While many guest stars have gotten banned from SNL by show producer Lorne Michaels for their various transgressions, one guest was banned by the audience themselves- Andy Kaufman.
While Andy's sense of humor was not everyone's cup of tea, he had always been a source of irreverent humor for the show. In 1983, having used then new 1-900 numbers to decide the fate of a lobster and to choose a host for the show, Dick Ebersole, decided to let the audience decide whether Andy should be banned forever from the show or not. Viewers could call one number to vote yes and one to vote no. The show's actors and actresses were obviously trying to sway the audience to keep Andy and not ban him. The audience had different plans and he became the first and only person banned from the show by the viewers themselves. Was it another Andy Kaufman con job? Possibly, but he never appeared on the show again.
