Saturday Night Live is one of the most
prestigious comedy shows in history as a
late-night institution that's been
running for more than 40 years it's
launched the careers of some of the
biggest stars of movies and television
and resulted in several silver screen
adaptations of its character list but
even though they may be some of the
funniest and talented people in the
business SNL cast members are still just
people which means they're prone to the
same scandal scouts some ideas and
tragedies as the rest of us here are
some of the darker moments in the lives
of SNL cast members from funny to
fisticuffs Wyatt Cenac first got his
start as an intern for Saturday Night
Live in the mid 90s where he spent a lot
of time behind the scenes with noir
MacDonald it may have been a great
learning experience for him but things
got carried away when cenic angered his
mentor while playing soccer in a hallway
of SML production offices as he told
Stephen Colbert and at some point norm
and I got into a bit of a scrum for the
ball and I wound up clipping him in the
shin McDonald's response to the
accidental flight was excessive to say
the least and grabbed me and tried to
throw me across the room which is not
how soccer is played clearly it wasn't
all fun and games on the set of SNL talk
about a cheap shot no punch line after
rocketing to fame as part of the SNL
cast in the early 80s Eddie Murphy
earned top billing in comedy classics
like Trading Places Beverly Hills Cop
and coming to America I am a keen it's
nice to meet you a team I have recently
placed in charge of garbage over the
years however Murphy's personal life
became more publicized for all the wrong
reasons
in 1997 Murphy was busted by police in a
West Hollywood location that was known
for being a hot spot for prostitution he
wasn't charged with any crimes but still
looks pretty suspicious that he had a
known prostitute in his car and as you
can tell from those headlines the press
had a field day it may not have been a
career killer but the incident was still
an embarrassment for the actor look
children it's a falling star Make A Wish
yeah
that's right getting clean chris farley
one of the all-time SNL greats
tragically passed away at the young age
of 33 in December of 1997 he starred in
just a handful of movies like Tommy Boy
and black sheep before he lost his long
difficult struggle with addictions but
the actor tried hard to beat his
chemical dependencies even a few knew of
his personal battles in the last two
years of his life Farley went through
drug rehabilitation programs no less
than 17 times
tragically none of those efforts
prevented his passing which was found to
stem from an overdose of morphine and
cocaine stepping out shortly after Chris
Rock's regular stint on SNL ended in
1994 he met Malek Compton and the two
were Wed just two years later it
appeared that they had one of the more
stable marriages in Hollywood where it's
something as an accurate cliche that
relationships don't seem to last very
long and rocks toast SNL career rapidly
rose thanks to his popular stand-up sets
and big screen appearances so it was a
little shocking then when the pair who
had two daughters together got divorced
in 2016 but maybe it shouldn't have been
such a surprising separation those two
decades together may not have been as
little as they seemed from the outside
in 1998 the couple separated and during
their off time Roffe reportedly hooked
up with a model named Monica Sabritas
who later had a child she claimed was
rocks a DNA test proved Rock wasn't the
father Butz agreed to later filed a
report with the Los Angeles Police
Department that claimed the sexual
encounter was actually sexual assault no
charges were filed against Rock the
comedian's reputation took a hit as a
result of the controversy he's also
since admitted he had trouble remaining
faithful to his wife during the course
of their time together telling Rolling
Stone of his rumored tryst I was a piece
of viral shaming Tim Meadows was an SNL
star wore throughout the 90s with his
Leon Phelps the ladies man character
earning his own spin-off film while that
character very much loved women an
ex-girlfriend of Meadows revealed that
the actor may not have been such a great
boyfriend in 2016 a woman named Lindsay
Lee called the actor out on Twitter
claiming he poured his heart out and
then ghosted her with pictures to prove
their own Mantic history together
the ladies man might have had his own
moments of questionable romantic
behaviour but who know Meadows could be
just as shady in real life listen I
could really use that drink now all
right that's nice I got everything of
the glass
the joke thief jaemor got his big break
when he was cast as a featured player on
SML in 1993 but more have trouble
differentiating himself in SML
high-pressure environment and he
struggled to get his sketches into the
show in his 2004 memoir about SML titled
appropriately enough gasping for air
time Moore admitted that in desperation
he stole a routine from a well-known
stand-up comedian turned it into a
sketch in got it on the air before long
SNL higher-ups found out that more
sketch about a bar called O'Callahan &
Sons was nearly identical to comedian
Rick Shapiro's Irish bartender routine
welcome to Kelleys welcome to cutting
Micheli what's the matter too much I
seen you drink Oh give me that drink
yes not to drink anymore you're not
accustomed anymore I don't like him to
get out what more was let go at the end
of the season hidden health woes Chris
Kattan has kept a relatively low profile
since leaving SNL in 2003 he did pop up
to co-star on ABC's the middle for a few
episodes and competed on Dancing with
the Stars but otherwise he's remained
firmly planted outside of the spotlight
and for good reason while doing press
for Dancing with the Stars
Kattan revealed that nearly fifteen
