Did you know there are several stars banned from Saturday Night Live? I have been a fan of the show since I was a kid, begging to stay up to watch it and I had no idea they’d actually barred so many people from returning! These stars banned from Saturday Night Live were forbidden to return for a variety of reasons, can you guess which celebrities will make the list?
1 Chevy Chase
Out of all of the stars banned from Saturday Night Live, Chevy Chase is the only one that was a former cast member. I chose to list him first because while he was officially banned from hosting, he has been allowed back on a few occasions to make cameo appearances and also for the 25th Anniversary Special. Chevy was banned due to his continuous verbal abuse of the rest of the cast and crew and his offensive skit pitches.
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2 Sinead O’Connor
Anyone trying to guess which celebrities would be named on this list probably guessed Sinead O’Connor who infamously changed the words of her song and her props and tore up a picture of Pope John Paul II and threw the pieces in the air. Any reruns of that episode replace her musical sequence with what was filmed during her dress rehearsal. SNL received thousands of horrified phone calls from people who saw it live and banned her from the show for life.
3 The Replacements
On January 4, 1986, The Replacements were the musical guest on SNL. Their first musical number went off without a hitch and to celebrate, they got completely wasted throughout the rest of the show. When it came time to do their next song before the show ended, they were visibly and audibly drunk and for being unprofessional and drinking on the job, they too were banned from the show for the foreseeable future.
4 Louise Lasser
If you want to know was who the first host ever to be banned, Louise Lasser is the winner of that title. She flat out refused to be in any sketch unless she was the only person in it. The only exception was that she would allow Chevy Chase to be in the sketches with her. When you exclude 99% of the people working on the show, it makes it hard for people to work with you. Needless to say, she has never been asked to host again.
5 Andy Kaufman
I personally love Andy Kaufman but he definitely rubbed a lot of people the wrong way. Unfortunately one of the people who didn’t see his humor was Dick Ebersol, the executive producer of Saturday Night Live in 1983. He didn’t outright kick Mr. Kaufman off the show. He set up two 900 numbers, one to vote for keeping Andy, one to kick him off the show permanently, then he let the audience decide if he would stay or not. The audience voted to get rid of him, so his appearances were no more.
6 Martin Lawrence
Most people know who Martin Lawrence is, but what you may not know is that when he hosted Saturday Night Live, he spent a great deal of time making remarks about certain inappropriate parts of the female anatomy. He went on a rant about the lack of female hygiene and made some pretty offensive statements. Can you guess what happened? Yep… banned for life.
7 Adrian Brody
Brody is the most recent celebrity banned from SNL. In 2003 when he hosted the show, Sean Paul was the musical guest and Brody spent a large part of his monologue seemingly mocking Sean Paul by wearing fake dreads, speaking with a fake Jamaican accent and calling Sean Paul by the wrong name when introducing him. He was banned due to his obviously inappropriate behavior.
Whether it was due to offensive remarks or an inability to get along with the cast and crew, these celebrities have been banned for life from one of the best sketch comedy shows around. Do you think they were rightfully banned or should these actors and musicians have been given another shot?
