Elon Musk as Host Isn't What 'SNL' Should Stand For

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by Julian Spivey
I let out an audible groan last week when I was scrolling through my Twitter feed and saw the news that the next new episode of NBC's long-time sketch series "Saturday Night Live" would be hosted by billionaire and Tesla CEO/Space X chief engineer Elon Musk. Judging by the response from others I was certainly not alone. 

My main reasoning is simply I don't expect the episode to be very good. Few hosts in the now 46 seasons of 'SNL' seem as ill preprared to host a comedy sketch show than Musk, who has absolute no performing background and generally seems out of touch with the vast majority of ... I'm going to go with the word humans, which I'm not completely sure Musk is ... seriously, does anyone have proof? The closest Musk has ever gotten to performing is he looks like he'd be a Bond villain. 

Musk would seem to be the least popular 'SNL' host since then Republican presidential candidate Donald  Trump hosted the show on Nov. 7, 2015 just a year before being elected President of the United States. That was a decision that didn't sit well with the majority of the show's audience and seemingly much of the then cast, even though it did become the most watched episode in multiple years at the time. 

The decision to choose Musk as host of the series already seems to have gotten under the skin with some among the current cast. Musk's episode isn't set to air until May 8, but at least four cast members and writers have already criticized the decision to have him host. When Musk tweeted about appearing on the show with the quip: "Let's find out just how live 'Saturday Night Live' really is" recent stand out cast member Bowen Yang responded at first with a frowning face emoji and then with a quote retweet exclaiming, "What the fuck does that even mean?" 

Fellow cast member Andrew Dismukes joked on Instagram: "Only CEO I want to do a sketch with is Cher-E Oteri [a reference to former 'SNL' cast member Cheri Oteri and frankly a lame joke that sort of explains why Dismukes has been a disappointment in his first season on the show]."

Longtime cast member Aidy Bryant was a bit more subtle in her displeasure with Musk as host sharing a tweet by Sen. Bernie Sanders critical of wealth inequality in this country stating: "the 50 wealthiest people in this country own more wealth than some 165 million Americans" and referred to that as "a moral obscenity." SNL writer Sudi Green shared the same post. 

It frankly doesn't seem longtime producer and creator of the show Lorne Michaels is creating a comfortable work environment for his employees. Is Michaels even in charge of selecting hosts at this point in the show's run (I would assume so, but couldn't find an answer)? 

The choice of Musk as host of 'SNL' just seems to go against everything the show has and is supposed to stand for (but so did the choices of Trump and previous billionaires like Steve Forbes before him). 'SNL' is supposed to mock those in power and those obscenely rich. I mean Musk is the dude who shot one of his Tesla Roadsters into space (again, Bond villain anyone? Who does that?). That's something worth mocking.
 
The only reasoning I can think of for giving Musk the opportunity to host the show is to create controversy, which is exactly what the show has done. But, like with Trump in 2015 where you had the show's usual viewership tuning in, Trump's followers (typically not 'SNL' viewers) tuning in and then others tuning in just to see if the whole thing would be a trainwreck (it wasn't funny, but wasn't really a trainwreck either) this doesn't seem like the type of thing that would draw too many more eyes than usual. Honestly, I think a lot of people tuning in for the next 'SNL' might not even know who Musk is. 

So, what's the point here 'SNL'? It just doesn't seem like the kind of thing you do. I don't think this is something 1975 Lorne Michaels would've been proud of when starting the show. 

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