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Live from New York, it's total chaos! Join us as we count down the most shocking on-air and behind-the-scenes meltdowns in Saturday Night Live history. From musical guests going rogue to hosts losing their cool, these infamous moments changed careers, sparked controversies, and left audiences stunned. Which SNL breakdown do you think was the most outrageous?
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00:00at 11 25 five minutes before the show was to start um i had enough welcome to watch mojo
00:08and today we're counting down our picks for saturday night live's most infamous stories of
00:14sabotage ranting and conflict on the air and off there's always a couple trying to take your place
00:21but i never followed up maybe just in case that's not counting the many times the talent broke
00:27character with laughing fits number 20 mikey the chimp let's just say that jason bateman
00:34doesn't have the prestige he has now when he hosted snl in 2005 one skit featured a fictional
00:41show by the unpretentious title of monkeys throwing poop at celebrities
00:46apparently the fact that mikey was an ape wasn't the only technical issue returning as host 15 years
00:57later bateman recounted in his monologue that mikey became distressed when he was brought back for
01:02the episode's sign off the chimp attacked bateman nearly biting off his nose before being pulled
01:07away it doesn't look like much right doesn't look like much but i had the horror the horror angle
01:14right this camera saw the terror 2020 also marked the year hollywood quietly phased out the use of
01:21ape actors to avoid such incidents whatever became of mikey after he was sold he gave bateman quite the
01:28story i went down to his dressing room well i open up the door and he's standing there he's looking
01:32very ashamed of himself and and and honest to god he he shuffles over to me puts his hand up on my
01:39shoulder as if to say i'm sorry number 19 colin jost april fool how perfect is it for an episode of snl
01:49to fall on april 1st it wasn't so much fun for colin jost who got noticeably lighter laughs than usual
01:57during weekend update a self-deprecating remark about attending a pro-trump rally prompted one
02:02audience member to shout you stink and i was the only protester there
02:06amused and moved by his co-anchor's humiliation michael chay confessed that he had spoke to the
02:18audience to not laugh at jost's jokes as a prank i told them not to laugh at your faithful food
02:23sure many viewers couldn't help but crack up a bit nonetheless jost laughed hardest to try and cope
02:34with the mess as modest as chay's april fool's day fun seemed to be his victim didn't seem to
02:41take it very well and then i was just like oh i just suck all right move it right along number 18
02:48donald trump backstage it's wonderful to be here i will tell you this is going to be something special
02:56many of the greats have hosted as you know this show like me in 2004 there was no scandal when
03:05donald trump hosted snl to promote his new show the apprentice in 2004 it was a different case when
03:11he hosted in 2015 to promote his run for president of the united states the show itself was much less
03:17dramatic than the backlash but cast members later revealed that this was only after a difficult
03:23rehearsal trump reportedly clashed with writers and disrupted the table read to brag about book sales
03:29in my experience didn't have a great sense of humor didn't really understand a lot of uh the intention
03:36of the jokes or the sketches of the premise he also struggled with grasping the material as he did 11
03:41years prior if trump appeared to take his gentile ribbing in 2015 in good spirits it's because he
03:54privately took control of the narrative his conflicts with snl since he took office couldn't be
03:59more public they've done so much to ridicule me over the years this show has been a disaster for me
04:06look at this guy great great great great great it's me doing fantastic number 17 sam kinnison
04:14goes on a rant you're trying to do your best to fight the drug war
04:18unhinged comedy legend sam kinnison naturally pushed some buttons with his recurring stand-up
04:25routines on snl as hard as it was to separate his staged meltdowns from the impromptu some cooler
04:31commentary during a season 12 appearance was particularly rebellious kinnison advocated legalizing
04:38cannabis violating nbc's reagan era policy about only addressing illegal drugs negatively and now they
04:44want everybody to stop smoking crack you know please stop smoking crack please stop smoking
04:48crack all right we'll make a deal we'll stop smoking crack if you give us the pot
04:53the former preacher also blasted televangelist pat robertson's bid for a potentially theocratic
05:00u.s presidency yeah pat robertson wants to be in the white house a preacher in the white house i
05:06don't have enough nightmares already the loosely screened routine was censored on reruns to mitigate
05:12the backlash how did snl respond to kinnison preserving and adding heated material after
05:18rehearsal they had him host an episode a month later with more controversial jokes and a tape
05:23delay for any other live tv incidents number 16 damon wayans's self-sabotage it's no secret that
05:33damon wayans felt particularly underutilized as a featured player in season 11 of snl
