^[3] Simpson stated of the incident, "I made a complete fool of myself." According to Simpson, the drummer hit the wrong button, which caused the wrong track to be played.^[4] Lorne Michaels had been unaware of the plan to use lip synching, and said in an interview with 60 Minutes that he would not have allowed it had he been consulted.^[3] Simpson is the only musical guest ever to walk off stage during a live performance.^[3]

Other incidents

A 2006 show hosted by Peter Sarsgaard featured a sketch where Sarsgaard's character checked into a motel and grew increasingly annoyed with Rachel Dratch's character, a woman giving an instructional monologue through the CRT TV in Sarsgaard's room. At one point in the sketch, Sarsgaard hit the TV with his hands, causing the picture to disappear. Sarsgaard awkwardly reached over the TV, attempting to restore the picture before walking to the other side of the set as stagehands could be seen in-frame. Both Dratch and Sarsgaard continually broke character for the rest of the segment.^[5]

The 2015 show hosted by Kevin Hart featured a sketch called "Why'd You Post That?", in which Hart berated Instagram users for the poor quality of their posts. During the live sketch, the television the sketch was centered on malfunctioned, first displaying a jumble of the current camera view, then turning off on live television. Hart and cast member Vanessa Bayer improvised while the TV malfunctioned, and Hart began describing the picture while it was not viewable on the screen.^[6]

The 2015 show co-hosted by Tina Fey and Amy Poehler featured a sketch called "Meet Your Second Wife", in which three male contestants meet three very young girls who will eventually become their second wives. When the transition was made from the preceding commercial break to the skit, the skit's opening theme music was heard momentarily twice before being interrupted by two separate narrators repeating the phrases "Ladies and Gen-" and "He's a-". During the brief pause that followed, light laughter is heard from the audience and Bobby Moynihan, who the camera is still focused on, is seen grinning. The pause is then immediately followed by the second narrator's introductions of the male contestants.

Notable controversies

Sinéad O'Connor

O’Connor ripping a picture of the Pope.

On October 3, 1992, Sinéad O'Connor was scheduled to appear, performing an a cappella performance of Bob Marley's "War". During the dress rehearsal, O'Connor held up a photo of a Balkan child as a protest of child abuse in war before bowing and leaving the stage, which the episode's director Dave Wilson described as a "very tender moment".^[7] However, during the live show, O'Connor altered the "War" lyric "fight racial injustice" to "fight child abuse" as a protest against the cases of sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church. She presented a photo of Pope John Paul II while singing the word "evil", before tearing the image into pieces and saying "Fight the real enemy".^[7][8] NBC had no foreknowledge of O'Connor's plan, and Wilson purposely failed to use the "applause" button, leaving the audience to sit in silence. Michaels made the decision to allow O'Connor to take the stage with the rest of the cast at the end of the show, for which he was later punished. Tim Robbins who was the host for that episode and was raised as a devout Catholic, refused to acknowledge O'Connor at the end of the show. NBC received thousands of irate calls in the aftermath of the incident, and protests against O'Connor occurred outside of the 30 Rock building, where a steamroller crushed dozens of her tapes, CDs and LPs.^[7] In the following weeks on SNL, guests Joe Pesci and Madonna both voiced their opposition to O'Connor.^[7][8] The show also aired several sketches mocking O'Connor. Since the incident, O'Connor has not appeared on Saturday Night Live again.

As of 2016, NBC still declines to rebroadcast the sequence with the exception of an interview with O'Connor on MSNBC's The Rachel Maddow Show, which aired on April 24, 2010, when the clip was aired in full. In reruns, the incident is replaced with the dress rehearsal performance. The original episode was made available on volume four of the DVD special "Saturday Night Live - 25 Years of Music", with an introduction by Michaels about the incident. On February 20, 2011, the clip was aired on the SNL special "Backstage" showing footage of the dress rehearsal and live performance side by side. The footage cuts to interviewees during the moment the photo was ripped.

The incident was mocked during a live episode of the television show 30 Rock, in which an NBC page (Kristen Schaal) comes on stage and tears a picture of O'Connor in half.^[9] It was also mocked in the third episode of The Life of Rock with Brian Pern, which features the fictional title musician Brian Pern's appearance on a 1992 episode of Saturday Night Live, where he tears up a picture of The Fonz, calling him "evil" after remarking "lies", as a protest against Happy Days providing a distraction to the American public from American foreign policy aggression.

