25 Times a ‘Saturday Night Live’ Guest Blew Their Performance

Perhaps no American television show attracts more gossip and lore than Saturday Night Live, which originally premiered on Oct. 11, 1975, under the name Saturday Night.

Since the show first aired almost a half-century ago, it has paraded over 500 hosts and 600 musical guests across its historic Studio 8H stage. From presidential candidates to rock stars to Olympic medalists, the skit-based program has given a multitude of public figures the opportunity to test their comedic and musical chops for the American public in real time. Famously broadcast live, there is little ability to edit or quality-control a guest’s performance. For better or worse, whatever happens on stage on Saturday night is what audiences will see, which has led to plenty of unexpected mistakes and sometimes even shocking conduct.

Stacker compiled a list of 25 guests—hosts and musical talents alike—whose appearances on the show were so controversial that they were never invited back, citing news and entertainment reports.

It is impossible to get inside storied producer Lorne Michaels’ head, and many of the politics of SNL remain under tight-lipped rumors, so several of these incidents are based on conjecture. But it is certainly telling that after these incidents, these guests either never appeared on the show again or went through long periods without making another appearance.

Read on to hear about some of the show’s most jaw-dropping moments.