Saturday Night Live has certainly had its share of on-air foibles and slip ups over the nearly five decades the late night sketch comedy series has been airing on NBC, which, for the most part, is par for the course when you’re dealing with live television. And while producing a live,93-minute comedy show week in and week out obviously comes with its own unique set of challenges, it would be easy for things to descend into chaos had SNL not been ruled by an iron fist in the name of series creator and executive producer Lorne Michaels.
To this very day, Michaels has always exerted a tight grip over his creation. And in some instances, the 77-year-old has had to take a no nonsense approach in permanently banning particularly troublesome hosts and musical guests — whether they be Oscar, Grammy, or Emmy winners, or, in at least one instance, a former cast member of the show. Lorne does not discern!
Sometimes the reasons for the performer’s banning are obvious, such as the result of wholly inappropriate onstage antics. In other instances, the blacklisting occurred because they diverted from the script, which is a cardinal sin, as far Michaels is concerned. At any rate, the following is a list of 10 celebrities who will likely never ever ever be brought back to SNL again, barring a small miracle.
Adrien Brody (May 10, 2003)
Fresh off his Academy Award best actor win for The Pianist (2002), making him the youngest actor to win the award at age 29, Adrien Brody clearly thought he was untouchable. So while introducing the musical guest, Jamaican reggae artist Sean Paul, Brody thought it would be cute to improvise by wearing faux dreadlocks and speaking with a Rastafarian accent.
It was not cute. As you can see in the above clip, tweeted by the SNL Hosts Introducing the Musical Guest Twitter account (which even uses a screenshot of the clip as a header image), it was the opposite of cute. And not shockingly, it earned Brody a lifetime ban, and to this day he has never been invited back.
Chevy Chase (Various)
Chevy Chase is well known for being extremely difficult and combative to work with, a reputation which was initially cultivated during his short stint on SNL in the ’70s. Fancying himself destined for stardom, Chase left the show just over a year into his tenure. However, he returned to host a whopping eight times over the years. Though each one of his appearances was marred with conflict (see, his famous backstage altercation with Bill Murray), it wasn’t until the February 15, 1997 episode that Chase hosted which was evidently the straw that broke the camel’s back.
As the story goes, after a week of being hostile to the cast and crew, Chase allegedly slapped cast member Cheri Oteri in the back of the head during dress rehearsals — which led to Will Ferrell furiously complaining to Lorne Michaels.
Though Chase has made a number of SNL cameos over the years since (such as during the Saturday Night Live 40th Anniversary Special in 2015), his ban has never been formally repealed, making him the only former cast member, as well as the only member of the Five-Timers Club, to have been banned. That could also perhaps be the result of his career flailing since the late ’90s, but who’s counting? Certainly not us!
Elvis Costello (Dec. 17, 1977)
Elvis Costello appeared on Saturday Night Live early into his career, and had been set to perform “Watching the Detectives” and “Less Than Zero” from his 1977 debut album, My Aim Is True. However, in a move that enraged Michaels, Costello cut out mere seconds into the later tune, telling the audience: “I’m sorry, ladies and gentlemen, but there’s no reason to do this song here.”
Instead, he went onto perform his now-classic single “Radio, Radio” a song that criticizes the commercialization of the airwaves, which he had been expressly forbidden by both Michaels and NBC from performing. However, Costello’s ban was later formally lifted in 1989, and he later even parodied his own stunt on the 25th anniversary special when he interrupted the Beastie Boys during a performance of “Sabotage,” which quickly turned into a joint performance of “Radio, Radio.”
How times change!
Cypress Hill (Oct. 2, 1993)
Sometimes the reasons for a guest being banned are pretty straightforward, such as when the hip hop group Cypress Hill performed on the show in 1993. Not only did DJ Muggs blaze up a joint, live onstage, but the band also trashed their instruments after playing their second song, “I Ain’t Goin’ Out Like That.” They really went out like that!
