Shannon Carlin in Time Magazine:
Over the last 50 years, Saturday Night Live has been no stranger to controversy. Sometimes, the late night show courts it, like in the case of Chevy Chase, who purposely said the N-word live on air during SNL’s debut season. Other times, a backlash may spring up without warning. For example, Sinead O’Connor’s infamous protest against the Catholic Church took even the show’s creator Lorne Michaels, who notoriously hates surprises, off guard. As you’ll see, musicians have a way of stirring up trouble when they perform live from New York.
The most controversial moments in SNL history are those that get a rise out of people, even if they seem a bit quaint by today’s scandal standards. Believe us, Ashlee Simpson’s lip-sync disaster caused quite a stir at the time. But other moments, like Alec Baldwin upsetting the Boy Scouts of America or Wayne’s World mocking then First Daughter Chelsea Clinton, still feel as if they would, for better or worse, spark a lively debate in our social media age.
More here.
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