years earlier he broke his neck in what
he would only refer to as a something
that precluded him from doing physical
comedy ever again what about something
that's gonna be bad yeah I'm strong like
they're an you're an antelope yeah you
have an answer small but yeah look at
him he's carrying a three he's had four
surgeries to attempt to correct those
problems including one in his throat and
one on his back but catan kept a
struggle secret because he worried
having a physical drawback would cost
him roles self-abuse Darrell Hammond is
arguably one of the best celebrity
impressionist SNL has ever had in its
cast turning in uncannily accurate
impressions over the years ah
I'm bulletproof next time you best bring
kryptonite but for as much joy as he
brought SML viewers and his 14 seasons
on the show Hammond has struggled with
the dual miseries of addiction and
self-harm all the while in his harrowing
2011 memoir God if you're not up there
I'm hammered wrote of the extensive
abusive mother dished out revealing that
she hit him stabbed him and tortured him
the comedian has been in therapy since
age 19 but it wasn't a cure-all he self
medicated and would cut himself
backstage at SNL without the knowledge
of his co-stars Hammond told NPR most of
the time it was really manageable but it
sometimes got a little messy Hammond
revealed that he has since opted to help
he needed by checking himself into a New
York psychiatric hospital a tragic
unions Fred Armisen and Elisabeth Moss
met while doing Saturday Night Live in
2008 Armisen was a cast member while
moss did a cameo on an episode hosted by
her Mad Men co-star Jon Hamm just a few
months later they were married but there
was no happily ever after for these two
the marriage lasted just eight months
the forma filed for divorce Maas later
revealed the cause of their sudden split
telling New York magazine that her
marriage to Armisen was extremely
traumatic and awful and horrible I'm
glad that it didn't happen when I was 50
I'm glad I didn't have kids Armisen also
assigned himself the book of the blame
for the ill-fated honeymoon saying he
was heartbroken at himself for not
putting enough work into it he also
blamed intimacy issues and infidelity
which had affected some of his previous
relationships questionable tweets one of
the newest additions of the cast of
Saturday Night Live with Melissa
Villasenor a gifted impressionist who
ever want to just jump in and go for it
Kathy Griffin as a penguin okay so
here's the deal I just hang out my igloo
I've got a few more rows over yesterday
the Ascend yours the first Latina cast
member in SNL history which was a win
for diversity on the other hand though
her sudden rise to the preeminent comedy
show wasn't without controversy she was
discovered to have thoroughly scrubbed
her Twitter account and deleted around
2000 tweets one look at archives of the
deleted tweets and it was clear why they
were taken down many of them were jokes
but they were often tasteless and
sometimes even racist the tough guy on
screen Chevy Chase has usually played
charmingly smug and slightly aloof guys
well we could take a walk and you could
kiss me on the veranda
let's would be fine off-screen he's
earned a reputation of someone who can
be pretty mean and nasty to coworkers
when he returned to Saturday Night Live
to host in 1985 he pitched an appalling
idea to cast member Terry Sweeney the
show's first openly gay performer
according to Sweeney chase said I've got
an idea for a sketch for you how about
we say you have AIDS and we weigh you
every week chase was forced to apologise
for his offensive remark but was
ultimately invited back to host again it
wasn't the last time chase would be ding
for bad behavior on a show set after
joining the cast of community in 2009 he
often clash with showrunner Dan Harmon
over the direction of chases character
Pierce Hawthorne reports flew that Chase
would frequently leave the set before
episodes were finished taping and Harmon
told The Hollywood Reporter that Chase
was especially worried about being
portrayed as a befuddled old man who
wasn't sexy at one point she slept a
series of furious 4 family related
messages on Harmons voicemail which
Harmon played out loud during his live
show harmontown the ongoing feud and
those incidents in particular let's
chase deleting the show in the middle of
its fourth season sorry not sorry
Weekend Update co-anchor and stand-up
comedian Michael che may deliver cutting
insightful jokes on a regular basis but
he was accused of being not so sensitive
in 2014 it started when a viral video
about catcalling showed a woman
bombarded with more than 100 instances
of men shouting unwanted comments at her
she offered up his own unusual
perspective on the matter writing I want
to apologize to all the women that I've
harassed with statements like hi or have
a nice day or you're beautiful I can't
imagine what that must feel like
the closest thing I've experienced is
maybe when a girl recognizes me from TV
when people begin angrily replying to
che he tried to explain himself by
saying I think some of you are
misunderstanding that post I'm simply
just making fun of something that is
important to a lot of people but he
didn't stand by that apology and
ultimately deleted it replacing it with
a note that read I want to apologize for
my last apology sometimes I forget that
I belong to all of you now and that any
thought I have should be filtered
through you and receive your approval
it's tough because I'm used to taking
risks and finding humor in places of
discomfort but that's all over because I
have a job on TV in other words che
might have been okay with women being
shouted at dozens of times a day but a
few too many chirps from the Twitter
Birds in his direction was no laughing
matter
the irony jokes write themselves with
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