Let’s look a the most shocking SNL moments in nearly 50 years of Saturday Night Live.
Richard Pryor Hosts
Saturday Night Live creator Lorne Michaels fought hard with NBC executives to book the provocative Richard Pryor as the host of the show’s seventh episode on Dec. 13, 1975. Because the network feared Pryor was too profane and unpredictable, Michaels agreed to a five-second delay so that any curse words could be beeped.
Pryor avoided any four-letter words, but did use a three-letter one starting with the letter A. According to Saturday Night, A Backstage History of Saturday Night Live, by Doug Hill and Jeff Weingard, the censor who was running the delay device let both slip by, but both were edited out of the taped version that was broadcast on the West Coast.
To modern audiences, though, the most shocking sketch is likely one called “Word Association” in which Chevy Chase plays an employer subjecting Pryor to a word-association exercise during an interview for a janitorial job. It eventually descends into racial slurs.
Yes, 1975 was a time when saying the N-word in a comedy sketch was less shocking than saying the A-word.
Paul Shaffer Says the F-Word
Many F-words have slipped into Saturday Night Live, but Paul Shaffer (above left) holds the honor of slipping in the first, albeit accidentally. It happened on March 15, 1980, in Season 5, Episode 14.
Paul Shaffer, the beloved musician who came up in the ranks alongside greats like Gilda Radner, was enlisted for a speaking part in a 1980 sketch that included many, many uses of the word “flogging.” At one point, he misspoke.
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Shaffer recalled in his memoir that SNL creator Lorne Michaels subsequently came up to him and said, “You broke down the last barrier.”
Shaffer landed on his feet, of course: He later spent years as David Letterman’s Late Night band leader and comic foil.
Charles Rocket Says the F-Word
Charles Rocket was in the cast in the very rough season that followed the exit of the original Not Ready for Prime Time Players, as well as Lorne Michaels (who mercfully returned in the middle of the ’80s.) During a February 21, 1981 sketch based on the famed Dallas storyline “Who Shot J.R.?,” Rocket delivered the line, “It’s the first time I’ve ever been shot in my life. I’d like to know who the f— did it.”
Note the reactions the instant after he said it, above.
According to the book Saturday Night: A Backstage History of Saturday Night Live, by Doug Hill and Jeff Weingrad, SNL director responded to the curse by saying, “Well, that’s the end of live television.” (It wasn’t, luckily.)
The book also reports that producer Jean Doumanian, who had taken over for Michaels, stood by Rocket, and even told NBC executives that if they fired Rocket, they would have to fire her, too.
Soon they were both out, though not just because of the F-word — the show was suffering commercially as it attempted to rebuild.
Side Note
Rocket’s use of the F-word overshadowed the fact that Prince had also said the F-word during the episode during a performance of his song “Party Up.”
“Fightin’ war is such a f—ing bore,” he sang.
His Royal Badness escaped the censors’ notice because he said the word so quickly.
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Sam Kinison Gets Censored
When Sam Kinison did a standup set, the West Coast feed had two jokes — one about Jesus, and another about crack cocaine.
UPI reported at the time that it was only the second time the show, then 12 seasons old, had material removed for the later airing. (The first time was the Richard Pryor episode).
“Sam broke the rules and that was why the censor reacted the way he did,” said SNL producer Lorne Michaels.
The show later brought Kinison back to host. “NBC censors, I don’t know, I guess they’re on vacation,” he said in his monologue.
The Beach Sketch
The Oct. 15, 1988 episode, hosted by Matthew Broderick (above), featured a sketch in which men at a sans-clothes beach spend several minutes commenting on one another’s organs.
Conan O’Brien later revealed that Robert Smigel was the lead writer on the sketch, which seized on recently softened broadcast standards that allowed SNL to say “penis.”
The NBC switchboards lit up. Weeks later, family-friendly host Mary Tyler Moore jokingly squirmed through a monologue in which she explained that a family group had urged a boycott of the show because the show “used a bad word 28 times.”
She ended the monologue by announcing the musical guest: “Elvis Costello’s penis is here tonight!”
Sinead O’Connor
After a stunning a capella performance of Bob Marley’s “War” on the October 3, 1992 episode, Irish singer Sinead O’Connor declared “fight the real enemy!” and tore up a picture of Pope John Paul II in a protest of abuse in the Catholic Church.
David Spade, who was in the SNL cast at the time, recalled in his memoir Almost Interesting: “It’s the first time in SNL musical history that the guest did not get applause after their song. No one knew what the f— was going on. Lorne turned back to me after sipping his glass of Amstel Light, shrugged his shoulders, and said “Irish.” (Spade also recalled that he picked up a piece of the photo as a souvenir, but that the show later insisted he return it.)
Also Read: The 12 Best SNL Sketches of All Time
O’Connor’s action was widely criticized — including by Joe Pesci, who hosted the next week and declared, “if it was my show, I would have gave her such a smack.”
A decades later, an investigation by The Boston Globe would reveal that sexual abuse in the church had indeed been covered up. When O’Connor died earlier this year, some viewed her protest in a different light than it was viewed in 1992.
