Once someone becomes a part of the Saturday Night Live family, it takes a lot to get excommunicated.

The most infamous example of a creative not being invited back to NBC’s long-running comedic institution is, of course, Sinéad O’Connor. In a 1992 episode of SNL, the Irish singer, songwriter, and activist concluded a cover of Bob Marley’s “War” by tearing a photograph of then-Pope John Paul II to pieces. Though O’Connor’s stated intention of protesting the Catholic Church’s history of physical, sexual and emotional abuse of young parishioners was well reasoned, it was perhaps too ahead of its time. She would go on to be condemned by many organizations and was ultimately banned from ever returning to SNL.

Following O’Connor’s death in 2023, SNL began to soften its stance towards her controversial performance. The ultimate mea culpa arrived on February 16, 2025, during the show’s sprawling, three-hour-long broadcast SNL50: The Anniversary Special, in which Miley Cyrus and Brittany Howard covered O’Connor’s classic “Nothing Compares 2 U.” While that was perhaps the biggest moment of reconciliation in SNL50, there was another, far stranger, example of a banished performer getting a shout near the end of the special.

Adrien Brody was on top of the world back in May 2003 when he hosted Saturday Night Live for the first and only time. Having just won a Best Actor Oscar for his remarkable turn in The Pianist two months prior, Brody was ready and game for anything SNL could throw his way. Unfortunately, he was too ready and too game as the committed SNL creator Lorne Michaels’ cardinal sin: he went off script.