Elon Musk’s SNL revelations made headlines on the internet

Konstantinos Symeonidis

May 9, 2021

What do you get when you combine one of the world’s richest men with one of the biggest and longest-running sketch comedy shows in the US? Well, you would get lots of criticism, some PR, and a very interesting confession from the man who is the closest to becoming a real-world Tony Stark.

Back in April, the SNL Instagram account announced that on May 8^th, the entrepreneur sensation, Elon Musk, would be making his debut on the show and acting as its host alongside singer Miley Cyrus, promising a very interesting night for everyone involved.

This announcement almost broke the internet, with many fans of the show being divided into two camps – one side supported the move while the other disapproved, due to the notorious tweets that he often posts on his Twitter account, which are seen as offensive to some. Users reminded the SNL account that April Fools’ Day was over a long time ago, but it soon became apparent that this was indeed going to happen.

Musk’s opening monologue made headlines with this reveal…

On May 8^th viewers tuned in to see the highly anticipated show, and it started off strong with an important statement by the new host. The accomplished and self-made businessman decided to drop a bomb on the public by revealing that he has Asperger’s syndrome, an autism spectrum disorder. More specifically, it is a disorder that hinders social interactions and creates specific ways of behaving, as well as specific interests. The news shed light on why the eccentric billionaire may act the way he does, and made his accomplishments seem even more impressive in hindsight.

Although Musk claimed to have been either the first SNL host with Asperger’s, or the first one to admit it at the very least, he was wrong. It was later revealed that comedian Dan Aykroyd was the one who held the title, as he hosted the show back in 2003, almost two decades earlier. It was a small mistake, but the internet was quick to point out that the billionaire was stealing Aykroyd’s title.

The CEO addressed common criticisms he often faces

Calling Elon Musk slightly controversial would be a huge understatement to make; he has had his fair share of controversies and he was ready to defend himself in his opening monologue. Being a prolific user of Twitter, he often tweets out things that get him in trouble, like his views on masks amidst a pandemic, and how he feels about gender pronouns.

To defend himself, he said “Look, I know I sometimes post or say strange things, but that’s just how my brain works… To anyone I’ve offended, I just wanna say, I’ve reinvented electric cars, and I’m sending people to Mars on a rocket ship… Did you think I was also going to be a chill, normal dude?

Do you believe that a person’s accomplishments should be used as a defense of what they’ve said and done in the past, or even make them immune to criticism? At the very least, Musk seems to think so.

Dogecoin had its ups and downs thanks to the show

Over the following days that lead up to the show, excitement began to brew about the potential that this event would have for cryptocurrency investors. That is since Elon Musk is a well-known supporter of the ex-joke cryptocurrency, Dogecoin, he was bound to make a statement about it. Musk’s words have proven to hold a lot of power over cryptocurrency, with something as simple as a joke about it from his personal Twitter account being capable of making their value either skyrocket or plummet. For this reason, the value of Dogecoin went up significantly after the news broke out.

However, after the show was over, investors were reminded of why cryptocurrency investments are so dangerous, when Dogecoin plummeted 40%, just as fast as it had risen. So what exactly was the cause of the fall? You might have thought that the rocket enthusiast said something extremely egregious to create such a stir, but that wasn’t the case.

The only thing he did was a joke about how he had gotten his mother some Dogecoin for Mother’s Day. Maye Musk, Elon’s mother, made a rare appearance on the show, where she said, “I’m excited for my Mother’s Day gift. I just hope it’s not Dogecoin.” to which he replied, ”It is, It sure is” And that, along with Elon playing a character who thought that Dogecoin was just a “hustle” later on in the show, were the causes behind the tumble.