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.
Singer and actress 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 if he had been consulted.[3] Simpson returned to the show on October 8, 2005, and performed without incident.
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.
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 October 3, 1992, O'Connor was scheduled to appear, performing an a cappella performance of Bob Marley's "War".[10] During the dress rehearsal of the episode, 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".[12] During the live show, O'Connor changed the "War" lyric "fight racial injustice" to "fight child abuse" as a protest against the then still relatively unknown 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!"[12][13]
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. 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.[citation needed] NBC received thousands of irate calls in the aftermath of the incident, and protests against O'Connor occurred outside of 30 Rockefeller Plaza, where a steamroller crushed dozens of her tapes, CDs, and LPs.[12] In the following weeks on SNL, Catholic guests Joe Pesci and Madonna both voiced their opposition to O'Connor.[12][13] The show also aired several sketches mocking O'Connor. She never appeared on Saturday Night Live again prior to her death on July 26, 2023. The incident occurred a full nine years before John Paul II, in a 2001 apology, acknowledged that the sexual abuse within the Church was "a profound contradiction of the teaching and witness of Jesus Christ",[14] followed in 2008 by Pope Benedict XVI apologizing and meeting with victims, speaking of his "shame" at the evil of abuse, calling for perpetrators to be brought to justice, and denouncing mishandling by church authorities.[15][16]
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.[citation needed]
The incident was mocked during an episode of the television show 30 Rock (created by former Saturday Night Live head writer Tina Fey) in which it is mentioned that Tracy Jordan, star of TGS (the show's in-universe analogue to Saturday Night Live) tore up a picture of the pope during an episode; it is replied, "In his defense, it was Pope Innocent IV, because he increased taxation in the Papal States." A later episode parodied the Saturday Night Live incident when an NBC page (Kristen Schaal) goes on stage and tears a picture of O'Connor in half.[17] 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.
This incident was also spoofed by the Australian band TISM on the album cover of Censored Due to Legal Advice. The album really was censored due to a lawsuit. The original name of the album was Australia the Lucky Cunt and depicted a koala drawn in the style of artist Ken Done with a syringe in its mouth. Done was angered by this cover and on the week after the album's September 1993 release date obtained an injunction order banning the sale of the album.[18][19] The album was re-released in November the same year under the Censored Due to Legal Advice title with the cover depicting four images of O'Connor on Saturday Night Live edited to show her tearing up a sheet of the TISM logo and the album title on it instead of the pope.[20]
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 and then-presidential candidate 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.[21] 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."[22] Since this incident, Rage Against the Machine has not appeared on Saturday Night Live again.
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 Trump Tower and 30 Rockefeller Plaza in the days preceding and of the show, holding "DUMP TRUMP" signs.[23] 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.[24] The Congressional Hispanic Caucus issued a "statement of opposition" to Trump's appearance.[25] 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.[26]
The show aired on November 7, 2015, and due to the equal-time rule, Trump only appeared for a total of twelve minutes.[27] 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.[23] In the end, the episode received 9.3 million viewers—the program's highest ratings in nearly four years[28]—but was panned by critics.[29] NBC subsequently offered free airtime to Republican candidates who filed equal time requests.[27]
On September 29, 2018, during the end credits, musical guest Kanye West, who wore a "Make America Great Again" hat, launched into a third performance with the song "Ghost Town" featuring Kid Cudi and 070 Shake. Midway through the performance, NBC cut to commercial, as the show had reached the end of its allotted airtime. After finishing the performance, West began pontificating about the "liberal media" attacking President Donald Trump and his own 2020 presidential bid. This resulted in boos from the audience, as the cast stood off to the side of the stage and kept their heads down. The impromptu speech was captured in part by comedian and former SNL cast member Chris Rock. During the rant that was uploaded to Twitter by West's record producer, Mike Dean, West accused the cast and crew of bullying him about supporting Trump.[30][31]
Tesla Motors and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk hosted the May 8, 2021 episode of Saturday Night Live with musical guest Miley Cyrus. The announcement received major criticism and backlash due to Musk's reputedly unlikeable personality and problematic history, with some questioning why Musk was chosen in the first place instead of having Cyrus pull double duty for the third time. Some cast members—Aidy Bryant, Michael Che, Andrew Dismukes, and Bowen Yang—have voiced their opinions about the choice of Musk via Instagram stories. Che and Dismukes joked about the controversy; while Che responded to an angry tweet made by actor John Cusack by confusing him with his sister Joan Cusack, but elsewhere stated "To me, it makes it exciting, I mean, everybody wants to watch now, so that's cool".[32] Bryant and Yang, however, were straightforward with their opinions, with Bryant posting a tweet made by Bernie Sanders about wealthy people such as Musk earning more than the American people during the pandemic, and Yang posted a shocked emoji and a response to a cryptic tweet made by Musk about his hosting gig with Yang saying "what the fuck does this even mean?" Some critics on Twitter claimed this booking was similar to the Donald Trump/Sia episode and blamed Lorne Michaels for making this decision.[33][34][35]
In his opening monologue on February 25, 2023, Woody Harrelson likened the COVID-19 pandemic to a drug cartel, saying;
So the movie goes like this. The biggest drug cartels in the world get together and buy up all the media and all the politicians and force all the people in the world to stay locked in their homes. And people can only come out if they take the cartel’s drugs and keep taking them over and over. I threw the script away. I mean, who was going to believe that crazy idea? Being forced to do drugs? I do that voluntarily all day long.[36]
Harrelson was roundly criticized for his remarks by a number of individuals who saw the monologue, including Matt Wilstein of The Daily Beast who remarked, in relation to the topic, that it "turns out there may have been a reason the rest of the Five-Timers weren’t there to welcome him into their club."[36] However, the monologue was praised by Twitter CEO and owner (and fellow Saturday Night Live host) Elon Musk, who quote tweeted an upload of it with a statement reading “So based. Nice work.”[37]
The following performers have reportedly been banned from either hosting or performing on Saturday Night Live mostly due to being badly rehearsed, going off-script (against Michaels' wishes), camera-mugging, not getting along with the cast and crew, or other inappropriate behavior.
The show, which also featured musical guest Sia, was roundly panned by critics.