05:38and what do you do for a living mr jackson well i'm an ex entertainer excuse me extraordinaire
05:46his behind the scenes conflicts eventually broke through in a spiteful act of improvisation
05:51yes we've got the whole transaction on videotape we've got three people that saw you kill that
05:57undercover cop in a mr monopoly centered police interrogation skit wayans portrayed an officer
06:03with stereotypical gay mannerisms he had not rehearsed this bit which stole the show for its
06:09complete randomness in the context of the sketch if the parker brothers could see you now they puke
06:14why you ain't in jail miss oh that's right you're mr monopoly oh nonetheless lauren michaels reportedly
06:22had his own meltdown over an actor unilaterally taking a risk way and succeeded in his objective
06:28not to stand out but to get fired he and his brothers then found a worthier platform for their
06:34off-the-wall generally more controlled antics with the sketch show in living color what courage it must
06:41have taken for little spike lee to take off them glasses and let that little hair get naughty and say
06:46hey this is me here i am see me love me number 15 red hot bombs not all feuds that went public at
06:56studio 8h started there the red hot chili peppers seminal album blood sugar sex magic was surrounded
07:12by tension between front man anthony kidis and guitarist john fruscianti this supposedly explains
07:18their would-be ruinous rendition of under the bridge on snl walk through a hill cause she knows who i am
07:28pruscianti awkwardly mangled his notes tempo and even volume while the rest of the band could barely
07:34hide their confusion and frustration kidis later claimed in the autobiography scar tissue that the
07:40guitarist intentionally botched the performance just to spite him
07:44bruscianti maintains that he was just experimenting without notifying his bandmates
07:58either way he left rhcp on bitter terms shortly after his embarrassing stunts though they eventually
08:05reconciled number 14 charles groden ruins everything i didn't know that there would be an audience here
08:20how many of you know that this is live landing renowned actor and comedian charles groden as host
08:28should have been a triumph in the early years of saturday night live unfortunately commitment to
08:34the bit isn't always the most professional route groden claimed in his monologue that he was
08:39unfamiliar with the show and missed dress rehearsal which would influence his performance throughout
08:44the episode i i haven't been around too much this week but uh i think they've got me in some crazy
08:50skits and uh while i've been here doing some promos for the show i've seen the kids uh rehearsing and
08:57uh it looks like a really cute show he chaotically improvised lines awkward deliveries
09:04forgetting material and interrupting his peers this halloween episode was a treat for the show's more
09:10maverick fans but a nasty trick on the cast and crew groden was thus banned from the show
09:15lauren this isn't going to affect my song is it i mean the bee thing ran a little long it's not going
09:21to eat into the time for my song lauren is it chuck i i'm afraid it does uh it it really looks now
09:28like the song is cut the legendary entertainer's disastrous performance may have been intentional
09:33but he probably didn't expect it to go that far
09:37oh chuck you don't even know the lyrics well i'm really i'm learning them as we're going
09:46number 13 woody harrelson's movie pitch the world seemed optimistic in early 2023 between the covid 19
09:54vaccines and the lovable woody harrelson hosting snl this is my fifth time doing snl
10:00unfortunately the actor has never been shy about his anarchist views his monologue culminated in an
10:10awkward babbling movie pitch about a cartel collective taking control of a dystopian world
10:16he was blatantly hinting at conspiracy theories about lockdown protocols and media coverage of the
10:22recent pandemic the biggest drug cartels in the world get together and buy up all the media and all
10:28the politicians and force all the people in the world to stay locked in their homes and people
10:34can only come out if they take the cartels drugs and keep taking them over and over the audience's
10:41silence was deafening until harrelson scored some uncomfortable laughs with a joke about personal
10:47substance use i mean who is going to believe that crazy idea being forced to do drugs i do that
10:55voluntarily all day long the unhinged bit was met with considerable backlash which harrelson dismissed
11:02in defense of free speech it's still a concerning reminder for the coolest public figures to be
11:08responsible about what they say number 12 elvis costello goes rogue who would have expected the
11:15iconoclastic elvis costello to be more commercially savvy than columbia records the label insisted that the
11:22english rocker's 1977 snl performance include the new single less than zero which he considered the
11:29political lyric esoteric to american audiences costello cutting off his own performance to play the then
11:35unreleased radio radio became an iconic moment
11:53the real meltdown was just off camera costello recalls a furious lorne michaels giving him the
11:59middle finger throughout the performance as if it wasn't clear by the end of the song the singer was
