Martin Lawrence Tells Why He “Don’t Give A Damn” That NBC Banned Him
Martin Lawrence, as we all know, is a helluva comedian. Behind the scenes, he’s also one to stand behind what he believes…that was apparent when he found out that NBC had completely banned him from appearing on their network following one of his raunchy sets on “Saturday Night Live” back in the day. You see, it all started with the topic of women’s hygiene, and apparently it went downhill from there, at least in NBC’s opinion it did. However, to this day, Martin couldn’t care less. Let us explain…
What Had Happened Was…
On February 19, 1994 Martin Lawrence made his first and last appearance on ‘Saturday Night Live.” How come? Because he’d said some things that revealed his opinion about some females’ hygiene, and he used a whole lot of curse words while saying it. He was live on-air on SNL and most of his monologue was ultimately wiped out. This must have been really bad because here’s the statement that was released by SNL when they re-broadcasted the show in it’s edited state:
“At this point in his monologue, Martin begins a commentary on what he considers the decline in standards of feminine hygiene in this country. Although we at Saturday Night Live take no stand on this issue one way or the other, network policy prevents us from re-broadcasting this portion of his remarks.
In summary, Martin feels, or felt at the time, that the failure of many young women to bathe thoroughly is a serious problem that demands our attention. He explores this problem, citing numerous examples from his personal experience, and ends by proposing several imaginative solutions.”
At the time of SNL’s statement, it was then reported that Martin had been ‘banned for life’ from ever appearing on the show again. But it wasn’t until recently, during an interview with “The Breakfast Club,” that Martin cleared up that report. Though he wasn’t banned from SNL per se, he was in fact banned from NBC, the network home of SNL. So, in essence he was still banned from SNl at that time. But there’s more…
Martin also revealed that NBC eventually reneged on their banning of him [likely after realizing that damn near everything Martin had his hands on at that time was a straight up money-maker for all involved, and they probably didn’t want to miss future opportunities]. Anywho, check out what Martin said during his interview:
When The Breakfast Club asked him about the NBC ban, Martin jokingly said, ‘“I don’t give a damn.’ He continued, “I’m not banned from SNL. They banned me from NBC at the time for a minute. But then they realized the way it went down wasn’t what they thought and then they sent me an apology letter.”
Martin them explained why he will always follow his heart when it comes to his art:
“I don’t compromise my comedy. I never did in the past,” he said. “When I put out ‘You So Crazy’ they wanted me to water in down and give it an R rating and I took an NC-17 just so I can say what I wanted to say.”
And there you have it ILOSM fam’…Marty-Mar said what he said. So, here’s a message for the major corporations looking to censor Martin Lawrence next time: *in my P. Diddy voice* “Take dat, take dat, take dat.”