Fear

In 1981, director Penelope Spheeris made a film titled The Decline of Western Civilization; the film featured an appearance by the 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.^[10] 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 slamdancers, 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.^[10] 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 slamdancers 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,^[11] 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."^[12] Since this incident, Fear has not appeared on Saturday Night Live again.

Andrew Dice Clay

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 perceived misogynistic, politically incorrect 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.^[13]

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 musical replacements.^[14]

Rage Against the Machine

Rage Against the Machine displayed two upside-down American flags.

On April 13, 1996, musical guests Rage Against the Machine (RATM) were scheduled to perform two songs. The show was hosted that night by billionaire Steve Forbes. According to RATM guitarist Tom Morello, "RATM wanted to stand in sharp juxtaposition to a billionaire telling jokes and promoting his flat tax by making our own statement." To this end, the band hung two upside-down American flags from their amplifiers. Seconds before they took the stage to perform "Bulls on Parade", stagehands were sent in to pull the flags down. Following the removal of the flags during the first performance, the band was approached by NBC officials and ordered to immediately leave the building. Upon hearing this, bassist Tim Commerford reportedly stormed Forbes' dressing room, throwing shreds from one of the torn-down flags. Morello said that members of the SNL cast and crew, whom he declined to name, "expressed solidarity with our actions, and a sense of shame that their show had censored the performance."^[15] Since this incident, Rage Against the Machine has not appeared on Saturday Night Live again.

Donald Trump

Donald Trump's 2015 appearance invited protests.

Business magnate, and president-elect, Donald Trump's second hosting appearance, in the midst of his 2016 presidential campaign, courted controversy and protests. Latino advocacy groups pressed NBC to cancel Trump's appearance, due to his remarks on Mexican immigration, while protestors picketed outside Trump Tower and 30 Rockefeller Center in the days preceding and of the show, holding "DUMP TRUMP" signs.^[16] That group created a petition to cancel Trump's hosting with over 500,000 signatures, delivering it to Michaels and NBCUniversal Chief Executive Steve Burke.^[17] The Congressional Hispanic Caucus issued a "statement of opposition" to Trump's appearance.^[18] Trump confirmed he was booked to boost the show's ratings,^[17] noting that he turned down more risqué sketches. He also seemingly criticized the show's writing staff: "They have 100 writers. I walk into the room, there are 100 – and they’re all about 17 years old, OK? They’re all young and all up in your face."^[19] The group DeportRacism.com offered $5,000 in cash to any audience member that would heckle Trump and call him a racist during his monologue.^[20]

The show aired on November 7, 2015, and due to the equal-time rule, Trump only appeared for a total of twelve minutes.^[21] The notion of heckling was referenced in the show, when Larry David (who had guested earlier in the evening to play politician Bernie Sanders) called Trump a racist, but only to secure the $5,000.^[16] In the end, the episode received 9.3 million viewers—the program's highest ratings in nearly four years^[22]—but was panned by critics.^[23] NBC subsequently offered free airtime to Republican candidates who filed equal time requests.^[21]

Other

A number of hosts and musical guests have been "banned" from appearing on the show again and there have been examples of other controversial goings-on within SNL. Examples of these are noted below.

