Elon Musk Takes Center Stage on Saturday Night Live

Jason R. Sakurai
by Jason R. Sakurai

Billionaire Elon Musk will host “Saturday Night Live” on May 8th, the comedy series announced last week. Known for his controversial, biting remarks, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO apparently did not win over any fans among the cast. Cast members were not happy with Musk’s invitation. Social media comments indicated their displeasure.

The self-proclaimed techno king of Tesla, and imperator of Mars, Musk sets Twitter on fire. He clearly enjoyed his role as the Dogefather, a form of digital currency he supports in an SNL skit. Musk tweeted, “Let’s find out just how live Saturday Night Live is,” after the announcement he would be hosting SNL was made.

Tweeting this morning, Musk said, “Other companies spend money on advertising and manipulating public opinion. Tesla focuses on the product. I trust the people.”

Musk said, “We need to have a big permanently occupied base on the moon, and then we’ll build a city on Mars and become a spacefaring civilization. We don’t want to be one of those single planet species, we want to be a multi-planetary species.”

It deflects criticism when two people died in a Tesla although it was unknown if Autopilot was engaged. As noted, 30,000 gallons of water could not put out the battery fire.

Musk countered on April 17th through Tesla Owners Online and his Twitter account by posting Tesla’s Q1 2021 accident data. It said, ‘ In the 1st quarter, we registered one accident for every 4.19 million miles driven in which drivers had Autopilot engaged. For those driving without Autopilot but with our active safety features, we registered one accident for every 2.05 million miles driven. For those driving with Autopilot and without our active safety features, we registered one accident for every 978,000 miles driven. By comparison, NHTSA’s most recent data shows that in the United States there is an automobile crash every 484,000 miles.’

The debate rages on. Is Musk a genius, or is this simply the emperor’s new clothes?

[Images: Tesla]

Jason R. Sakurai
Jason R. Sakurai

With a father who owned a dealership, I literally grew up in the business. After college, I worked for GM, Nissan and Mazda, writing articles for automotive enthusiast magazines as a side gig. I discovered you could make a living selling ad space at Four Wheeler magazine, before I moved on to selling TV for the National Hot Rod Association. After that, I started Roadhouse, a marketing, advertising and PR firm dedicated to the automotive, outdoor/apparel, and entertainment industries. Through the years, I continued writing, shooting, and editing. It keep things interesting.

More by Jason R. Sakurai

Comments
Join the conversation
3 of 50 comments
  • Akear Akear on May 01, 2021

    Do you think Musk really cares what the C+ comic talent on SNL thinks?

    • Tonycd Tonycd on May 02, 2021

      akear, evidently Musk really does care what the C+ comic talent on SNL thinks, or he wouldn't be so eager to join it. Looks to me like what you're underestimating is the egomaniacal Musk's hunger for attention. There's a thing called Twitter. Take a look at it and you'll see what kind of psychopathic personality you're pumping up here.

  • Dantes_inferno Dantes_inferno on May 03, 2021

    Anyone who triggers the SNL crowd is OK in my book, despite creating a legion of Tesla cultists.

  • Wolfwagen Is it me or have auto shows just turned to meh? To me, there isn't much excitement anymore. it's like we have hit a second malaise era. Every new vehicle is some cookie-cutter CUV. No cutting-edge designs. No talk of any great powertrains, or technological achievements. It's sort of expected with the push to EVs but there is no news on that front either. No new battery tech, no new charging tech. Nothing.
  • CanadaCraig You can just imagine how quickly the tires are going to wear out on a 5,800 lbs AWD 2024 Dodge Charger.
  • Luke42 I tried FSD for a month in December 2022 on my Model Y and wasn’t impressed.The building-blocks were amazing but sum of the all of those amazing parts was about as useful as Honda Sensing in terms of reducing the driver’s workload.I have a list of fixes I need to see in Autopilot before I blow another $200 renting FSD. But I will try it for free for a month.I would love it if FSD v12 lived up to the hype and my mind were changed. But I have no reason to believe I might be wrong at this point, based on the reviews I’ve read so far. [shrug]. I’m sure I’ll have more to say about it once I get to test it.
  • FormerFF We bought three new and one used car last year, so we won't be visiting any showrooms this year unless a meteor hits one of them. Sorry to hear that Mini has terminated the manual transmission, a Mini could be a fun car to drive with a stick.It appears that 2025 is going to see a significant decrease in the number of models that can be had with a stick. The used car we bought is a Mk 7 GTI with a six speed manual, and my younger daughter and I are enjoying it quite a lot. We'll be hanging on to it for many years.
  • Oberkanone Where is the value here? Magna is assembling the vehicles. The IP is not novel. Just buy the IP at bankruptcy stage for next to nothing.
Next