Controversy? On television??
It’s true that, at times, audiences get offended by what they’re watching on their TV screens.
Take “Saturday Night Live,” for instance.
The NBC sketch comedy series premiered on October 11, 1975, with the goal of making people laugh — and mission accomplished! After all, the series is about to return for its milestone 50th season.
But over the past 49 years, “SNL” has also drawn criticism for its long list of controversial moments.
Unfiltered hosts, badly behaved musical guests and game-changing firings have caused Lorne Michaels’ TV baby to make headlines for all the wrong reasons.
Here are the biggest controversies in “Saturday Night Live” history.
Fear destroy the set (1981)
Fear was the musical guest during the 1981 Halloween episode that went completely off the rails. “SNL” alum John Belushi rallied to get the punk rock band onto the show, and he also arranged for a group of die-hard fans to be in the front row of the performance.
While Fear sang “Beef Bologna” and “New York’s Alright If You Like Saxophone,” the fans went nuts and started a mosh pit. There were expletives dropped during the madness, forcing the network to cut to commercial early. The show’s set was damaged in the process, as well.
Unsurprisingly, Fear was banned from “SNL” after the incident.
The Replacements perform drunk (1986)
In January 1986, The Replacements were visibly drunk by the time they took the stage for their musical performance. The rock band uttered the f-word and wore each other’s clothing during the chaotic set. Bob Stinson, one of the band members, tripped and broke his own guitar before the performance even got going, forcing “SNL” to lend him one of their spare instruments.
The Replacements were banned from NBC for 30 years until they performed on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” in 2014. They have yet to schedule a re-do on “SNL.”
Andrew Dice Clay causes a boycott (1990)
Known for his offensive stand-up jokes about women, Andrew Dice Clay wasn’t welcomed with open arms when he hosted “SNL” on May 12, 1990. Cast member Nora Dunn boycotted the episode, while panned musical guest Sinead O’Connor dropped out and was replaced by the Spanic Boys and Julee Cruise. Security guards also had to remove protesters during Clay’s opening monologue.
“My objection to Andrew Dice Clay was that his character was only about one thing: abusing women and laughing about abusing women,” Dunn, 72, said in an interview with Salon in 2015.
Sinead O’Connor tears up a photo of The Pope (1992)
O’Connor shocked the world when she ripped up a picture of Pope John Paul II on an episode in October 1992. She yelled, “fight the real enemy,” as she protested the Catholic Church amid child sex abuse scandals.
O’Connor’s move got her barred from NBC for life and booed off the stage at a Bob Dylan tribute concert a few weeks later.
“My intention had always been to destroy my mother’s photo of the pope,” she wrote about the incident in her 2021 memoir, “Rememberings.” She shared the incident “represented lies and liars and abuse. The type of people who kept these things were devils like my mother.”
The singer — who died in 2023 at age 56 — said in her memoir she didn’t regret the controversial act.
“Everyone wants a pop star, see?” she wrote. “But I am a protest singer. I just had stuff to get off my chest. I had no desire for fame.”
“Wayne’s World” insults the Clintons (1992)
In 1992, a “Wayne’s World” sketch with Mike Myers and Dana Carvey made inappropriate remarks about then-13-year-old Chelsea Clinton. They suggested Chelsea wasn’t attractive but “could turn into a babe-in-waiting.”
Myers reportedly wrote an apology letter to the Clintons. Michaels apologized on behalf of the show, as well.
“She’s a kid, a kid who didn’t choose to be in public life,” the “SNL” creator said.
Martin Lawrence’s monologue (1994)
Martin Lawrence hosted the show in February 1994 and drew criticism for his monologue, where he made jokes about feminine hygiene and genitalia.
The LA Times reported that NBC received 200 complaints after Lawrence made the comments. He has never been back on “SNL” since.
“I don’t give a damn,” he said on the “The Breakfast Club” in 2020.
Rage Against the Machine gets kicked out (1996)
During their stint as musical guests in April 1996, Rage Against the Machine attempted to hang two upside-down American flags from their amps. The politically left-leaning band was sending a stark message to the host, conservative billionaire Steve Forbes.
The inverted flags were taken down by “SNL” stageheads, and RATM was forced to leave the building before they performed their second song.
Norm Macdonald gets fired (1998)
Norm Macdonald was hired on “SNL” in 1993, only to be fired five years later. It’s been reported that he was fired because he kept making jokes about O.J. Simpson regarding the famous athlete’s infamous murder trial. Simpson was a longtime friend of NBC executive Don Ohlmeyer, who canned Macdonald and fellow writer Jim Downey allegedly because of declining ratings.” But Macdonald — who died in 2021 at age 61 — always believed his firing had to do with his relentless jokes about Simpson.
Ashlee Simpson lip-syncing scandal (2004)
Ashlee Simpson was outed for lip-syncing as the show’s musical guest in Oct. 2004.
She had performed her famous song “Pieces of Me,” but when she came onstage to perform her second song, “Autobiography,” the wrong vocals played from the earlier song. Simpson reacted by panic dancing to try to cover it up and quickly walking offstage.
Simpson said in Feb. 2024 on the “Broad Ideas with Rachel Bilson & Olivia Allen” podcast that she “learned a lot” from the controversy,
The singer, who was around 19 years old at the time, added that the incident “taught me humility, it taught me so much about myself and my own personal strength.”
Louis C.K. jokes about child molesters (2015)
Louis C.K. came under fire for joking about child molesters during his May 2015 monologue.
“Child molesters are very tenacious people. They love molesting childs, it’s crazy,” the comedian said, adding, “From their point of view, it must be amazing, for them to risk so much.”
In 2017, C.K. was “canceled” over his sexual misconduct scandal during the height of the #MeToo movement. He admitted to the allegations.
Kanye West supports Trump (2018)
Kanye West went on a rant supporting then-President Donald Trump during his stint as a musical guest in September 2018. The rapper wore a “Make American Great Again” and vouched for Trump, which prompted boos in the audience. Ye also shared his own plans to run for president.
Pete Davidson mocks Dan Crenshaw (2018)
On November 3, 2018, Pete Davidson made fun of Republican politician Dan Crenshaw’s eye patch. Crenshaw lost his eye while deployed to Afghanistan in 2012.
On the Nov. 11, 2018 episode, Davidson apologized to Crewnshaw who joined the comedian at the “Weekly Update” desk. “The man is a war hero and he deserves all the respect in the world,” Davidson said.
But in his 2020 Netflix special, Davidson claimed he was “forced to apologize” to Crenshaw. “I didn’t think I did anything wrong,” Davidson added.
Shane Gillis is fired (2019)
Shane Gillis was fired from the cast in 2019 when he was heard spouting several racial and homophobic slurs on an episode of “Matt and Shane’s Secret Podcast.” He allegedly mocked Chinese accents.
“After talking with Shane Gillis, we have decided that he will not be joining SNL,’” said a spokesperson for the show at the time. “We want SNL to have a variety of voices and points of view within the show, and we hired Shane on the strength of his talent as a comedian and his impressive audition for SNL.”
“The language he used is offensive, hurtful and unacceptable,” the statement continued. “We are sorry that we did not see these clips earlier, and that our vetting process was not up to our standard.”
Gillis was brought back to host “SNL” in Feb. 2024, where he addressed his firing in his opening monologue.
“I probably shouldn’t be up here honestly. I should be at home. I should be a high school football coach,” he joked.
