NEW YORK: Elon Musk dropped a surprise in his hotly anticipated turn as host of ‘Saturday Night Live,’ saying in his monologue that he “is the first person with Asperger’s” to host the show, before clowning through skits for the first global livestream of the comedy show.
Musk opened his monologue by telling an audience he is “the first person with Asperger’s to host SNL. At least the first to admit it.” The billionaire made light of his tendency to speak in a monotone, adding “I’m pretty good at running human in emulation mode.”
Many had wondered how Musk would handle himself during a live comedy show. Musk sought to soften the rough edges of his public persona gently poked fun at himself including his penchant for provocative tweets and the time he smoked a joint on a podcast.
“To anyone I’ve offended I just want to say, I reinvented electric cars and I’m sending people to Mars on a rocket ship. Did you think I would be a chill, normal dude?”
Musk’s mother, Maye, joined him on stage and the two made a joke about Dogecoin, the cryptocurrency Musk has touted. Cryptocurrency jokes popped up throughout the show. In one sketch, Musk was cast as a bow-tie wearing cryptocurrency expert on the show’s Weekend Update segment.
Monologue! ???? @elonmusk pic.twitter.com/xeH1EOU79A
— Saturday Night Live – SNL (@nbcsnl) May 9, 2021
Dogecoin and other digital currencies had surged in price ahead of Musk’s SNL appearance. Dogecoin fell during tshowwas last down about 12% from late Friday at around $0.53. Musk was most convincing playing a version of himself as head of SpaceX dealing with an emergency on a Martian colony. The crisis had a happy ending, until it didn’t.
In the end, Musk will keep his day jobs. Still, the ‘Saturday Night Live’ appearance offered plenty of synergies with his real gigs as “technoking” and Chief Executive of Tesla, head of rocket launch company SpaceX and even chief of the Boring Company, a tunnel construction venture.
Musk got attention across all forms of media ahead of the show, and shared the spotlight with a prototype of Tesla’s futuristic Cybertruck brought to Manhattan.
During the show, a Tesla supercharger made a cameo appearance in a skit set in an old West saloon. Musk played a gunslinger who had developed an electric horse, and advocated tunneling through the earth to escape a shootout.
Musk often boasts that Tesla doesn’t spend billions on advertising the way established automakers do. He doesn’t have to so long as he has access to platforms like Twitter or “Saturday Night Live.”
