Saturday Night Live
Elon Musk & Miley Cyrus
May 8, 2021
When it was announced a few weeks back that controversial billionaire industrialist and huckster Elon Musk was going to host Saturday Night Live, the general sentiment was “WHY?” and “HIM?” and “OH NO!” and “HAS SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE LOST ITS DAMN MIND?” A few cast members and writers registered their displeasure and Twitter wrung its hands, while Musk’s supporters and investors in his cryptocurrency, Dogecoin cheered, and the whole thing blew up into the exact controversy that Saturday Night Live‘s producers hoped it would become. They’d get their ratings from the rubberneckers; Musk would get to whitewash his reputation and promote Dogecoin, and everyone would win except for the viewers who (perhaps foolishly) expect a comedy show to be, you know, funny.
Many many many thousands of words have been written by many many many other better writers explaining why people were upset Musk hosted last night, so I’m not going to reinvent the wheel. Instead, I will just note as a person who has been writing about and reviewing this show for ten years now, this is the worst episode I’ve been forced to sit through, and I was here for the January Jones debacle. Musk, as most people noted when he was announced as the host, was not just not funny, he was so awkward that he made the audience feel awkward. The only sketches that worked at all were the ones in which he had a minimal presence. Musk was so terrible last night, that the cryptocurrency he sought to boost, actually lost value. A lot of value.
The whole thing was a hot disaster, and I hold out a shred, a sliver of hope that Saturday Night Live will learn from it and not invite other human garbage to host their show in the future — but in my heart of hearts, I know damn well that will never happen.
Continue reading “I watched Elon Musk host ‘Saturday Night Live’ so you wouldn’t have to.”
