Elon Musk Says He Was ‘Worried’ His ‘SNL’ Episode Would Be ‘Unfunny’ After Cast Member Says He Made Her Cry

12 Nov 2024 by Conor Murray · Forbes

Topline

Billionaire Elon Musk responded to “Saturday Night Live” cast member Chloe Fineman, who in a TikTok yesterday accused him of making her cry when he hosted the show in 2021, stating he feared his sketches wouldn’t make audiences laugh.

Musk hosted "SNL" in 2021. (Photo by ANGELA WEISS / AFP) (Photo by ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty ... [+] Images)AFP via Getty Images

Key Facts

In a post on X Tuesday morning, Musk said he was worried his “SNL” appearance was “going to be so f*cking unfunny that it will make a crackhead sober.”

He said it was “only on the Thursday before the Saturday that ANY of the sketches generated laughs,” though he admitted the sketches “worked out in the end.”

Musk had posted his tweet in response to a TikTok filmed by Fineman, who said she “burst into tears” because she had stayed up all night writing a sketch that prompted Musk to “stare at me like he was firing me from Tesla” and call it “not funny.”

Fineman said Musk had flipped through her script and said he “didn’t laugh once, not one time,” mimicking his accent, but said the sketch, which she did not name, went well and she thought Musk was funny in it.

Speculation had mounted over which previous “SNL” host had made cast members cry after Bowen Yang alleged in an appearance on Andy Cohen’s “Watch What Happens Live” that an unnamed host had “made multiple cast members cry” during a pitch meeting “because he hated the ideas.”

Fineman appeared to reference Yang’s allegation in her TikTok: “I’m gonna come out and say at long last that I’m the cast member he made cry,” she said.

Key Background

Fineman posted her TikTok about Musk because the billionaire had complained about his portrayal by Dana Carvey in Saturday’s post-election episode. As the cast members lament the election results in the show’s cold open, Kenan Thomopson says, “If our planet falls apart, we can all go to Mars with the other man we all love and trust, Elon Musk.” Carvey enters the stage wearing a “Make America Great Again” hat, making erratic movements and speaking with an exaggerated accent, joking, “I run the country now, and Americans can be like one of my rockets, you know? They're super cool and super fun, but there's a slight chance it could blow up and everybody dies.” Musk made multiple tweets about the portrayal: “They are so mad that @realDonaldTrump won,” he said in one post. In another, Musk said the show “has been dying slowly for years” and called it “increasingly out of touch with reality.” He slammed the show for inviting Vice President Kamala Harris for a guest appearance to “prop up Kamala before the election,” referring to a sketch Harris starred in opposite Maya Rudolph, who portrayed the vice president. After a Federal Communications Commission official complained Harris’ appearance violated the FCC’s Equal Time rule, NBC aired a Trump ad to compensate.

How Well Was Musk’s Hosting Stint Received?

Critics generally slammed Musk’s “SNL” episode. The Guardian’s critic said Musk’s hosting gig will “go down as one of SNL’s worst episodes ever,” calling it the “most controversial episode since Donald Trump hosted back in 2015” and slamming his comedic abilities as “baffling” and “hopeless.” The Wrap said Musk was the “worst ‘SNL’ host ever” and said he “failed to land even a single joke,” calling him a “black hole of fun, without a shred of charisma.” NPR called the episode “awkward” and criticized “SNL” for allowing a “problematic public figure to burnish his image by hosting the show.”

Tangent

Following his hosting stint, Musk made multiple posts on X criticizing the show. “SNL has become so woke,” he tweeted in 2023, using “woke” as a pejorative. “SNL is so rarely funny these days,” he tweeted in 2022, responding to a sketch in which “Weekend Update” host Michael Che joked Musk wanted to buy Twitter in the name of free speech so “white guys” can “use the N-word.”

Forbes Valuation

Forbes estimates Musk is worth $320.2 billion as of Tuesday morning, making him the richest person in the world. He is the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, and his net worth has surged following Trump’s election win.