As a live sketch comedy show, NBC's Saturday Night Live (officially abbreviated to SNL) has been the subject of numerous controversies and incidents since its inception in 1975. These have included controversial performers and content, technical problems, profanities (both intentional and accidental), and joke plagiarism accusations.

Several hosts and musical guests have received negative press due to their appearances on the program, including musician Sinéad O'Connor, comedian Andrew Dice Clay, and the bands Rage Against the Machine and Fear. These controversies have sometimes led to protests and picketing outside SNLs 30 Rockefeller Plaza production location, such as in the case of then-presidential candidate Donald Trump hosting the show in 2015. Frequently, controversial content and mishaps are edited out of syndicated reruns and online-distributed editions of the show. Some of these performers have been reportedly banned from appearing again by executive producer Lorne Michaels, such as Martin Lawrence and Steven Seagal.

Controversial hosts

Richard Pryor

On December 13, 1975, the show's seventh episode, hosted by comedian Richard Pryor, SNL was ordered by NBC network officials to run the episode on a five-second tape delay. The show's previous six episodes had all aired live on the East Coast.

NBC officials had expressed concerns about Pryor's content, and the possibility of profanity, prior to the broadcast. He was initially disallowed as host entirely, until executive producer Lorne Michaels threatened to walk off the show in protest. Officials then pushed for a ten-second delay, which Michaels negotiated down to five seconds. Pryor, as the first person of color to host the show, found the delay to be an insult (only finding out after the broadcast), and objected to being treated differently than other white comedians had been.

Dave Wilson, SNLs long-time director, later said that the show was in fact broadcast live, as his crew did not know how to work the delay. However, the first edition of The Book of Lists, describing the broadcast, indicated that two words were deleted from the broadcast during Pryor's opening monologue, although what was censored is not specified. NBC reportedly re-engineered their taping machines of the time to create the delay, so that the show would be taped on one machine, and then entirely transferred to another machine for the broadcast.

A sketch from this episode featuring Pryor and cast member Chevy Chase, "Word Association", in which Chase uses the word "nigger", is considered one of the most famous SNL sketches of all time. SNL only used a tape delay two more times in its history following this episode; once for a 1986 episode hosted by Sam Kinison, and again for a 1990 episode hosted by Andrew Dice Clay.

Andrew Dice Clay When Andrew Dice Clay was scheduled as a host for the May 12, 1990 episode, cast member Nora Dunn immediately announced to the press that she was boycotting the show in protest. She stated the protest was in view of Clay's perceivably misogynistic act, and she announced her refusal to appear on the program without informing Michaels, the cast, or most of the crew about her intent. The public backlash against his being asked to host the program was immediate; the selection of Clay was compared to the Holocaust by an audience member during an interview with Michaels. Female members of the cast and crew were harassed by phone and mail for sticking with the show, and metal detectors were installed at the studio to enhance security. NBC censors insisted that the episode be aired with a delay to compensate for anything Clay might say on air. During the live show, some audience members heckled Clay but were immediately removed by the increased security detail. Dunn's contract was already coming to an end, and with one episode left in the season, the staff voted against having her take part in the final episode of the season, and her contract was not renewed. Dunn later expressed her surprise at the lack of support she received from her colleagues in her refusal to participate.

Sinéad O'Connor was scheduled to be the musical guest for the episode, but she also boycotted the show because of Clay's involvement, forcing the producers to find two musical replacements, with one performance by Julee Cruise and a second by Spanic Boys.

Donald Trump

Donald Trump's second hosting appearance, in the midst of his 2016 presidential campaign, courted controversy and protests. Latino advocacy groups pressed NBC to cancel Trump's appearance, due to his remarks on Mexican immigration, while protestors picketed Trump Tower and 30 Rockefeller Plaza in the days preceding and of the show, holding "DUMP TRUMP" signs. That group created a petition to cancel Trump's hosting with over 500,000 signatures, delivering it to Michaels and NBCUniversal Chief Executive Steve Burke. The Congressional Hispanic Caucus issued a "statement of opposition" to Trump's appearance. The group DeportRacism.com offered $5,000 in cash to any audience member that would heckle Trump and call him a racist during his monologue.

The show aired on November 7, 2015, and due to the equal-time rule, Trump only appeared for a total of twelve minutes. The notion of heckling was referenced in the show, when Larry David (who had guested earlier in the evening to play politician Bernie Sanders) called Trump a racist, but only to secure the $5,000. In the end, the episode received 9.3 million viewers—the program's highest ratings in nearly four years—but was panned by critics. NBC subsequently offered free airtime to Republican candidates who filed equal time requests.

