Ashlee Simpson’s lip-syncing disaster has to be one of the most talked-about musical misses in music history and it happened when she was a musical guest in October 2004. While performing her second song of the night, “Autobiography”, a vocal track for “Pieces of Me”, which she already performed, came on. She ended up dancing awkwardly before walking off stage.
Fans were upset because it was clear that the singer was planning on lip-syncing. Even though the situation was awkward, Simpson was invited back as a musical guest the next year.
Improvising doesn’t always go well on live TV and that’s exactly what happened during Martin Lawrence’s February 1994 opening monologue. He mentioned feminine hygiene and genitalia in explicit detail and he was banned from the show after the network received tons of complaints about his comments.
In 2020, when Lawrence appeared on The Breakfast Club he disputed that he was banned saying, “I don’t give a damn. I’m not banned from SNL. They banned me from NBC at the time for a minute. But then they realized the way it went down wasn’t what they thought and then they sent me an apology letter.”
Fear had a huge impact on Gun and Roses, Mega Death, and Soundgarden, and they were personally recommended by legendary SNL cast member John Belushi for the 1981 Halloween episode, but their appearance was nothing short of a disaster. Not only did they troll the audience, but they brought in slam dancers and things turned into a riot.
And their second song of the night had many offensive tracks, which forced the show to cut to commercials as the punk band played. They ended up getting banned from the show, and there was over $200,000 worth of damage to the studio, according to the New York Post.
The Replacements had both their first and last performance on SNL in January 1986. The band performed a song called “Bastards of Young” before going backstage and getting completely wasted. And when they returned to perform their next song “Kiss Me on the Bus” it was a complete mess!
Not only were they wearing each other’s clothing, but they barely played the song and they stumbled all over the stage, bumping into each other. Guitarist Paul Westerberg also said f—k on air and according to Rolling Stone, the band rang up $1,100 in hotel damages!
When Kanye West appeared as a musical guest for his third time on the show in September 2018, his performance was cut off. The rapper went on an unexpected political speech and spoke about his plans to run for president at the end of the episode. He was even booed!
Even though the speech wasn’t aired, comedian Chris Rock, who was in the audience, recorded it and posted it to Instagram. During a “Weekend Update” segment, cast member Pete Davidson called the rant “one of the worst, most awkward things I’ve ever seen here.”
Speaking of Pete Davidson, he's been involved in lots of controversies, but one of them that’s gotten the most attention was when he made an insensitive joke about a politician who wore an eye patch after losing his eye in Iraq, during “Weekend Update” in November 2018.
The statement received lots of backlash and the following week, the politician came on and received an apology from Davidson. Later in 2020, during his Netflix special, Pete Davidson: Alive From New York, the comedian said he “got forced to apologize” because of the backlash and “didn’t think [he] did anything wrong.”
When Andrew Dice Clay was scheduled to appear on the show in May 1990, cast member Nora Dunn boycotted it because of his misogynistic jokes. Musical guest Sinéad O'Connor did the same and producers had to find musical replacements. And of course, viewers were just as outraged by his appearance.
Due to his unsavory behaviors, NBC even insisted on a five-to-seven-second delay to give censors time to react. Audience members heckled Clay during the show, but he ended up sticking to the script.
Canteen Boy is a classic SNL character played by Adam Sandler, but this sketch in particular had everyone feeling super uncomfortable as Alec Baldwin, who played the scoutmaster, makes sexual advances towards Sandler.
Many viewers, and even the Boy Scouts of America, were upset because the skit showed inappropriate behaviors between adults and kids and a disclaimer was later inserted into broadcasts to say that Canteen Boy was 27-years-old. Either way, it’s still uncomfortable to watch and we think this sketch missed the mark.
We can’t say we were surprised that Rage Against the Machine made a statement during their April 1996 performance. The band’s known for making statements and when they were the show’s musical guest, they hung upside-down American flags from their amps to send a message to host Steve Forbes.
Even though the flags were removed before they performed, Rage Against the Machine’s stunt ended up backfiring as they were ordered to leave the building by NBC officials after their first song.
Oscar-winner Adrien Brody hosted SNL in May 2003 and when introducing musical guest Sean Paul, he went off script and performed a skit while wearing a dreadlock wig and shouting Jamaican stereotypes for 45 seconds. Yeah—it was just as cringy as it sounds and it was hard to watch!
Unsurprisingly, Brody was booed from the stage and banned. Needless to say, he hasn’t returned back. SNL even parodied him almost a decade later.