Incidents

• On December 13, 1975, the show was ordered by the network to run on a five-second delay when controversial comedian Richard Pryor hosted.^[24] Engineers at the show later said they did not run the delay because no one knew how to achieve the effect.^[25] However, the first edition of The Book of Lists, describing the broadcast, indicated that two words were indeed deleted during the broadcast, but the book does not specify what was censored.^[26]
• A stand-up routine by Sam Kinison during the October 18, 1986, episode was edited in West Coast and later airings to replace two parts of the routine with a silent image of the previous season's cast. The first cutaway occurred when Kinison began asking for 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."^[27] 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.^[27]
• In a December 5, 1992 "Wayne's World" sketch, the characters Wayne and Garth (portrayed by Mike Myers and Dana Carvey, respectively) made fun of Chelsea Clinton (daughter of the then President-elect Bill Clinton). Wayne noted that while "adolescence has been thus far unkind" to the then-12 year old, Garth opined that "she could turn into a babe in waiting." First Lady Hillary Clinton was publicly critical of the jokes and they were subsequently edited out of all repeats and syndication rebroadcasts of this sketch. "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."^[28] Myers even wrote an apology letter to the White House.^[29]
• In March 1998, a Robert Smigel animated short film called Conspiracy Theory Rock, which was a parody of the show Schoolhouse Rock!, aired as part of the TV Funhouse sketch. It is a scathing political sketch accusing corporations including Time Warner, Disney, Fox, Westinghouse, and then-owners 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 with Michaels explaining that it "wasn't funny". The clip was eventually released as part of the Saturday TV Funhouse compilation DVD in 2006.^[30]
• While performing their single "B.Y.O.B." on May 7, 2005, System of a Down's Daron Malakian exclaimed "fuck yeah". The band had previously refused to self-edit their performance, leading censors to mute "fuck" each time it was sung, but they missed Malakian's yell by its impromptu nature. It was subsequently edited out of the West Coast telecast of the show.^[31][32]
• The episode hosted by Rainn Wilson aired on February 24, 2007 featured a sketch titled "Danny's Song" wherein bar patrons listen to the titular song and reminisce about inappropriate memories. A character played by Bill Hader says "He 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 that I ever thought to myself: 'I have a dad. And not that I have a dad with Down syndrome. He loved crayons.'" The skit prompted the criticism of Jon Colman, the CEO of the National Down Syndrome Society, which led to the words "Down's syndrome" being bleeped in later rebroadcasts.^[33]
• On September 26, 2009, Jenny Slate made her SNL debut in a biker babe sketch alongside Kristen Wiig and actress Megan Fox, where their characters repeatedly use the word "frickin'". During one instance Slate instead accidentally said "fuckin'", which was dubbed over with "freakin'" for subsequent airings.^[34] Slate was 'pulled back' on subsequent episodes and was fired from the show at the conclusion of the season.^[35]

• On December 15, 2012, actor Samuel L. Jackson, 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 hadn't said the full word "fuck" and that Thompson was supposed to cut off his second expletive.^[36]
• Ariana Grande uttered the words "oh shit" while singing in her opening monologue on March 12, 2016. The profanity was "expected" to be edited out of the West Coast broadcast.^[37]

Banned performers

The following performers have been banned from either hosting or performing on Saturday Night Live mostly due to being badly rehearsed, going offscript (which Lorne Michaels hates), camera-mugging, not getting along with the cast and crew, or anything else that would be inappropriate.

