35 Years Ago: ‘SNL’ ‘Nude Beach’ Sketch Garners 46,000 Complaints

Saturday Night Live has had many controversial moments over more than four decades, but the sketch that unofficially holds the record for most complaints aired on Oct. 15, 1988. By this point, the writers at SNL were well-versed in pushing the limits of what you could say on television. The n-word and profanity had already made it onto the show, although the latter was an accident rather than a scripted scene. As much as SNL managed to get on the air, many more scandalous sketches remained on the cutting-room floor. Then NBC reduced the role of its standards and practices department in August …

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