Anything can happen on live TV, and some of the most memorable, “What the hell?” moments in “Saturday Night Live”s 50-year history including a lip-sync screwup, political statements and even a host doing bizarre dancehall reggae cosplay.
Here’s some of the most talked-about performances that did not go on as planned:
Sinéad O’Conner, 1992
The Irish singer was booed — and subsequently banned — after tearing up a picture of the then pontiff, Pope John Paul II, and saying, “Fight the real enemy.” Audiences might not have realized exactly what she was protesting, but she was calling out the entire Catholic Church for its long, shameful history of covering up sexual abuse by priests.