Martin Lawrence (Feb. 19, 1994)
About four and a half minutes into his monologue for his first and only hosting gig, comedian Martin Lawrence inexplicably went off script by railing against feminine hygiene — or more specifically, what he felt to be a lack thereof. The offending part of Lawrence’s monologue has since been edited out in network reruns and syndication, replaced with a graphic describing summarizing what Lawrence had said.
“At this point in his monologue, Lawrence begins a commentary on what he considers the decline in standards of feminine hygiene in this country,” the statement read. “Although we at Saturday Night Live take no stand on this issue one way or another, network policy prevents us from re-broadcasting this portion of his remarks.”
“In summary, Martin feels, or felt at the time, that the failure of many young women to bathe thoroughly is a serious problem, citing numerous examples from his personal experience, and ends by proposing several imaginative solutions,” the graphic continued. “It was a frank and lively presentation, and nearly cost us all our jobs. We now return to the conclusion of Martin’s monologue.”
The severity of Lawrence’s ban evidently so harsh that going forward, guest hosts and cast members were allegedly forbidden from mentioning him even by name.
Sinéad O’Connor (Oct. 3, 1992)
Arguably the most famous of SNL bans, Sinéad O’Connor hardly needs any introduction. During her second time appearing as musical guest on the show, O’Connor famously tore up a photograph of the Pope after performing an acapella cover of Bob Marley’s “War.” Not only is it the most famous instance of a celebrity being banned from the show, but goes down as one of the all-time most notorious moments on Saturday Night Live. We stan a queen.
Rage Against The Machine (April 13th, 1996)
Rage Against The Machine didn’t even get a chance to perform their second song after staging a protest against the episode’s disastrously-timed guest host, billionaire and then-presidential candidate Steve Forbes. Still, by both today’s (and RATM) standards, the protest was pretty tame. During their set, the band hung upside-down American flags from their amplifiers as they took the stage to perform their single, “Bulls on Parade.”
As soon as their set concluded, the members of Rage Against the Machine were unceremoniously ordered out of the building, and the rest is history.
Steven Seagal (April 20, 1991)
Steven Seagal appeared on SNL only one time, in an episode that was widely considered to be the worst performance by a guest host ever — due to his bad sketch ideas, atrocious comedic timing, wooden acting, and general refusal to work with the rest of the cast. As a result, his episode (which Michaels subsequently removed from airing in reruns, in addition to Seagal’s ban) has become the stuff of legends.
“He didn’t want to go along with what the plan was that week,” former cast member David Spade revealed, years later, in the book Live From New York: The Complete, Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live. “As a result, I think that was the first week that I heard talk about replacing the host and just doing a cast show.”
System of a Down (May 7, 2005)
Honestly, compared to some of the inclusions on this list, the reason for the banning of punk-metal band System of a Down seems pretty mild, all things considered. While performing “B.Y.O.B” in 2005, guitarist Daron Malakian let a couple of swear words slip through during the set. Should he have cussed on live television? Well, probably not. But still, it seems a bit harsh when you consider some of the inclusions on this list.
Kanye West (rumored)
The jury is out on whether Kanye West, who now goes by Ye, has actually been banned from SNL. Unlike the other entries on this list, the reason for Ye’s banning incredibly has nothing to do with the seven (7) times he’s performed on the show. Instead, his rumored banning involves his extremely public, mostly one-sided feud with former cast member Pete Davidson, whom Ye spent most of 2022 harassing over the former’s now-defunct relationship with the latter’s ex-wife, Kim Kardashian.
Ye’s antics got him not only temporarily suspended from Instagram earlier this year, but also banned from performing at the 2022 Grammy Awards. While Michaels has never publicly weighed in on the issue, one would have to imagine SNL takes care of their own. But who knows, as they say, time heals all wounds, and if Ye can ever cut out the nonsense, we have a feeling he’d be welcomed back with open arms.
Published: Oct 5, 2022 08:08 pm