Awkward attempts at humor, jokes in poor taste, sky-high ego, and a sprinkling of questionably motivated deception. The Elon Musk you see in headlines, interviews, and, most importantly, tweets is the Elon Musk who showed up to kick off Saturday Night Live in his first turn as the show’s host.
The Tesla CEO and SpaceX founder ran through what could be accurately described as a “greatest hits” barrage of one-liners winding through his most well-known (and infamous) moments, touching on Dogecoin, eyebrow-raising tweets, his kid’s unusual name, and smoking weed on some meathead’s podcast. (Strangely, he left out all the COVID misinformation he helped to perpetuate.)
He also snuck in a spectacularly ill-conceived wisecrack about O.J. Simpson that turned the murder of two people — whoever actually committed the deed — into a punchline. (Two, actually.)
The monologue’s one saving grace came when Musk offered an apparently first-time public admission that he has Asperger’s Syndrome. Whatever his motivation for sharing that (and later bringing out his mom) may have been, using the high-profile SNL stage to normalize Asperger’s for a mainstream audience at home is a positive thing, as appreciative YouTube comments immediately reflected.
Really though, that’s perfectly Elon Musk too, right? Miles and miles of cringe blunted by an inherent ability to awkwardly please a crowd. Whether you loved or hated his first turn as SNL host, Musk was undeniably himself on the show — or at least the public persona we’ve come to know.