Here's Why These 10 Stars Were Banned From Saturday Night Live

The "Saturday Night Live" stage has seen some of the wildest moments in pop culture history. For decades, the show has brought on the biggest celebrities in the world to host, play music, and make cameos, all in an effort to make audiences laugh. Unfortunately, "SNL" hasn't always met its goal. Sketches have tanked. Musicians have bombed. In short, plenty of awkward moments have aired on "Saturday Night Live."

Some moments, though, have been beyond awkward. They've been controversial, shocking, disrespectful, and downright atrocious. Some of these moments have happened off-stage, too, and what all these moments have in common is that they led to a super famous star being from ever returning to the legendary set. Only a handful of performers have been asked to appear on the hit NBC show, and only a select few of those have gotten the boot. Here's why these 10 stars were banned from "Saturday Night Live."

Elvis Costello has been on "Saturday Night Live" multiple times, but his first appearance on the show left people wondering if he would ever return. After a controversial performance in 1977, Costello was banned from the program. For his performance, Costello, along with his band The Attractions, was set to play the songs "Watching the Detectives" and "Less Than Zero." While the first song went well, Costello stopped playing the second after just a few measures and said, "I'm sorry, ladies and gentlemen, but there's no reason to do this song here," (via YouTube). Costello instead played the song "Radio, Radio," the lyrics of which were critical of the commercialization of broadcasting.

Lorne Michaels, the longtime "Saturday Night Live" show runner, was not thrilled with the unexpected change — he has long been in charge of a live show, after all. Costello wasn't allowed back on the show until 1989, and he later opened up about why he made the change in the first place. "I just wanted them to remember us. I didn't really have anything against the show. I was more pissed off at being told what to play by the record company than I was NBC, truthfully. I can't remember whether I said what I was going to do, but I think I just said, 'Watch me,'" he said while talking to Apple Music's Zane Lowe (via Billboard). 

Perhaps the most notorious ban — and performance — in "Saturday Night Live" history came in 1992 from Sinead O'Connor when she protested sexual abuse in the Catholic church. While singing the lyrics, "We have confidence in the victory of good over evil," O'Connor held up a photo of Pope John Paul II and ripped it up. O'Connor then said, "Fight the real enemy," via (YouTube). The moment was instantly controversial, and Lorne Michaels was not pleased. "Sinead I thought was sort of the wrong place for it, I thought her behavior was inappropriate. Because it was difficult to do two comedy sketches after it," Michaels told SPIN (via Yahoo! Entertainment) of the performance, adding that he was upset because O'Connor had told producers that she was going to be holding up a photo of a child refugee from Bosnia.

O'Connor (who's best known for her hit "Nothing Compares 2 U") had no regrets about her choices. She addressed the performance in her memoir saying, "Everyone wants a pop star, see? But I am a protest singer. I just had stuff to get off my chest. I had no desire for fame," per an excerpt in Rolling Stone. O'Connor noted that she had always wanted to tear up a photo of the pope, she just had to wait for the right moment. Over 30 years later, Michaels, who's had plenty of career regrets, spoke publicly about the moment again, seemingly feeling different upon reflection. "There was a part of me that just admired the bravery of what she'd done, and also the absolute sincerity of it," Michaels said in the documentary "Ladies & Gentlemen... 50 Years of SNL Music," as reported by the Daily Beast.

"Saturday Night Live" has seen plenty of unique talents come and go, but perhaps one of the most unique was Andy Kaufman. The comedian was known for pushing boundaries, and he even famously rejected the appellation. "I am not a comic. I have never told a joke. The comedian's promise is that he will go out there and make you laugh with him. My only promise is that I will try to entertain you as best I can," he said, via Far Out.

