Saturday Night Live never ceases to grab headlines. Whether it's the controversial skits, questionable jokes, A-list musical guests, or the choice of host for any given episode, there's always something to talk about. Currently, it's the latter. The show recently announced that billionaire businesswoman and reality TV star Kim Kardashian will be hosting on October 9, and people are absolutely up in arms about it. To be honest, we think it might be kind of fun to watch her run the show.
But some SNL fans aren't so keen on the idea, which got us thinking about all of the other controversial hosts that the long-running sketch comedy show has enlisted throughout the years. And yeah, there are some real doozies in there. The show's been on the air since 1975, after all, so there were bound to be a few odd choices through the years.
From an eccentric tech mogul to a cheating athlete, some SNL hosts seem to have been chosen just because they would get people talking — for better or worse. Others looked like a good choice initially but totally bombed during the live show. If you need a bit of a refresher, keep scrolling to see some of the most controversial SNL hosts of all time.
Frank Zappa
Not everyone can pull off improv — and that proved to be exactly the case when musician Frank Zappa was enlisted in 1978 to not only perform on SNL but host the same episode. He reportedly sabotaged the show by breaking character on purpose, leaving fans and producers quite upset about his performance.
Milton Berle
Comedian Milton Berle was evidently not too happy with the material he was given as host in 1979, so he decided to take over the entire episode. He didn't just improvise; he went completely off-script and made up his own routines as he went. Producers were not happy, and he was banned from the show. The episode wasn't re-aired until 2003.
Andrew Dice Clay
Pretty much everything comedian Andrew Dice Clay says and does invites controversy — and always has. It was no different when he hosted SNL in 1990 and cast member Nora Dunn refused to work with him. He was a divisive figure for audiences due to his crude humor and insulting jokes against women and the LGBTQ community.
George Steinbrenner
The largely working class people who make up SNL's fan base had no interest in seeing wealthy New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner on the show as host back in 1990. Not only that, he was known to have been a bully, and late night host Conan O'Brien has said that he wasn't cooperative on set either.
Steven Seagal
Perhaps unsurprisingly, action star Steven Seagal was absolutely terrible on SNL in 1991. He's not a particularly good actor, and he's definitely not known for comedy, so we can only imagine how it went. And that's all we'll be able to do, because evidently it was so awful that NBC has removed all clips of his episode online (and it's not available to stream either).
Martin Lawrence
True to form, comedian Martin Lawrence's stint as host in 1994 was totally over the top and his jokes were super inappropriate. Apparently, he decided to poke fun at feminine hygiene and got called out for it in a big way. People even claimed he was banned from the show after his performance, but he later refuted that, saying it was actually an NBC ban and that the network has since apologized to him.
Deion Sanders
That's right, we're talking about retired NFL player Deion Sanders. Despite his popularity at the time, he was a weird choice to host SNL in 1995. It only got stranger when he appeared to be having zero fun during the show and insisted on performing two rap songs from his ill-fated album that came out the same year.
Rudy Giuliani
This one really didn't go so well, and now all these years later, we can't help but wonder why anyone thought having the former New York mayor host the show in 1997 was a good idea. He's not even remotely funny or entertaining in any way, and he was widely considered by fans to be one of the worst hosts ever. Nevertheless, he was invited to host again in 2001 in the wake of 9/11. Not so tasteful if you ask us. Rudy made a third appearance in 2008.
Adrien Brody
Actor Adrien Brody really put his foot in his mouth when he hosted SNL in 2003. For some unknown reason, he improvised a racist joke during his introduction of Jamaican rapper Sean Paul by donning a dreadlocks wig and using a mock Jamaican accent. People were not amused, and he was never invited back.
Lindsay Lohan
When Lindsay Lohan hosted at the peak of her career in 2004, it went fine, as did her hosting stints in 2005 and 2006. But people weren't too happy when she was enlisted to host again in 2012. At that point, she had become quite a controversial figure, and no one really cared to see her. She wasn't working on interesting projects and had destroyed her wholesome, child star image, leaving longtime fans a little turned off.
Lance Armstrong
Former pro cyclist Lance Armstrong's reputation was also pretty much entirely destroyed by the time he hosted SNL in 2005. At that time, he was in hot water over the massive doping allegations brought to light by a French newspaper. But he still had the nerve to make a joke about his cheating ways in his opening monologue. And unsurprisingly, it landed like a lead balloon.
Donald Trump
You would think that the execs at SNL would have learned that politicians don't make great hosts after all the Giuliani backlash, but they still prioritized timeliness when they had former president Donald Trump host in 2015 (who at the time was in the midst of his 2016 presidential campaign). Trump was looked at as more of a joke back then, but those who took his election bid more seriously had the foresight to recognize that having him on the show was a bad idea. Hundreds of people marched outside of the studio, protesting his appearance.
Bill Burr
Comedian Bill Burr seemed like a rather innocuous host choice for SNL in 2020. Definitely not the most interesting, but at the time the show had just returned amid the global health crisis and was struggling to find guests who could adhere to its strict safety protocols. But things turned sideways when Bill decided to use his opening monologue to insult women and gripe about cancel culture. It was a weird move at a weird time.
Elon Musk
Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk may be a genius and a billionaire, but he's just not funny. Not only that, but we've already established that people don't want to see guys of his ilk hosting SNL. In this day and age, not even the cast members were keen to have Elon on the show in 2021, and though their disparaging social media posts have since been deleted, both Bowen Yang and Andrew Dismukes spoke out about their disapproval.
Kim Kardashian
Kim Kardashian thrives amid controversy, so she's probably completely unbothered by some fans' gripes about her hosting gig on October 9. The main complaint? She's just not funny. We happen to disagree — she made us laugh plenty of times on Keeping Up With the Kardashians — but we do agree that she may not be all that convincing in a scripted skit. Funnywoman Debra Messing added fuel to the fire when she tweeted about not understanding the choice.
