Saturday Night Live: 30 scandals and secrets you didn’t know

9. The infamous Canteen Boy sketch

One of Adam Sandler’s most memorable Saturday Night Live characters is Canteen Boy. A fully grown adult in a boy scout’s uniform, Canteen Boy is a 27-year-old man still living at home. He was a hit with the audience and Sandler reprised the role on many different episodes.

But surely there’s only one Canteen Boy appearance that most people remember. That’s because it brought a lot of controversy with it at the time it aired. Alec Baldwin, as a guest host, played a horny scoutmaster named Mr. Armstrong. Throughout the skit, Mr. Armstrong repeatedly hits on Canteen Boy. Sandler’s character is clearly uncomfortable and eventually is so weirded out he flees into the woods.

In and of itself, this wouldn’t be too strange. Lots of people are hit on by people they’re not interested in. However, many fans watching didn’t realize Canteen Boy is really a 27-year-old man. Because of the outfit and the fact that he’s still in the Boy Scouts, Sandler was assumed to be playing a child. This made the entire sketch come across as making light of pedophilia.

Due to the controversy, Baldwin acknowledged the sketch the next time he hosted SNL. It was an example of SNL pushing the envelope and having to backtrack when things went too far.