12:05banned from the show at least until 1989. maybe michaels would have preferred this year's girl with
12:11his policy of no surprises
12:2311. larry david walks out sometimes your big break can just break you larry david's brief tenure as an
12:31snl writer in the mid 80s was all the more high pressure for the fact that only one sketch made
12:37it to air you were a failure at saturday night live total total failure and you were there during that
12:42legendary season when it was billy crystal and martin short this led to a particularly heated confrontation with
12:49producer dick ebersole right before an episode went live david quit on the spot then got back to work
12:56at the start of the next week like nothing happened the real kramer the guy you were living with kenny
13:01kramer my next door neighbor yeah he says go back on monday and pretend like it didn't happen that's
13:07exactly what i did this ordeal wound up inspiring george costanza's storyline in the revenge the first
13:13seinfeld episode that david wrote solo am i crazy or didn't you quit what what that are you kidding
13:23i didn't quit why you took that seriously the most degrading incidents can be spun into comedy gold
13:31though this one probably convinces ebersole of david's untapped greatness
13:36a magnet for controversy country artist morgan wallen faced backlash just after barging off the
13:53snl set during the sign-off that and later posting a photo of his private jet with the caption get me to
13:59god's country this sparked speculations that wallen's folksy persona clashed with the show's
14:05definitively new york climate he explained on caleb presley's podcast sunday conversation
14:11that he was just eager to get home snl did they make you mad no no i was ready to go home i've been
14:17there all week you need to get your plane get me to god's country yeah while entertainment weekly
14:23reported that he was on good terms with the snl team but the following week they harshly spoofed the
14:29incident twice kenan thompson had himself suggested to ew that there really was tension surrounding the
14:45musical guest whoever is the problem in this situation wallen's walk-off was rude at best
14:53number nine martin lawrence gets nasty i hope the kids on bed you know because i got to talk y'all
14:59the first and last host monologue by actor comedian martin lawrence concluded with a stand-up riff on
15:06feminine hygiene you got some beautiful women but you got some out there that uh i gotta say something
15:12um some of you are not washing your properly future airings of this episode would cut him off with a
15:19statement explaining that his descriptions were too offensive to show this point in his monologue
15:24martin begins a commentary on what he considers the decline in standards of feminine hygiene in this
15:29country when the off script moment was shown live and inspired some 200 formal audience complaints
15:36the incident reportedly nearly resulted in mass firings for not stopping lawrence who was himself not
15:42just banned from snl he was banned from nbc entirely the network has since issued an apology to
15:48lawrence and reopened its doors but the show itself appears to still be haunted by the impromptu rant
15:55after all it's most important to keep your act clean on live television number eight the replacements
16:08kudos to the many rock bands that cooled down their stereotypical antics as guests of rockefeller center
16:16unfortunately the replacements had managed to get a hold of alcohol after snl invited them as a
16:22replacement for musical guest the pointer sisters they wound up breaking a guitar destroying a hotel room
16:28and forgetting lyrics
16:39most of all as far as lauren michaels was concerned frontman paul westerberg swore during the performance
16:46he was ironically able to return to the show as a solo act in 1994 but of course the band was banned as the
16:53quintessential example of going to rock and roll even for snl
17:04number seven chevy chase versus bill murray distance hasn't exactly eased tensions between chevy
17:11chase and the snl team since he left the main cast in 76. this piece is going nowhere you know what i
17:17mean no uh no finish champion would you go away his returns as host have yielded many scandals and
17:23feuds but none more notorious than his first comeback bill murray who initially replaced chase
17:28after his departure took it upon himself to burst the comeback kids movie star ego with an increasingly
17:34heated exchange of a heated exchange of insults you dirty rat you killed my brother
17:44no not ike
17:45they ultimately came to blows right before the show went live
17:48it was chase's old nemesis john belushi who broke up the fight but not the feud
17:54though it reportedly relaxed on the set of the classic caddyshack two years later
17:58chase has never lived down this one of many altercations seriously no bs you ever want to
18:05rap or anything you know just talk or just you know get weird with somebody you know buddies for
18:10life i think i'll drop by you drop by my place anytime number six fear the audience ladies and gentlemen
18:21john belushi pulled some strings to land underground punk rockers fear a halloween gig at studio 8h
18:28he had left snl years prior and seemed determined to make the producers regret trusting him
18:33shortly after fear blasted into the crass beef bologna belushi himself started a violent mosh pit