Despite his own view on his work, for several years Kaufman appeared on episodes of "SNL" as a special guest, and his approach to comedic entertainment was admired by many. He brought to life interesting characters and made for TV moments that were unforgettable to viewers. However, that all ended after a bizarre bit about women's wrestling. In the bit, Kaufman asked for women from the audience to come on stage and wrestle. While the wrestling matches were planned, the actor always won, and audience members at home did not like what they were seeing. The network was flooded with complaints, and in 1983 Dick Ebersol, former "SNL" executive producer, asked on air whether the audience wanted Kaufman to stay on the show or leave. Ebersol's bit was meant to be in jest, but the audience took it seriously and voted against Kaufman. Ebersol and company honored the results, and Kaufman wasn't allowed back. Tragically, in 1984, Kaufman died from lung cancer.

Chevy Chase (a man who was once dissed by Pete Davidson) is one of the original cast members of the NBC hit sketch comedy series, and he's one of the stars who left "Saturday Night Live" after a short stint on the show. Still, Chase has gone down as one of the best "SNL" cast members in history, and he's returned as host so many times that he's a member of the Five-Timers Club. All of that good will wasn't enough to keep Chase from receiving a ban, though. After a history of reported bad behavior — Chase had an altercation with Bill Murray in the early days of "SNL" and allegedly hit Cheri Oteri in the head while rehearsing for what ended up being his final hosting gig in 1997 — Chase apparently was banned from hosting the show.

While Chase has been allowed back on set as a special guest, he's also requested a chance to host "SNL" again. The comedian asked Lorne Michaels to return as host well over a decade after his last time, and as Chase told the Washington Post in 2018, Michaels said Chase was too old to host. "I didn't get it. You're too old? We'd had many people older than me hosting. What did he mean? I've never understood what he meant. Because I'd be very good, and it would be fun for an audience to see me doing that," Chase said. Whatever the real reason is, it seems unlikely that Chase will host "SNL" ever again.

After decades on air, "Saturday Night Live" has had more than a few moments that didn't age well. In its 50th anniversary special, the show addressed some of its worst moments, admitting that they've been disrespectful, discriminatory, and downright inappropriate on more than a few occasions. Much of these realizations came after the fact, but one moment on the show was immediately so controversial that it resulted in a host being banned from ever returning.

In 1994, a monologue became the real reason Martin Lawrence is banned from SNL. While hosting an episode, the comedian included bits that he hadn't said in rehearsal, and the audience did not take well to the jokes. Lawrence discussed Lorena Bobbitt (the woman who made national news in the early 1990s for cutting off her husband's penis after he allegedly assaulted her) before moving on to jokes about female hygiene. "Some of you are not washing your a** properly ... Smell yourself!" Lawrence said, including inappropriate gestures and getting even more graphic with his words. Viewers filed formal complaints against "SNL," and for years the show kept all footage of Lawrence's monologue hidden from the public. The show has since released his monologue, but some of the more sensitive bits have been omitted.

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In the world of television, writers have historically been disrespected. They don't earn as much money as actors, and many writers have reported being mistreated by some actors. At "Saturday Night Live," however, the writers sometimes get just as much recognition as the actors, and some writers have even been asked to join the cast. Not all guests have shown the "SNL" writers that same respect, though. When Robert Blake hosted in the 1980s, the actor was so disrespectful toward a writer that he got banned from returning to the show.

As writer David Sheffield shared in an interview with Vanity Fair, in the week leading up to the show, Blake was given a script to a sketch written by Gary Kroeger. Apparently Blake didn't like what Kroeger had written. "Blake sat there and read that, with his glasses down his nose, then wadded it up, turned to Kroeger, and said, 'I hope you got a tough a**hole, pal, 'cause you're going to have to wipe your a** with that one.' And he threw it and bounced it off Gary's face," Sheffield said. Blake's behavior certainly didn't derail his entire career — the actor continued working for years after hosting "SNL" — but he ruined his relationship with NBC's sketch comedy series.

There are many attributes that a "Saturday Night Live" host needs to have in order to have a good appearance, but perhaps the most important is that they're funny. When Steven Seagal hosted in the early 1990s, the overwhelming consensus from both writers and cast members was that the action star just wasn't funny. "He just wasn't funny, and he was very critical of the cast and the writing staff. He didn't realize that you can't tell somebody they're stupid on Wednesday and expect them to continue writing for you on Saturday," former cast member Tim Meadows said in the book "Live From New York: The Complete, Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live as Told by Its Stars, Writers, and Guests."

