02-04-2025
Justin Bieber's Relentless Entourage, Adrien Brody's Dreadlock Fiasco, And 9 More Times Celebrities Were Rude, Offensive, Or Disrespectful On 'Saturday Night Live'
No matter your opinions on Saturday Night Live, it's pretty undeniable that having a fully live show every week is an impressive feat. And this is definitely due to the cast and crew's hectic but effective work schedule, with the whole thing being overseen by head producer Lorne Michaels, who has been running the show since its inception in 1975. But despite its magnitude and place in the culture, it definitely does not always go off without a hitch — and this is often due to the celebrity guests.
After last Saturday, when musical guest Morgan Wallen sparked a ton of backlash for walking offstage during the credits (very unusual for SNL), I thought it'd be worth looking back on some more stars who made waves for their behavior when on the show. So, I've rounded up 11 celebrity guests on SNL who were accused of being disrespectful, offensive, or just plain rude. Let's jump in!
1. Chevy Chase
Now, if you know anything about the Foul Play star and SNL cast alumnus Chevy Chase, this one's definitely not surprising, given a series of super controversial incidents that occurred while he was still a regular player, including when he said the n-word in a 1975 word association skit. Despite his contentious reputation, however, Chevy was invited back to host the show eight times. This resulted in even more shocking moments that would eventually lead to Lorne Michaels, SNL 's producer, never inviting the former Weekend Update anchor to return as host after the late '90s.
Chevy's first time hosting the show was in 1978, and the episode was reportedly preceded by a fistfight breaking out backstage between Chevy and cast member Bill Murray. On another occasion, he reportedly made some pretty disgusting homophobic comments to Terry Sweeney, the only openly gay cast member in 1985. However, the final incident was in 1997 when he slapped cast member Cheri Oteri on the back of the head during rehearsals. Will Ferrell, a cast member at the time, reported the incident to Lorne, and Chevy never returned to host again.
2. Paris Hilton
This one surprised the SNL crew at the time, as head writer at the time Tina Fey has said that they invited Paris on to host in 2005 because they thought 'maybe she'll be fun.' But according to Tina (who made some pretty offensive and transphobic remarks about Paris on The Howard Stern Show in 2006), Paris 'took herself super seriously,' refused to do sketches, and 'wouldn't come out of her dressing room.' And while Tina's comments about Paris's hair extensions do reek of early 2000s internalized misogyny, it sounds like Paris was definitely not the ideal host to work with.
3. Sinéad O'Connor
NBC
Sinéad is our first musical guest on the list. Her actions during her performance led to her reportedly being iced out by the host on the night, Tim Robbins. If you don't remember, the 1992 performance featured Sinéad changing the lyrics of Bob Marley's 'War' to protest against the Catholic Church's sexual abuse scandal. The Irish singer even ripped a photo of Pope John Paul II in half as part of her protest. The incident was condemned as offensive by many Catholic viewers, and Sinéad was never invited back.
4. Justin Bieber
Back in 2013, Justin was invited onto the show as both the host and the musical guest, but as recounted by Bill Hader, the star's time in rehearsals didn't go as planned. According to Bill, Justin had an entourage of people so big that it was almost impossible to collaborate with the star for sketches and rehearsals, which resulted in a less than stellar final episode, as deemed by many viewers.
5. Donald Trump
The current president's hosting experience was undoubtedly controversial, as he appeared on the show in 2015 after announcing his presidential campaign. Many cast and crew on the show expressed discontent with the decision to bring Trump onto the show during his heavily criticized campaign, due to his offensive comments about women, immigrants, and the LGBTQIA+ community. Former SNL writer Michael Schur stated that allowing Trump as a host was a 'critical error' on the show's part.
6. Shane Gillis
One of the more recent controversies on our list, comedian Shane Gillis was invited to host the show in February 2024. However, if you think back to 2019, you might remember that Shane was initially hired as a regular player on SNL 's cast. But before he could take the stage, he was terminated after a series of offensive jokes targeting women, minorities, and the LGBTQIA+ community resurfaced and led to outrage over his casting. He was then invited back to host the show in 2024, and again in 2025, and both times he hosted, his monologue definitely didn't shy away from a couple more controversial jokes.
7. Kanye West
NBC / NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images
This one's hard to forget. Back in 2018, Ye made headlines after he was featured as the musical guest on the show and went on an unplanned pro-Trump rant while wearing a MAGA hat. The speech was cut off by the show's allocated run time, but host Adam Driver could be seen looking super uncomfortable in the background. Cast member Kenan Thompson later said that the moment felt like being 'held hostage,' as Kanye talked about his own plans to run for president in 2020.
8. Rage Against the Machine
In fairness, what did Lorne expect when he invited famously anti-establishment band Rage Against the Machine alongside host Steve Forbes in 1996, a notorious billionaire and former Republican presidential candidate? The band members were kicked out of the building after they attempted to hang upside-down American flags in protest, and then, after they had the flags removed, they threw the cloth fragments of ripped flags at Steve and his entourage. The band has not been invited back to the show since, but to many viewers their behavior seemed pretty par for the course.
9. Adrien Brody
NBC
Remember this one? Lorne certainly does. Back in 2003, Adrien infamously shocked the cast and crew with a surprise impression that came across as pretty crude, due to his dreadlock wig and speaking in attempted Jamaican Patois. The worst part? He decided to debut his new 'character' while he was introducing Jamaican singer Sean Paul. Yiiiiiikes.
10. Elon Musk
Well, duh. After Elon was invited to host in 2021, there was a notable controversy in which cast member Chloe Fineman revealed that he had made her 'burst into tears' due to his rude behavior toward her backstage. 'I was so excited, I came in, I asked if you had any questions,' Chloe explained, directing her comments at Elon. 'You stared at me like you were firing me from Tesla and were like: 'It's not funny.'' She went on to describe how Elon went through her draft line by line and told her how unfunny it was. Later, after Elon's super controversial salute, Chloe revealed that she did not regret calling him out on his actions at all.
11. Morgan Wallen
NBC / Will Heath/NBC via Getty Images
And finally, our most recent contender. On Saturday, the country singer made headlines after he was the episode's musical guest, but decided to forgo the usual hugs and pleasantries with the cast during the credits. He later posted an Instagram story that showed a jet, captioned 'Get me to God's country,' which stirred a LOT of discourse on social media. In a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, cast member Kenan voiced his perspective on the incident, confirming that he 'definitely saw' Morgan skedaddle off set. 'I don't know what goes through people's minds when they decide to do stuff like that,' Kenan said. 'I don't know if he understood the assignment or not, or if he was really feeling a certain kind of way.' He called it a 'spike in the norm,' and then mused that Morgan 'seems like a complicated individual.' Which is a very forgiving way to put it, I think.
