Elon Musk is scheduled to host Saturday Night Live on May 8 alongside musical guest Miley Cyrus, though apparently some SNL fans and even cast members aren't ready to welcome the SpaceX and Tesla CEO with open arms.
"Elon Musk hosting SNL is huge for guys still making 'that's what she said' jokes who think they'd be great at hosting SNL," tweeted comedian Josh Gondelman. "Inspiring: Elon Musk is the first SNL host to directly profit from the apartheid," tweeted comedian Skyler Higley, jokingly referencing 2018 reporting that linked Musk's father to an emerald mine during the mid 1980s.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
So, why has SNL invited Musk to host? Probably because controversy draws views, The Washington Post argues. SNL has long relied on unusual and polarizing guests and hosts to boost viewership. Former President Donald Trump hosted the show in 2015, when he was a presidential candidate, and drew in more than 9 million views. Three years later Kanye West hosted the show, donning a MAGA hat and giving a pro-Trump speech (which went unaired).
For now, pop star Grimes, Musk's girlfriend, has taken to TikTok to defend her billionaire husband.
-
‘Businesses that lose money and are uncompetitive won’t survive’Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
Film reviews: Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere, If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, Frankenstein, and Blue MoonFeature A rock star on the rise turns inward, a stressed mother begins to unravel, and more
-
Podcast reviews: ‘Fela Kuti: Fear No Man,’ ‘David Bowie: Changeling’ and ‘The Adam Friedland Show’feature Fela Kuti’s revolutionary life, David Bowie’s early years, and Adam Friedland reinvents the talk show
-
Google avoids the worst in antitrust rulingSpeed Read A federal judge rejected the government's request to break up Google
-
Supreme Court allows social media age check lawSpeed Read The court refused to intervene in a decision that affirmed a Mississippi law requiring social media users to verify their ages
-
Nvidia hits $4 trillion milestoneSpeed Read The success of the chipmaker has been buoyed by demand for artificial intelligence
-
X CEO Yaccarino quits after two yearsSpeed Read Elon Musk hired Linda Yaccarino to run X in 2023
-
Musk chatbot Grok praises Hitler on XSpeed Read Grok made antisemitic comments and referred to itself as 'MechaHitler'
-
Disney, Universal sue AI firm over 'plagiarism'Speed Read The studios say that Midjourney copied characters from their most famous franchises
-
Amazon launches 1st Kuiper internet satellitesSpeed Read The battle of billionaires continues in space
-
Test flight of orbital rocket from Europe explodesSpeed Read Isar Aerospace conducted the first test flight of the Spectrum orbital rocket, which crashed after takeoff