• On the December 17, 1977 episode hosted by Miskel Spillman (winner of the "Anyone Can Host" contest), Elvis Costello was the musical guest. Costello wanted to play "Radio Radio" but was forbidden by NBC to play a song which mocks the commercialisation of rock music. Instead Costello was slated to perform "Less Than Zero" due to pressure from his record company and NBC. 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. After roughly thirty seconds, Costello stopped his band, stating "I’m sorry, ladies and gentlemen, but there’s no reason to do this song here."^[38] The band then began to play "Radio Radio" instead. The incident led to series creator and executive producer Lorne Michaels banning the artist from the show for nearly twelve years. In 1989, Costello was invited back again. He even parodied his own stunt on the 25th anniversary show by interrupting the Beastie Boys' performance of "Sabotage" which quickly morphed into a joint performance of "Radio Radio."^[39]
• On April 14, 1979, Milton Berle guest-hosted the program. Berle's long reputation for taking control of an entire television production—whether invited to do so or not—was a cause of major on-set stress.^[40] One of the show's writers, Rosie Shuster, described the rehearsals for the Berle SNL show and the telecast as "watching a comedy train accident in slow motion on a loop." Upstaging, camera mugging, doing spit-takes, inserting old comedy bits, and climaxing the show with a maudlin performance of "September Song" complete with a pre-arranged standing ovation (something producer Lorne Michaels had never sanctioned) resulted in Berle being banned from hosting the show again. The episode was also barred from being rerun until surfacing in 2003, because Michaels thought it brought down the show's reputation.^[41][42]
• Frank Zappa was banned after his 1978 episode for doing a "disastrous job of hosting the show", mugging for the camera and even announcing to the audience that he was reading from cue cards.^[11]
• Andy Kaufman's appearances on SNL were unpredictable and ahead of their time, beginning with SNL’s very first episode in 1975. Whether he was nervously lip-synching to the Mighty Mouse theme or impersonating Elvis Presley, audiences had no idea what would come next. Eventually, Kaufman's stint wrestling women drew the ire of then-producer Dick Ebersol. In response in 1982, Kaufman proposed an audience vote to let him stay or force him off the show. The final tally of viewers calling in to "Keep Andy" came in at 169,186, while 195,544 voted to "Dump Andy." Whether it was another one of his audacious stunts remains to be seen, but Kaufman never appeared on SNL again following that vote. Saturday Night Live did air a tape of him thanking the 169,186 people who had voted yes for him to appear again.
• In 1982, Robert Blake was banned after taking a script, crumpling it up and throwing it into the face of writer Gary Kroeger.^[42]
• In 1986, The Replacements were banned after they came out completely drunk during their performance of "Kiss Me on the Bus" and later appeared in each other's clothes during the second performance. However, Paul Westerberg later went solo and was allowed to appear.^[11] The band did not perform again on any NBC television program until 2014, when they appeared on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.^[43]
• Steven Seagal was banned after his hosting stint in 1991 for being the "worst host ever" (according to SNL creator and producer Lorne Michaels) as well as being difficult to work with where he didn't cooperate with the cast and crew.^[42] In a later episode hosted by Nicolas Cage, Lorne Michaels got in a jab at Seagal. When Cage lamented during his monologue that the audience might think he's the biggest jerk who’s ever been on the show, Michaels responded "No, no. That would be Steven Seagal."
• In 1993, Cypress Hill was banned after DJ Muggs lit a joint and smoked it during their performance followed by the group trashing their instruments.
• A portion of Martin Lawrence's February 19, 1994, monologue concerning feminine hygiene has been removed from all repeats and replaced with a voice-over and intertitles stating that the excised portion "...was a frank and lively presentation, and nearly cost us all our jobs." Lawrence also made references to genitalia when he talked about the John and Lorena Bobbitt incident.^[44] This led to Lawrence being subsequently banned from ever hosting, appearing, or even being mentioned, on the show.^[11][42]
• In 2003, Adrien Brody ad-libbed an introduction to musical guest Sean Paul while wearing fake dreadlocks and speaking in fake Jamaican Patois for 45 seconds, prompting Michaels to ban him for this action and that Brody did a possible racist performance.^[11]

Plagiarism

• The sketch "O'Callahan & Son Pub", aired March 18, 1995, was entirely lifted from a standup routine by comedian Rick Shapiro by cast member/writer Jay Mohr. Three weeks later, during rehearsal, Mohr was brought to Michaels, and shown a tape of Shapiro's act. Mohr denied any knowledge of Shapiro or his act at the time, but later admitted in his memoir that he had stolen the sketch word for word from Shapiro's work. Shapiro and his manager sued the show and gained an undisclosed settlement which included the sketch being removed from all reruns of the show.^[45]
• "Ladies Who Lunch", a sketch aired on the September 25, 2010 episode hosted by Amy Poehler, was deemed similar to the Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! segment "Tiny Hats". Both Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim humorously tweeted links to the video. Heidecker told Vulture that "I watched it this morning, and found it to be very similar to our sketch, surprisingly similar," while noting it also could have been coincidental.^[46]
• The sketch "River Sisters", aired on the October 4, 2014 episode hosted by Sarah Silverman, was accused of plagiarizing "Rollin'", a similar sketch performed by the Los Angeles improvisation group the Groundlings.^[47]
• On May 9, 2015, a sketch was aired in which a contestant on a Win, Lose or Draw-style game show panicked at being asked to draw the Muslim prophet Muhammad. Viewers compared the sketch to a "strikingly similar" January 2015 sketch on the Canadian sketch comedy series This Hour Has 22 Minutes, igniting allegations of plagiarism.^[48]

References

Footnotes

Sources