SNL50 Referenced Saturday Night Live’s Strangest Hosting Controversy

Once someone becomes a part of the Saturday Night Live family, it takes a lot to get excommunicated. The most infamous example of a creative not being invited back to NBC’s long-running comedic institution is, of course, Sinéad O’Connor. In a 1992 episode of SNL, the Irish singer, songwriter, and activist concluded a cover of […]

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Once someone becomes a part of the Saturday Night Live family, it takes a lot to get excommunicated.

The most infamous example of a creative not being invited back to NBC’s long-running comedic institution is, of course, Sinéad O’Connor. In a 1992 episode of SNL, the Irish singer, songwriter, and activist concluded a cover of Bob Marley’s “War” by tearing a photograph of then-Pope John Paul II to pieces. Though O’Connor’s stated intention of protesting the Catholic Church’s history of physical, sexual and emotional abuse of young parishioners was well reasoned, it was perhaps too ahead of its time. She would go on to be condemned by many organizations and was ultimately banned from ever returning to SNL.

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Following O’Connor’s death in 2023, SNL began to soften its stance towards her controversial performance. The ultimate mea culpa arrived on February 16, 2025, during the show’s sprawling, three-hour-long broadcast SNL50: The Anniversary Special, in which Miley Cyrus and Brittany Howard covered O’Connor’s classic “Nothing Compares 2 U.” While that was perhaps the biggest moment of reconciliation in SNL50, there was another, far stranger, example of a banished performer getting a shout near the end of the special.

Adrien Brody was on top of the world back in May 2003 when he hosted Saturday Night Live for the first and only time. Having just won a Best Actor Oscar for his remarkable turn in The Pianist two months prior, Brody was ready and game for anything SNL could throw his way. Unfortunately, he was too ready and too game as the committed SNL creator Lorne Michaels’ cardinal sin: he went off script.

When the time came to introduce musical guest Sean Paul – usually a simple, perfunctory task for the host – Brody elected to spice things up a bit. He took the stage in a dreadlocked wig and vamped extensively in an offensive Jamaican patois about…people named Sean? And said “respeck mah neck” a couple of times? It was at least a little bit racist, a lot of bit incomprehensible, and most damningly for the live show, completely unplanned.

In recent interviews to promote The Brutalist (for which he will likely win another Oscar), Brody has pushed back against the characterization that he was banned from SNL, telling Vulture that “I think Lorne wasn’t happy with me embellishing a bit, but they allowed me to.” Ban or no ban, Brody joined the ranks of folks like O’Connor who were pointedly never invited back to Studio 8H.

Of course, important dates like anniversaries have a way of healing old wounds. Because, while Brody didn’t receive as touching a shoutout as O’Connor did in SNL50, his inexplicable Rastaman improv did make an appearance in a hilarious compilation. Introduced by Tom Hanks, SNL50: The Anniversary Special took some time out for a special “In Memorium” segment of canceled SNL characters and moments that were no longer appropriate for the modern world.

The reasoning for many of these canceled artifacts were clear from “ethnic stereotypes” to “body shaming” to “sexual harassment.” Adrien Brody’s rasta moment, however, was accompanied by a simple “woah.” All these years later, there seems no better way to describe whatever it was that was than “woah.”

The post SNL50 Referenced Saturday Night Live’s Strangest Hosting Controversy appeared first on Den of Geek.