Adrian Brody’s performance on SNL was so bad that audiences thought he was banned

As far as bad “Saturday Night Live” hosts go, Adrien Brody is definitely up there. Was he as bad at the job as Steven Seagal? I suppose not, but that’s just because Tape in hell. Although he said he would love to host again, Brody seemingly killed any chance of that happening when he went off script and did an extended impression of a Jamaican man, dreadlocks included. Even by 2003 standards, this part of Brody was considered embarrassing at best. He was only supposed to introduce the week’s musical guest, a task that 99.9% of hosts accomplish without any complications; Instead, he won’t let the piece die.

I don’t know what’s worse: the fact that he did it in the first place (see below) or that he kept doing it for 40 seconds straight. This clip sparked an internet rumor that persists to this day, that Adrien Brody did this without the show’s permission, which prevented him from making any future appearances on the series.

It’s easy to see why such a rumor would spread: It lets SNL off the hook of giving the green light somewhat, explains why Brody never returned to the show despite his continued fame, and helps contribute to the growing narrative of Adrien Brody being the worst. In 2017, Brody received a lot of criticism for revealing his big, aggressive on-stage kiss to Halle Berry at the 2003 Academy Awards. It wasn’t planned Absolutely; The controversy added further credence to the idea that Brody would go off script on SNL, causing significant inconvenience and upset for the cast and crew.

In a Vulture’s latest profileBrody explained that he pitched the Jamaican part to the writers, and the SNL crew accepted it and got him his own costume. He said he did it in rehearsal without a problem before doing it live, a claim supported by fans online who Remember going to that rehearsal And with the support of the long-running podcast “That Week in SNL,” which also debunked him in 2021:

One of the longest running myths surrounding SNL is that this moment was completely unplanned and Adrian Brody was banned from the show because of it. This is all completely wrong. Adrian did exactly the same thing in training. As stupid as it is, this was supposed to happen. https://t.co/3FamROsDRE

– That Week on SNL (@ThatWeekInSNL) October 7, 2021

“I think Lorne wasn’t happy with me beautifying a little bit, but they let me do it,” Brody told Vulture. Lorne Michaels He hates improvising the showsince it’s not entirely compatible with the demands of a live sketch, so it’s easy to imagine Michaels holding a grudge toward Brody dragging the part out for a little longer than expected.

When asked about the rumors of his ban, Brody denied the rumours, but added: “I was never invited back (laughs). So I don’t know what to tell you.” Speaking about his experience on “SNL,” Brody also mentioned that he came up with a large number of promotional ideas. “They were all literally amazed that the ball was thrown,” he said. This is probably another Steven Seagal-like situation, where as bad as the sketches that aired were, we might be more forgiving if we saw all the rejected shows the writers were able to put a stop to.

Early in the next season of “SNL,” during an episode hosted by tennis player Andy Roddick, there was a sketch in which tennis legend/commentator John McEnroe analyzed how Roddick’s hosting tenure has gone so far. When asked how Roddick could screw it up, McEnroe replied that he could still “pull an Adrien Brody and start babbling in a Jamaican accent for no reason.”

It was a joke reminiscent of what SNL will do to Elon Musk in 2021, as he delivered random diatribes about how bad his episode was in the cold open of the Season 46 finale, just two weeks after Musk hosted. Considering how much “SNL” He seems to hate Musk these daysslandering a former host in an episode seems to be something a show only does when they think the host was uniquely bad. (Just like with Brody, I don’t think Musk will be hosting the party again anytime soon.)

As final evidence that Brody might be unofficially banned, there was a 2010 episode of “Watch What Happens Live” when Andy Cohen asked “SNL” alumna Tina Fey who he thought was the worst host during her time on the show. The video appears to have been completely scrubbed from the internet, although you can still find some articles from the time describing what happened: Fey insisted she couldn’t answer Cohen’s question, but then reportedly said “Adrien Brody.” To the public.

Fey also reportedly called Brody a bad host in a 2006 interview with Howard Stern. The audio of that interview also appears to have been scrubbed from the internet, but it was mentioned in Stephen Trupano’s 2013 book, “Saturday Night Live FAQ: Everything There’s Left to Know About TV’s Longest Comedy” (Which you can purchase here), besides It was summarized on a Howard Stern fan site. Tina Fey apparently remembered in 2006 that Brody had a lot of bad plot ideas, and speculated that perhaps he was angry that the writers had rejected many of them. Although the rumor of Brody being banned from “SNL” has yet to be proven, it’s pretty easy to see how it could spread.