I’ve covered a lot of artists who have been banned from SNL including the Replacements, Rage Against
the Machine, FEAR and the temporary ban of Elvis Costello. The links to those vidoes are down
below! But today I want to talk about a more recent incident that happened in 2005 that saw
the band System of a Down anger NBC’s censors and resulting in the group being banned from the show.
2005 saw System of a Down release not one, but two albums mesmerize in may 2005 followed by
hypnotic later in may of tha tyear. To promote their first release mesmerize the band appeared
on the may 7th episode of the show with host johnny knoxville. Some episode highlights apart
from system of a down that night were that american idol judge paula abdul made a guest
appearance in the cold open and introduced system of a down’s second performance and it was jason
sudekis first appearance as a cast member and will forte’s mother appeared on weekend update.
System of a Down performed two songs that night their massive hit ‘B.Y.O.B
(Bring Your Own Bombs)’ off their new album followed by aerials off toxicity.
BYOB’s strong anti-war message against the second iraq war made the NBC censors nervous,
given how politically divisive the second iraq war was
While the song’s lyrics contain the profanity laden lyric “Where the f&&&are you?”. NBC
allowed the band to play the song with the profanity but ran the show on a five second
delay so it could be bleeped out. At this point in time SNL wasn’t running on a delay
but made an exception that night. The network was successful in bleeping out the curse words,
but it was an off the cuff moment that made it’s past NBC’s censors when guitarist Daron
Malakian walked up to the microphone and said “fuck yeah!” An NBC spokesmanEW.com
that the network has received no complaints regarding the incident, though the network
issued a statement slamming System of a Down and their management for the and i quote “unscripted
expletive” and claimed the off the cuff moment was removed from later broadcasts of the episode.
The band would never be invited again onto the show,
but in 2018 host Tina Fey covered the song chop suey during a skit.
2005 was a crazy year for tv censorship as motley crue also landed themselves in hot water with NBC.
Motley Crue Story
Today’s story is a pretty strange one. Back in 2005 Motley Crue appeared
on an American Television Network to promote their anthology album at the time. The whole appearance
ended with the band turning around and suing the television network for hurting album and concert
sales and violating their free speech rights Let’s explore what happened in today’s video.
On December 31, 2004 Jay Leno’s tonight show on nbc held a new year’s eve episode with Motley
Crue as the musical guest. The band was promoting their anthology album called Red, White and Crue.
Motley Crue performed two of their classic songs girls girls girls and dr. feelgood . During
Motley Crue’s performance of Girls Girls Girls frontman Vince Neil turned to drummer Tommy Lee
and said, used an expletive as you can see here.
Of course the Federal Communications Commission who is responsible for monitoring the broadcast
ariwaves received viewer complaints that probably could be counted on one hand. Fearing the wrath
of the federal government who could’ve fined the network or worse removed their licenses,
NBC quickly banned Motley Crue from any future appearances on the network. By this point in
time The band was already set to appear on Carson Daily’s late night show but that appearance got
cancelled. Motley Crue contended that they tried to issue a statement apologizing for the slip-up
but was blocked by NBC’s brass from doing so. While Leno’s show that night recorded
a live broadcast for the east coast where the f word was heard by viewers in that time slot,
other time zones didn’t hear the expletive as they saw a rebroadcast that was edited out.
Five months after the incident Motley Crue filed a lawsuit against NBC
seeking punitive damages for hurting the band’s record and ticket sales The lawsuit lso alleged
NBC's decision and i quote "interfered with the band's ability to secure optimal concert bookings,
sponsorships and co-branding relationships." The band would claim Vince Neil was and i quote
"caught in the exuberance of the moment" Bassist Nikki Sixx would put out a statement
around the time of the lawsuit saying"We meant no harm, but it feels that we're
being singled out unfairly," "This is a discrimination issue, pure and simple."
The lawsuit also questioned why NBC announced that Tommy Lee would appear by himself
in an upcoming television reality show called Tommy Lee goes to college despite the ban,
Motley Crue’s lawsuit alleged the network censored the group as a whole
to please the federal government so no actions would be taken against NBC
The band’s lawyers pointed to U2, System of a Down and John Mayer for having similar slip ups
but not facing the same consequences. Motley Crue’s lawyers zeroed on Bono’s acceptance
speech at the golden globe awards 2 years prior where he used the phrase “fucking brilliant”
when receiving a 2003 Golden Globe for the band’s contribution to the film Gangs of New
York. PS I’ve done a whole video on this incident it’s down in the description box
below. U2 walked away unscathed as did NBC. At the time, NBC even went to out of their
way to defend Bono for claiming the use of the f-word was and i quoe “isolated and fleeting.”.
You have to remember though that the FCC started to seriously crack down on what they
considered to be indecency after the whole Janet Jackson super bowl incident in 2004. The problem
was that the federal government didn’t have an exact definition of what constituted indecency.
Up until 2004 The rules for late night programming have always been a little looser
since it’s less likely that children would be watching. According to the FCC the f word
shouldn’t be used on radio or television programs when children would be watching or listening. The
same rule didn’t technically apply to the hours of 10pm to 6 am as the FCC typically
evaluates complaints during those hours on a case by case basis. Of course after the janet jackson
slip up any use of the f word or profanity was heavily scrutanized and considered indecent.
NBC issued the following statement responding to the lawsuit:
"To ensure compliance with its broadcast standards, NBC has the right to decide
not to invite back guests who violate those standards and use an expletive during a live
entertainment program. The lawsuit Motley Crue has filed against us is meritless."
The lawsuit would eventually be settled out of court and the ban would be
lifted years later when MotleyCrue appeared on Jimmy Fallon’s tonight show in 2015.