"This must be one stupid broad," Frank Sinatra said in the summer of 1990, headlining the Garden State Arts Center in Holmdel, N.J. the night after an appearance by a young, shaved-headed Irishwoman named Sinéad O'Connor. O'Connor, having spent a month atop the charts earlier in the year with her version of Prince's 'Nothing Compares 2 U,' had threatened to boycott unless the theater agreed not to play 'The Star-Spangled Banner' before the show, as was its custom.

Two years before she ripped up a photo of a certain religious figure on a certain high-impact comedy-and-music show, the outspoken young singer was already making international news with her fearless principles. In May 1990, she refused to honor her first invitation on 'Saturday Night Live' when she learned about the misogynistic comedy of host Andrew "Dice" Clay. In August, riding the runaway sales of her album 'I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got,' O'Connor succeeded in getting the Arts Center to forgo the national anthem. She was, she explained, no fan of warmongering anthems in general.

Though Roseanne Barr had just grabbed some notoriety by grabbing her crotch during a mocking version of the anthem at a baseball game, it was the unusual, self-serious Dubliner who drew real ire. "I'd kick her ass if she were a guy," said Ol' Blue Eyes, leading the charge. A New York state senator called for a boycott, and O'Connor reportedly attended a protest rally in Saratoga in a brown wig and a baseball cap. Days later, she was in California, accepting three MTV Video Awards.

The controversy soon played out in the first 'SNL' exposure of her career. On a skit called 'The Sinatra Group,' with Phil Hartman playing the Chairman of the Board as a belligerent debate-show host, cast member Jan Hooks stood in for O'Connor alongside fellow guests including 2 Live Crew's Luther Campbell (Chris Rock) and Billy Idol (portrayed by Sting). "Next time you see Old Glory riding up that pole, you better sing that anthem, darling," Hartman's Sinatra warns. He calls the singer "Sinbad," "Sine-Aid," "Shinehead," and then "Cueball" and "Uncle Fester," for good measure.

Was it funny?

Is the Pope Catholic?