Adrien Brody was banned on May 10, 2003. He came out to introduce reggae musician Sean Paul, while wearing Rastafarian attire including faux dreadlocks. Without any prior notice, Brody began rambling in a Jamaican accent for close to 45 seconds before finally introducing the act incorrectly, misannouncing “Sean Paul” as “Sean John.”

Tags: 2003, Adrien Brody, Banned, May 10, Sean Paul, Wayne Wonder

Sinéad O’Connor was banned from appearing on SNL again after her peformance on October 3, 1992. In her second set of the show, she performed an a cappella version of Bob Marley’s “War”. During the word “evil”, she picked up a picture of Pope John Paul II, ripped it up, and shouted, “Fight the real enemy!” Dave Wilson immediately turned off the “applause” cue and the audience reacted with complete silence. NBC received many complaints about this within a matter of minutes. At the end of the show, host Tim Robbins, who was raised Catholic, refused to give O’Connor the customary “thanks” for being the musical guest.

To this day, NBC refuses to lend out the footage of the performance to any media outlet, and they edited out the incident from the syndicated version of the episode, replacing it with footage from the dress rehearsal taped earlier in the evening. It was finally released in 2003, with an explanation from Lorne Michaels, on Disc 4 of the Saturday Night Live - 25 Years of Music DVD set.

Tags: 1992, Banned, fight the real enemy, October 3, Sinead O'Connor

The influential alternative group The Replacements were banned from the show due to their behavior after they appeared on the show on January 18, 1986 to promote their first album with Sire Records, Tim. When it came time for them to perform their first number, “Bastards of Young,” they were intoxicated and several cast members were unsure whether they could perform. Lead singer Paul Westerberg would further aggravate circumstances when he yelled “fuck” to the crowd during “Bastards of Young”. The band went on to perform one more song, “Kiss Me on the Bus”.

Note: In subsequent rebroadcasts of this episode, the “fuck” is censored out of “Bastards of Young.” Lead singer Paul Westerberg returned as a solo musical guest and Bassist Tommy Stinson is featured on a playbill during commercial breaks during the most recent season.

Tags: 1986, Banned, January 18, The Replacements

Fear performed “I Don’t Care About You” and medley of “Beef Bologna,” “New York’s Alright If You Like Saxophones,” and “Let’s Have A War.”

Fear was banned from playing again after the 1981 Halloween episode. With Donald Pleasence as host, the band played that night by request from Fear fan John Belushi, and they proceeded to play offensive songs (”I Don’t Care About You” and “Beef Balogna” among others) and bus in “dancers”. The band also used obscene language and the dancers destroyed the set with their slam dancing onstage. The situation was out of control to the extent that the damage of studio equipment forced Dave Wilson to end the three-song performance by cutting the audio and video to a commercial as they started to play “Let’s Have a War” .

Tags: 1981, Banned, Fear, October 31

The April 14, 1979 episode of the show hosted by Milton Berle resulted in him being banned due to his habit of upstaging other performers, overacting, mugging for the camera, insertion of “classic” comedy bits and his maudlin performance of “September Song.”

Tags: Ornette Coleman, Pulitzer Prize

Frank Zappa was banned from the show after his hosting stint on October 21, 1978. His distinct sense of humor made him unpopular with the cast and crew. During his performance, he made a habit of reading cue-cards and mugging for the camera, and many cast members deliberately stood far from him during the goodnights.

Tags: 1978, Banned, Frank Zappa, host and musical guest, October 21