12:58 p.m. | Updated
The moment that will most likely endure from the year-ending episode of “Saturday Night Live” is the quietly powerful opening of a children’s chorus singing “Silent Night,” which began a holiday-theme broadcast hosted by Martin Short and featuring music from Paul McCartney.
But the scene that set tongues wagging and fingers typing early Sunday morning was a comedy sketch in which Samuel L. Jackson appeared to utter two obscene words.
The rendition of “Silent Night” that opened the show was performed by the New York City Children’s Chorus, which is based at Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church in Manhattan. It provided a stirring and memorable answer to the question of how the NBC comedy program would address the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., whose victims included 20 children.
Mary Wannamaker Huff, the artistic director of the children’s chorus, said in an interview on Sunday morning that her group was first contacted by “Saturday Night Live” on Monday to perform with Mr. McCartney, who was looking for accompaniment on his song “Wonderful Christmastime.”
“As the situation in Connecticut evolved,” Ms. Huff said, “everybody realized that we needed to do something meaningful, to remember the folks in Connecticut. So ‘Silent Night’ was just a natural piece to do. The New York City Children’s Chorus actually has their Christmas concert today, and so ‘Silent Night’ was on the tip of our tongues.”
“When something tragic happens like this,” Ms. Huff added, “you have to love the people you’re with. One thing that can help you love and heal and talk and grieve is music. Especially the pure sounds of children. I hope that it at least allows people to feel and to grieve and to hug their own children tighter.”
In those rare instances when it has been called upon to do so, “Saturday Night Live” has dealt nimbly with events of national mourning. On its broadcast of Sept. 29, 2001, the first show to follow the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, “S.N.L.” opened not with a comedy sketch but with remarks by Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, who saluted the police, fire and rescue workers surrounding him on stage, and a performance by Paul Simon who sang “The Boxer,” a song about steely resolve in the face of adversity.
Asked by the “Saturday Night Live” executive producer Lorne Michaels if his show could have permission to be funny, Mr. Giuliani answered, “Why start now?”
Saturday’s show pivoted back to comedy after the children’s chorus provided the traditional “S.N.L.” opening of “Live from New York, it’s Saturday Night!” Later, a more boisterous sketch provided Mr. Jackson with his own opportunity to make some television history.
Mr. Jackson, who has colorfully expressed himself in movies like “Pulp Fiction” and “Django Unchained,” was playing himself in a recurring segment called “What Up With That?,” a sort of talk show that invariably runs out of time before its guests can be interviewed.
As its host, played by the “SNL” cast member Kenan Thompson, was bidding him good night, Mr. Jackson abruptly enunciated most, if not all, of an obscene word. Amid the audience’s uncertain reaction, he then uttered a vulgarity.
“Come on, Sam,” Mr. Thompson said, rolling with the punches. “Come on, now. That costs money.”
The segment of the sketch containing Mr. Jackson’s apparent vulgarities can be viewed here. The version that was later posted to Hulu.com omits these portions of his audio.
Minutes after this appearance, Mr. Jackson wrote on his Twitter account that he had uttered only about half of a four-letter word in the first instance and that Mr. Thompson was supposed to cut him off in the second instance. But, he wrote, they “blew it!!”
A representative for “Saturday Night Live” did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Over 38 seasons of “Saturday Night Live,” fleeting obscenities have very rarely slipped onto the show. In 1995, the cast member Cheri Oteri was humorously punished by having to put money into a swear jar after she accidentally cursed on air; and in 2009, the cast member Jenny Slate let slip a vulgar word in her debut appearance.
While these incidents have created brief stirs, they have not resulted in significant fines or other penalties for the show.