Elon Musk Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk hosted the May 8, 2021 episode of Saturday Night Live with musical guest Miley Cyrus. The announcement received major criticism and backlash due to Musk's reputedly unlikeable personality and problematic history, with some questioning why Musk was chosen in the first place instead of having Cyrus pull double duty for the third time. Some cast members—Aidy Bryant, Michael Che, Andrew Dismukes, and Bowen Yang—have voiced their opinions about the choice of Musk via Instagram stories. Che and Dismukes joked about the controversy; while Che responded to an angry tweet made by actor John Cusack by confusing him with his sister Joan Cusack, but elsewhere stated "To me, it makes it exciting, I mean, everybody wants to watch now, so that's cool". Bryant and Yang, however, were straightforward with their opinions, with Bryant posting a tweet made by Bernie Sanders about wealthy people such as Musk earning more than the American people during the pandemic, and Yang posted a shocked emoji and a response to a cryptic tweet made by Musk about his hosting gig with Yang saying "what the fuck does this even mean?" Some critics on Twitter claimed this booking was similar to the Donald Trump/Sia episode and blamed Lorne Michaels for making this decision.

Woody Harrelson In his opening monologue on February 25, 2023, Woody Harrelson likened public health measures during the COVID-19 pandemic to the actions of a drug cartel, saying:

Harrelson was criticized for his remarks by a number of individuals who saw the monologue, including Matt Wilstein of The Daily Beast who remarked that it "turns out there may have been a reason the rest of the Five-Timers weren’t there to welcome him into their club." However, the monologue was praised by Twitter CEO and owner (and fellow Saturday Night Live host) Elon Musk, who quote tweeted video from it with a statement reading “So based. Nice work.”

Controversial musical guests

Fear In 1981, director Penelope Spheeris made a film titled The Decline of Western Civilization; the film featured an appearance by the punk rock group Fear. This appearance in particular caught the attention of former cast member John Belushi, who lobbied successfully to get the band a spot as a musical guest on the 1981 Halloween episode of SNL. Belushi had originally offered Fear the soundtrack for his major motion picture Neighbors. The film's producers eventually forced Fear off the project, and Belushi got them the infamous SNL gig as compensation. The band's appearance included a group of slam dancers, among them Belushi, Ian MacKaye of Minor Threat (and later Fugazi), Tesco Vee of The Meatmen, Harley Flanagan and John Joseph of the Cro-Mags, and John Brannon of Negative Approach. The show's director, Dave Wilson, originally wanted to prevent the dancers from participating, so Belushi offered to be in the episode if the dancers were allowed to stay. The result was the shortening of Fear's appearance on TV. Frontman Lee Ving started the band's second song by stating, "It's great to be in New Jersey", drawing boos from SNLs New York live audience. Fear played "I Don't Care About You", "Beef Bologna", "New York's Alright If You Like Saxophones", and started to play "Let's Have a War" when the telecast faded into commercial. The slam dancers left ripe pumpkin remains on the set. Cameras, a piano, and other property were damaged in a situation that was close to a stage riot.

After their SNL appearance, which reportedly resulted in $20,000 in damage, some clubs chose not to hire the band. A New York Post article later reported the figure to be $500,000. This is believed to have originated from Ving, who told the Post that "...we caused $500,000 worth of damage, a cool half a million dollars worth of damage, ‘cause we’re professionals, and I counted the damage myself." However, in a more recent interview, Hal Willner stated that the band did not cause any damage to the set, that reports of a riot were overblown, and that the band 'were totally nice people and acted totally professionally'.

Since this incident, Fear has not appeared on Saturday Night Live again. Sinéad O'Connor

On October 3, 1992, O'Connor was scheduled to appear, performing an a cappella performance of Bob Marley's "War". During the dress rehearsal of the episode, O'Connor held up a photo of a Balkan child as a protest of child abuse in war before bowing and leaving the stage, which the episode's director Dave Wilson described as a "very tender moment". During the live show, O'Connor changed the "War" lyric "fight racial injustice" to "fight child abuse" as a protest against the then still relatively unknown cases of sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church. She presented a photo of Pope John Paul II while singing the word "evil", before tearing the image into pieces and saying "Fight the real enemy!"

NBC had no foreknowledge of O'Connor's plan, and Wilson purposely failed to use the "applause" button, leaving the audience to sit in silence. Tim Robbins, who was the host for that episode and was raised as a devout Catholic, refused to acknowledge O'Connor at the end of the show. NBC received thousands of irate calls in the aftermath of the incident, and protests against O'Connor occurred outside of 30 Rockefeller Plaza, where a steamroller crushed dozens of her tapes, CDs, and LPs. In the following weeks on SNL, Catholic guests Joe Pesci and Madonna both voiced their opposition to O'Connor. The show also aired several sketches mocking O'Connor. She never appeared on Saturday Night Live again prior to her death on July 26, 2023. The incident occurred a full nine years before John Paul II, in a 2001 apology, acknowledged that the sexual abuse within the Church was "a profound contradiction of the teaching and witness of Jesus Christ", followed in 2008 by Pope Benedict XVI apologizing and meeting with victims, speaking of his "shame" at the evil of abuse, calling for perpetrators to be brought to justice, and denouncing mishandling by church authorities.Pope Deeply Sorry for Child Abuse; www.abc.net.au; July 19, 2008Pope's Apology: 'You have suffered grievously and I am truly sorry'; The Telegraph; March 20, 2010