The next Saturday Night Live host hasn’t even started rehearsing yet, but it appears the choice is already stirring up a lot of controversy.
On Saturday (April 24), it was announced that Tesla and SpaceX CEO, Elon Musk, will be hosting SNL’s May 8 episode – with Miley Cyrus as musical guest.
Elon later went on Twitter to vaguely reference his hosting gig, writing, “Let’s find out just how live Saturday Night Live really is,” alongside a devil emoji.
SNL’s Bowen Yang seemingly reacted to the announcement when he went on Instagram Story with a frowny face emoji. He later shared a screenshot of Elon’s tweet with the message: “What the f— does that even mean?”
Meanwhile, new cast member Andrew Dismukes reportedly went on IG Story to share a photo of SNL alum Cheri Oterim writing, “ONLY CEO I WANT TO DO A SKETCH WITH IS Cher-E Oteri.”
Some also believe Aidy Bryant’s post on IG Story – a screenshot of Bernie Sanders’ tweet about wealth disparity, which reads in part, “The 50 wealthiest people in this country own more wealth than some 165 million Americans. That is a moral obscenity.” – was a subtle shade at Elon, who, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, is the second-richest person in the country (Amazon’s Jeff Bezos tops the list).
And, apparently, Twitter users also have a lot of feelings about the choice of host as well.
“I remember when Elon Musk threatened workers if they unionized. I also remember when I found out he was exploiting children in 3rd world countries. What I won’t remember is him hosting SNL, because I won’t be watching it,” one Twitter user wrote.
“There are few things in this world that I want to see less than Elon Musk hosting SNL,” another shared.
“SNL Writers Meeting
WRITER: OK, we open on Elon Musk downplaying the dangers of COVID, making bad predictions about how many it will infect, and then, this will be hilarious, falsely claiming kids are totally immune. Why aren’t any of you laughing? This is so Musk,” director Jeremy Newberger tweeted.
While Elon isn’t the first CEO to be invited to host – nor is he the only controversial figure – he’s shared some pretty controversial remarks over the past few years.
NBC is yet to respond to requests for comment.
