List of people banned from Saturday Night Live
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Saturday Night Lives producers, especially Lorne Michaels, have famously and dramatically banned for life several celebrities from ever appearing on the television show again. Reasons for these bans vary, as sometimes they can be seen as a rational response to a star's grossly innappropriate on-stage behavior. At other times the reasons are perhaps harder to understand, as they arguably stem from far more mild, or even superficial, transgressions. Hosts Louise Lasser Louise Lasser was the first SNL host to be banned from hosting again. The ban was due to what was perceived as an incoherent performance and Lasser's difficulty in working with the cast and crew (Lasser refused to appear in any sketches unless she was by herself or with cast member Chevy Chase). Charles Grodin Charles Grodin has never been asked back to host after he gave a clumsy performance in October 1977. On his one appearance on the show, Grodin missed rehearsal, stumbled his way through the show, and ad-libbed many of his lines. Frank Zappa Frank Zappa was banned from hosting the show again because his sense of humor clashed with that of the cast. (His camera mugging and the way he made no attempt to hide the fact he was reading from cue cards were two of the main complaints.) Milton Berle This episode was barred from being shown in syndication due to complaints from Lorne Michaels and the cast over Milton Berle. This was due to his habit of upstaging other performers, overacting, mugging for the camera, insertion of "classic" comedy bits and his maudlin performance of "September Song". Robert Blake Robert Blake was banned from hosting after a week of giving writers a hard time, including a fight in which he crumpled up the script of a sketch written by cast member Gary Kroeger and allegedly threw it in Kroeger's face. Steven Seagal Steven Seagal, who hosted on April 20, 1991, was banned from hosting again because of his difficulty in working with the cast and crew. They made note of the occasion almost a year and a half later, as during Nicolas Cage's monologue on September 26, 1992, Nicolas spoke with Lorne Michaels backstage, saying, "...they probably think I'm the biggest jerk who's ever been on the show!" to which Lorne replied, "No, no. That would be Steven Seagal." Martin Lawrence The monologue in the syndication reruns is edited to remove Martin Lawrence's comments about the decline in feminine hygiene, and is replaced with a graphic explaining the comments and how it almost cost everyone at SNL their jobs. Martin Lawrence was consequently banned from appearing on the show again. Chevy Chase As an SNL host (as opposed to cast member), Chevy Chase had long had a reputation for being difficult and insulting to the cast and crew, as described in the book, Live From New York: The Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live. During the week of his 1997 appearance, he offended the staff with lewd comments, and embarrassed Lorne Michaels so badly that he was subsequently banned for life from hosting SNL again. Adrien Brody Adrien Brody was banned from hosting again following his long and improvised introduction of musical guest Sean Paul. In a Howard Stern interview with cast member Tina Fey, Tina said that during a writer's meeting, Adrien Brody constantly dished out bad sketch ideas which were ignored by the writers, causing Brody to get upset. Musical guests Elvis Costello Elvis Costello halted his band the Attractions seven seconds into the song "Less Than Zero", launching into "Radio Radio", an as-yet unreleased song critical of mainstream broadcasting. He did not appear on the show again until the 1989 episode hosted by Mary Tyler Moore. Fear Fear's performance, which only happened on the insistence of John Belushi, took place in front of a group of east coast punks. One of them, Ian MacKaye of Minor Threat, grabs a live mic and screams, "NEW YORK SUCKS!!" several times between songs. The performance is cut short during the song "Let's Have a War". The Replacements The Replacements were banned from playing on the show again as some of the band members were under the influence of alcohol and lead singer Paul Westerberg yelled "fuck" during dress rehearsal. They played "Bastards of Young" and "Kiss Me On the Bus", both from the Tim album. The ban was eventually lifted, as Westerberg performed solo in Season 19. Sinéad O'Connor At the end of her second song, "War", Sinéad O'Connor held up a picture of Pope John Paul II, exclaimed, "Fight the real enemy", and tore the picture to pieces. Subsequent airings have included the rehearsal taping of the song where Sinéad pulls out a picture of a starving African child before leaving the stage. Host Tim Robbins, who was raised Roman Catholic, did not thank O'Connor during the goodbyes/end credits. Cypress Hill During Cypress Hill's performance on stage, the band members were smoking marijuana on air, and their instruments were destroyed during their second single. Other Andy Kaufman During the November 20, 1982 episode (Drew Barrymore/Squeeze), the audience at home was given the chance to vote on whether or not Andy Kaufman, a regular cameo on SNL, should be banned from the show. The vote was conducted by a 1-900 number. At the end of the night, the people had spoken, and Kaufman was banned from ever performing on SNL again.
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