NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” is a storied cultural institution that makes fun of everyone, and hosting the show is by no means a guarantee that it won’t take a swing at you at some point in the future.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk hosted “Saturday Night Live” for the first time last year. The reviews were mostly bad and cast member Aidy Bryant was clearly unhappy with the decision.
The day it was announced that Musk would be hosting, she posted on Twitter a speech by Senator Bernie Sanders (D-Vermont), Musk’s ideological opponent and frequent sparring partner, lambasting billionaires and corporate greed.
But in all fairness, Musk clearly was game for whatever, even playing the video game character Wario in a ridiculous courtroom sketch.
So it’s not at all surprising that “Saturday Night Live” parodied Musk in their most recent episode. If anything, it’s surprising it’s taken this long for a cast member to play him in a cold open sketch.
Happy Easter From Elon
Some people love Musk, and praise him as the modern day Andrew Carnegie. His critics accuse him of wealth hoarding, and think his whole shitck is a con.
Then there’s people with a more mixed viewpoint.
They appreciate that he popularized electric vehicles and he brought satellite internet access to Ukraine amidst the ongoing Russian Invasion, but they find his anti-union actions disturbing and his entire online presence to be the current apotheosis of cringe culture.
A poll from YouGov America found that he was liked by 41% of respondents, disliked by 23% and 27% of the population.
Which is quite an accomplishment, as the general public tends to only know a handful of business leaders, and likely couldn’t name any other current automobile CEOs.
So people clearly know who Musk is and have enough of a grasp on his whole deal for “Saturday Night Live” to goof on him.
Which happened several times in the most recent episode, which was hosted by the performer Lizzo.
The cold open was a fairly classic SNL move where various cast members trot out their impressions based around a common hook.
In this case it was an Easter’s greeting. In between visits from Kate McKinnon’s take on Dr. Anthony Fauci and Cecily Strong’s gun-toting Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia), Mikey Day impersonated Musk, impressively nailing the CEO’s halting cadence and South African accent.
Riffing on Musk’s recent attempts to buy Twitter, Day started off with Day.
“Hello, I am Elon Musk, and I am here to officially buy Easter. I am offering $43 billion peeps,” he said.
Day then laughed robotically, “HA HA HA HA HA HA. That was a joke.”
“I know people don’t want me to buy Twitter. But why? Are you worried I’ll make Twitter bad? What are you scared I’ll buy next? The Oscars?”
He did the robot laugh again and concluded, “That was a joke.”
Look for that to be the go-to joke for when Day inevitably brings this impression back, because as long as Musk is a public figure, he’ll be fair game for parody.
Weekend Update’s Musk Joke Was More Incisive
“Saturday Night Live” has always been a center-left institution.
It takes shots at everyone, but usually has a fairly progressive baseline, though how that manifests depends on the era and cast members.
While Day’s parody was fairly mild, the "Weekend Update" sketch tends to be one of the more gloves off parts of SNL. Co-anchor Michael Che wasn’t afraid to land a blow.
“Elon Musk offered to buy Twitter for over $40 billion dollars, so he can loosen its free speech rules," Che said. "That’s how badly white guys wanna use the n-word.”
Then co-anchor Colin Jost also took a swing.
“Honestly, I don’t even understand why Elon wants to own Twitter," Jost said. "It used to be something that seemed important and even fun, and now you look at it and it’s confusing and depressing. It’s the Giuliani of apps.”
After a laugh break, Jost continued. “
Come on, Elon built electric cars, he’s going to Mars. Why is he even involving himself in Twitter?" he said. "It’s like if the Prince of England gave it all up, just to marry an actor from ‘Suits.’ Plus I got to say that Twitter is not even profitable anymore. It feels like a bad business decision.
“And I say that as someone who bought a Staten Island ferry with Pete,” a reference to an entertainment cruise Jost plans to open with SNL cast member Pete Davidson.
Seth Meyers Also Lays Into Musk
Former “Saturday Night Live” cast member and "Weekend Update" anchor Seth Meyers makes no effort to hide that he’s very clearly a Bernie guy.
While the "Closer Look" segments are often where “Late Night With Seth Meyers” goes in on current events, he also saves some fire for Musk for the opening monologue, as he often does.
This week, he riffed on Musk’s recent claim about his housing situation.
“Tesla CEO Elon Musk said in a new interview that he does not own a home and has just been staying with friends. Listen, we know you’re lying. You’re a billionaire. You don’t have any friends.”
"That's right, Musk says he does not own a home, and has just been staying with friends. Man, it’s got to be pretty galling to come home from work, and the world’s richest man is watching ‘Jeopardy!,’ and eating your Cheerios. "That’s like Snoop coming over to bum some weed.”