Norm McDonald Gets Fired
Almost every moment Norm MacDonald spent hosting “Weekend Update” joke was a shocking moment — he was fearless in going after sacred cows, and delighted in crossing lines. But he got in the most trouble for a barrage of jokes calling O.J. Simpson a murderer. Both MacDonald and SNL writer Jim Downey feuded with NBC executive Don Ohlmeyer, a friend of Simpson’s who insisted the jokes weren’t funny.
Both MacDonald and Downey were fired in 1998. Downey said on the Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend podcast earlier this year that MacDonald could have saved his own job, but refused to throw Downey under the bus.
“The network went to Norm and said, ‘We want to get rid of Jim Downey and we just want you to know. You’re cool with that, right?’ And he said, ‘No. No. You can’t fire him. If you fire him, I quit.’ … He said, ‘I’m not doing it without him.'”
Downey said MacDonald, who died in 2021, never told him about it, and he only learned from NBC executives.
Ashlee Simpson Gets Caught Lip-Syncing
Ashlee Simpson was a red-hot pop star when she went on Saturday Night Live as a musical guest in the third episode of its 30th season, in 2004. Shehttps://www.moviemaker.com/ethan-eng-therapy-dogs-water-tower/ and her band played what sounded like a solid rendition of her hit “Pieces of Me” for the first song. But when she returned to the stage for her second song, her “Pieces of Me” vocals played, signaling that she had lip-synced. She danced a little jig and left the stage.
Simpson later took responsibility, saying it was her mistake.
“I had a vocal problem — I had two nodes beating against each other and I woke up and had no voice,” she explained on Watch What Happens Life With Andy Cohen (above). “I should have said no, I will not go on, I won’t do this.”
Lip-syncing on live TV is, of course, very common.
Djesus Uncrossed
SNL offended some Christians (and Muslims, too) with a pitch-perfect satire of Quentin Tarantino movies in which Tarantino collaborator Christoph Waltz plays a very un-Christlike version of Jesus who is “preaching anything but forgiveness” in “the ultimate historical revenge fantasy” — one that finds the son of God dispatching Roman soldiers with a sword and machine guns.
It’s satirizing Tarantino movies, not Jesus, but that didn’t matter to people who took issue with it.
Safelite Auto Glass
A comically demented fake ad for Safelite Auto Glass on the Oct. 7, 2017 episode stars Beck Bennett as a Safelite technician who keeps breaking the windshield of a mom (Aidy Bryant) so he can get more face time with her 17-year-old daughter (Melissa Villaseñor).
Safelite quite reasonably wondered why it had to be mentioned in the sketch, tweeting at SNL: “Thanks for the skit. Although we can take a joke, this one was a step too far. Our techs are our heroes. #notcool.” The company also noted: “We weren’t involved in creating it and we’re really disappointed in @NBCSNL for airing it.”
The show subsequently pulled the fake ads from YouTube and reruns.
Kristen Stewart Uses the F-Word
Kristen Stewart seemed truly excited to host the Feb. 4, 2017 episode — so excited that she called it the “coolest f—ing thing ever” in her monologue before immediately catching herself.
“I’m sorry… and I’ll never come back,” she said to cheers and laughter.
She turned out to be one of the best hosts in recent years, especially shining in a much-beloved Totino’s Pizza Rolls sketch.
Shane Gillis Fired Before Appearing on the Show
Many people have been fired from SNL, but Shane Gillis may be the only performer to be fired before his first show.
SNL announced that comedian Shane Gillis would join the show for its 45th season in 2019 — but internet sleuths quickly surfaced audio from Gillis’ podcast.
On an episode of Matt and Shane’s Secret Podcast, which Gillis co-hosted with comedian Matt McCusker — Gillis used a racial slur and made fun of Chinese accents during a discussion about Chinatown. SNL acted swiftly.
“After talking with Shane Gillis, we have decided that he will not be joining SNL,” a spokesperson said on behalf of SNL producer Lorne Michaels. “We want SNL to have a variety of voices and points of view within the show … The language he used is offensive, hurtful and unacceptable. We are sorry that we did not see these clips earlier, and that our vetting process was not up to our standard.”
More on Shane Gillis and SNL
Gillis said at the time of his firing (or is it un-hiring?): “I’m a comedian who was funny enough to get on SNL. That can’t be taken away. Of course, I wanted an opportunity to prove myself at SNL but it would be too much of a distraction. I respect the decision they made. I am honestly grateful for the opportunity.”
He later explained on Dana Carvey and David Spade’s Fly on the Wall podcast that he had been trying to make fun of racist attitudes, not encourage them.
Gillis has landed on his feet. He’s a very successful comedian with a new Netflix special, Beautiful Dogs. And SNL decided to bring him back as the host of the February 24, 2024 episode. (See promo, above.)
Liked Our List of Stunning SNL Moments?
You might also like this list of the Best SNL Characters in the Show’s Almost 50 Years.
Main image: Kristen Stewart on SNL. NBC.
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