For many comedians, getting a spot on “Saturday Night Live” (“SNL”) was a major career milestone. Conversely, some “SNL” alumni found even greater success after leaving the show. However, for a few unfortunate individuals, their stint on “SNL” left a lasting negative impact on their lives.

For these performers, a specific skit from just one episode of “SNL” derailed their careers. Just a single sketch that misses the mark can cause a career to take a sharp downturn. Some actors got fired from “SNL” and struggled to revive their careers, while others sustained serious injuries that took years to heal. One former cast member is still weary of being asked about his most noted “SNL” skit, even after 20 years. Despite their varied experiences, they all share a common thread: their time at 30 Rockefeller Plaza led to times of despair.

An instance of this is “Saturday Night Live” alumnus Chris Kattan, whose life was dramatically altered by one particular skit. Recalling Season 26’s “MSNBC Investigates,” Kattan shared in his memoir, “Baby, Don’t Hurt Me: Stories and Scars from Saturday Night Live,” that after those 45 seconds on the ‘SNL’ stage in May 2001, his body was never the same.

In this sketch, Kattan was supposed to fall backwards in his chair, but as he fell backwards he felt something snap in his neck. For months afterward, he experienced terrible chronic pain, but it wasn’t until almost a year later that he realized just how serious the injury was; he had injured his spinal cord. Yet before he could get the necessary surgeries, Kattan explained to Inside Edition, “I had to wait until after the season of SNL, because they didn’t want to miss a show.” The actor recalled that NBC agreed to pay for two out of his five surgeries but otherwise didn’t get involved, and Kattan didn’t press the matter further. He told Variety, “I didn’t want to make a fuss. They’re family, you know?” Kattan felt a need to keep his problems to himself and act like he was fine. However, in retrospect he wishes he had spoken up about it sooner.

His neck injury led to chronic pain, which in turn led to addiction to painkillers. Kattan explained that his recovery consumed so much of his life that his relationships and career suffered. Eventually, Kattan managed to get back on his feet again, but the damage done to his body was permanent. “I can do pretty much everything I used to be able to do,” he told Variety, “except there is a lot of pain involved.”

One star only appeared on “Saturday Night Live” for a single season before he made a mistake that would ruin his career. In Season 6, Episode 11, Charles Rocket let slip an F-bomb on-air, immediately joining the ranks of actors who lost it on live TV. When host Charlene Tilton asked his character how he felt after being shot, Rocket declared, “It’s the first time I’ve ever been shot in my life. I’d like to know who the f*** did it.” Thanks to this incident, Rocket was soon fired. (Though, perhaps he would have been fired sooner or later anyway, because NBC seemed set on firing and replacing the entire cast in hopes it would fix the show’s declining ratings.)

His subsequent career wasn’t too shabby. Rocket appeared in “Moonlighting,” “Earth Girls are Easy,” and “Dancing with Wolves.” However, it’s undeniable that if he had stayed on “SNL,” he would have been on track for even greater things, like his fellow “SNL” alumni Bill Murray and Eddie Murphy. Instead, the actor was relegated increasingly to guest roles and supporting characters, like the bad guy from “Dumb and Dumber.” If not for that one “SNL” skit, he might have been the star of comedies like that. He will forever be known as the guy who dropped an F-Bomb on “SNL,” something his obituary doesn’t hesitate to remind readers. Rocket’s story is even more tragic if you consider his suicide in 2005.

“SNL” cast member Norm MacDonald loved making jokes about O.J. Simpson, dropping one in his Weekend Update routine at every opportunity. Yet NBC executive Don Ohlmeyer, who happened to be friends with O.J. Simpson, did not like these jokes. Sure enough, Norm MacDonald was replaced mid-season, ousted from the Weekend Update desk by Ohlmeyer. Norm MacDonald has publicly insisted that he wasn’t fired because of his O.J. Simpson jokes. Still, many people — including the creators behind a “SNL” sketch called “Conspiracy Theory Rock” — have speculated that his behind-the-scenes drama with Ohlmeyer was a key factor in his downfall.

It’s hard to pinpoint the exact skit that ruined his career, since it’s easy to lose count of the number of times MacDonald name-dropped O.J. Simpson. But if we had to pick a single sketch that marked the beginning of the end, it would probably be the first Weekend Update routine after O.J. Simpson’s trial was over. In this sketch, MacDonald declared, “Well, it is finally official. Murder is legal in the state of California.” It marked the moment when MacDonald showed he had no intention to stop telling O.J. jokes simply because the man had been acquitted, and many believe this infuriated Ohlmeyer.

Norm MacDonald’s career was never quite the same again. The actor was contractually barred from accepting a similar role in any competing show. In fact, Ohlmeyer may have even tried to damage MacDonald’s career after he departed. Ohlmeyer reportedly blocked NBC from showing any trailers for MacDonald’s film “Dirty Work,” and this may have been one reason why “Dirty Work” bombed at the box office. Since then, Norm MacDonald mostly flew under the radar aside from his work with “SNL” co-star Adam Sandler, until he passed away from cancer in 2021.

The “SNL” sketch “More Cowbell” — in which the Season 25 cast portrays the band Blue Öyster Cult and guest star Christopher Walken plays their cowbell-obsessed producer — is one of the best “SNL” skits of all time. However, Walken’s “SNL” co-star Will Ferrell explained on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon that Walken is tired of talking about that sketch.

According to Ferrell, Walken once told him, “You know, you’ve ruined my life.” Walken was annoyed that fans kept quoting his iconic skit back at him, over and over again. For instance, Walken recalled a waiter at a restaurant asking him if he would like some “more cowbell.” In an interview for CONAN on TBS, Walken said, “It was a very good sketch … but I don’t understand why it follows me around like it does.” It had followed him as far as Singapore, to be exact. “I was in a restaurant in Singapore,” said Walken, “and the couple at the next table … at one point, the guy said to me, ‘Chris, you know, this salad needs more cowbell.'”

Will Ferrell had a pretty good guess as to why Walken was so frustrated. After all, Christopher Walken boasts an acting career that spans decades, ranging from “The Deer Hunter” to “Severance.” Despite this, Walken’s most recognizable role is the “More Cowbell” guy, a one-off comedy sketch that somehow overshadows all of his dramatic work. Of course, compared to some of the other actors on this list, we think it’s safe to say that Walken’s grievances with “SNL” are small potatoes.

Perhaps the most tragic instance of an “SNL” routine that ruined an actor’s life is the episode that aired on November 20, 1982. On this fateful episode, Andy Kaufman was voted off the show by his own audience. Early in the episode, Gary Kroeger announced that Kaufman’s future at “SNL” would be decided by the viewers, who could call one number if they wanted Kaufman to stay and call another if they wanted him to be banned from the show forever. Viewers immediately scrambled to vote.

During his tenure on “SNL,” Kaufman had become a figure of controversy, known for his eccentric sense of humor and elaborate practical jokes – even inviting women from the audience to wrestle with him onstage. Along with producer Dick Ebersol, Kaufman came up with the voting stunt, and the whole “SNL” cast went along with it, either thinking it was just a joke or thinking there was no way Kaufman could lose. They never anticipated that Kaufman would be kicked off the show by a vote of 195,544 to 169,186.

Kaufman honored the results of the vote and accepted his exile from “SNL.” However, he did later appeal for “SNL” to let him return, using his own money to purchase airtime on small TV stations to release ads where he pleaded for a second chance. One such ad was taped and shown on “SNL” after his departure, but in response the audience simply laughed. Less than two years later, Kaufman died of lung cancer at the age of 35. He never had the opportunity to appear on “SNL” again.