18:39that damaged the set the band further fanned the flames by punctuating the song with one of the
18:50ugliest remarks to new yorkers it's great to be in new jersey needless to say fear was banned from a show
18:57they were never meant for moreover their performance has been scrubbed from syndication
19:09belushi was reportedly spared a band through the last months of his life although many legends still
19:15surround his final blowout on snl number five rage against the machine directly there was no accusing
19:23rage against the machine of selling out when their snl episode with republican businessman steve forbes
19:29went down i'm steve forbes and i'm human that's right i am human just like you the left-wing provocateurs
19:37intended to play bowls on parade with upside down american flags over their amps which were removed
19:44just before the cameras rolled
19:56they were naturally suspicious when their second song was cut supposedly for time
20:01bassist tim cummerford responded to the news by tearing up one of the flags balling it up and throwing
20:07it at forbes's family in his dressing room the presidential candidate's secret service detail
20:13responded by detaining the band our atm was soon released never allowed to return to snl again
20:20so much for the producer's idea that political opposites would attract an audience i'd like to
20:25thank rage against the machine cast the writers the crew lauren michaels my wife sabina number four
20:32louise lasser loses her nerve i wish i could tell you we had a great show for you but i can't
20:39uh no it's not because of the show i mean the staff everyone's great it's just that i'm real tired
20:45it's believed that louise lasser was the first host to be banned from saturday night live
20:50her monologue eventually fell apart under nerves and supposedly off script remarks
21:09she then retreated to her dressing room only to be comforted by chevy chase of all people
21:14it would be years before lasser confirmed suspicions that this infamous breakdown was a staged
21:19tribute to her soap spoof mary hartman mary hartman still it's rumored that lauren michaels tried to
21:25cut the bit and that lasser was difficult to work with it's harder to excuse her awkward performance
21:31throughout the rest of the critically panned episode
21:44whether lasser was truly banned as her episode was the pressure from her life and
21:49career at the time are definite number three robert blake's rehearsal now first of all i
21:56have two very special treats for you the first one is i'm not going to do a monologue long before
22:00the scandals and disgrace prolific actor robert blake must have fancied himself above hosting saturday
22:06night live and he allegedly let the cast and crew know with his blatant lack of respect
22:13i don't work because i don't like hollywood and hollywood don't like me and you can take that to
22:18the bank am i right gang the most notorious insult came during a writer's room meeting that blake filled
22:26with tension it came to a head when he dismissed a gary kroger sketch by crumpling up the script and
22:31throwing it right in the writer's face and once again thank you very much julia for a job well done
22:39blake ultimately put on a solid show but was banned afterward his notorious attitude would eventually
22:44destroy his career altogether but he does have less flattering legacies than being one of the worst
22:50hosts snl has ever had number two the passion of sinead o'connor in one of the most controversial
22:58moments in snl history musical guest sinead o'connor did not perform a second song from her album am i
23:04not your girl everywhere is war war in the east war in the west she instead stared sang bob marley's war
23:18acapella reworking the lyrics to incorporate themes of sexual abuse she then presented her late mother's
23:24photo of pope john paul ii tore it apart and exclaimed fight the real enemy o'connor had
23:32rehearsed with a photo of a child refugee to decry social plight but she improvised this globally
23:38televised protest of the then little-known epidemic of child abuse in the catholic church despite the
23:44eventual exposure of this crisis o'connor's career was devastated by her stunt and permanent ban from nbc
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24:08number one kanye west campaigns for someone else
24:12the always unpredictable kanye west was courting political controversy when he returned to snl in
24:232018. it wasn't enough of a statement for him to wear a mega hat in solidarity with president trump
24:29while closing the episode with ghost town the broadcast cut off just as he started into a rant
24:35about black americans relationship with the democratic party and the liberals bully you
24:41and tell you what you can and cannot wear the audience booed kenan thompson compared it to a
24:46hostage situation and michael che derided west backstage and yet the internet had more to say
24:53about this incident even before the footage of it leaked west did apologize to che years later but
24:59what may be snl's most notorious on set outburst is just one of the rappers many scandals thank y'all
25:06for giving me this platform i know some of y'all don't agree what live incidents on snl are re-running
25:13in your head break them down in the comments
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