Seagal's episode didn't go over well, and he was banned from ever hosting again. In fact, the actor's performance on and off stage was so terrible in the eyes of the cast and crew that it prompted Lorne Michaels to comment on it live on air. When Nicolas Cage hosted in 1992, he said to the famed showrunner during his monologue, "[The audience] probably think I'm the biggest jerk who's ever been on the show," to which Michaels replied, "No, no, that would be Steven Seagal," (via YouTube).

Many "Saturday Night Live" writers and cast members have shared what they think makes someone a good host, and several have noted that a person's willingness to work with people and being able to step away from their ego are two of the best qualities in a host. Per many who worked with Milton Berle when he hosted "SNL," the former television star had neither of those attributes. According to writers at the time, Berle pitched tasteless ideas and warned the writers that they might not understand his jokes. Many also found him to be egotistical and unaware that his career had peaked decades prior to his hosting gig. While some cast members, namely Chevy Chase and John Belushi, were reportedly thrilled to be working with him, most others found him difficult.

Two writers had particularly bad experiences with Berle. Rosie Shuster was told to speak with Berle in his dressing room to give him a performance note, and the actor remained mostly undressed for the duration of their conversation. "He was pacing around in his boxer shorts, very proud to parade in his shorts in front of me. Thank God they weren't briefs, because it was already too much information," Shuster said for the book "Live From New York: The Complete, Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live as Told by Its Stars, Writers, and Guests" (via Cracked). And when speaking with Alan Zweibel, Berle exposed himself to the writer. For very clear reasons, Berle was banned from returning to Studio 8H.

"Saturday Night Live" has never shied away from talking about politics. In fact, it's just the opposite. Politics has been a tentpole of the show since its inception. Some audiences find "SNL" to be biased, and some former cast members have said that the show doesn't go hard enough on certain politicians. However, "SNL" has always made jokes about and impersonated people from both sides of the aisle, and it's important to the show's creator, Lorne Michaels. "It's the hardest thing for me to explain to this generation that the show is nonpartisan," Michaels said in the book "Lorne: The Man Who Invented Saturday Night Live," as reported by Page Six. "On whatever side, if there's idiocy, we go after it. We've got the whole country watching..."

"Saturday Night Live" does, however, have a line when it comes to politics. Sketches rarely get into stances on specific policies, and guests who bring up politics, either in their musical performances or sketches, risk getting banned from the show. The band members from Rage Against the Machine know this better than anyone. The group was asked to perform in 1996 while Steve Forbes, a billionaire who was running for president at the time, served as host. As the band's guitarist Tom Morello said, "RATM wanted to stand in sharp juxtaposition to a billionaire telling jokes and promoting his flat tax by making our own statement," as reported by Far Out. They carried out their protest by hanging American flags upside down for their performance of "Bulls on Parade," which were immediately taken down by production assistants. At the time of writing, the band hasn't been back since.

It's not uncommon for someone who first performs on "Saturday Night Live" as a musical guest to return as a host. Justin Bieber was a musical guest before he hosted the show, as was Billie Eilish. But long before either of those performers was even born, Frank Zappa was returning to "SNL" as host after first playing music on the show. But things didn't go so well. As far as the audience could see, Zappa wasn't funny. "It's an awesome responsibility being selected out of millions of people to become the banner of NBC's new look. God, I hope I'm good," Zappa said to the unamused crowd during his monologue, as reported by Ultimate Classic Rock.

Behind the scenes, Zappa was also difficult to work with. As Doug Hill and Jeff Weingrad shared in their book "Saturday Night: A Backstage History," "Al Franken remembers Zappa saying things like: 'Here's some ideas. I want to have pumpkins hanging on a Christmas tree, pumpkins that eat people's faces. Pull that together by Saturday." Zappa was difficult for actors to work with during the show, too, and that combined with his poor sense of humor resulted in a ban from "SNL," (via Ultimate Classic Rock).