Elon Musk Responds to Making ‘SNL’s’ Chloe Fineman Cry: ‘I Was Worried’ My Hosting Would ‘Be So Unfunny It’ll Make a Crackhead Sober!!’
by Zack Sharf · VarietyElon Musk responded to Chloe Fineman‘s revelation that he made her cry during the week he hosted “Saturday Night Live” by doubling down on how much he worried that his episode would be unfunny. Musk hosted “SNL” in May 2021.
“Frankly, it was only on the Thursday before the Saturday that ANY of the sketches generated laughs,” Musk wrote on X. “I was worried. I was like damn my ‘SNL’ appearance is going to be so fucking unfunny that it will make a crackhead sober!! But then it worked out in the end.”
Fineman came forward in a since-deleted TikTok video to reveal that she was the cast member who a host made cry once. Back in August, “SNL” star Bowen Yang revealed publicly that a male host had once made “multiple cast members cry” during a table-read “because he hated the ideas” for sketches. Yang did not name the host but said it was on the Wednesday before the episode filmed that the incident occurred (which aligns with Musk now saying it wasn’t until Thursday that he felt the sketches being pitched were funny).
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In the deleted video, Fineman responded to Musk’s recent criticism of “SNL” after comedian Dana Carvey debuted a Musk impression on the Bill Burr-hosted episode that aired Nov. 9. Musk wrote on X that “SNL” has been “dying slowly for years, as they become increasingly out of touch with reality.”
“OK, I just saw some news article about Elon Musk being like butt-hurt about ‘SNL’ and his impression, but I’m, like, you’re clearly watching the show. Like, what are you talking about?” Fineman fired back in the video. “And I’m like, you know what? I’m gonna come out and say at long last that I’m the cast member that he made cry. And he’s the host that made someone cry. Maybe there’s others.”
“If you’re gonna go on your platform and be rude, like, guess what? You made I, Chloe Fineman, burst into tears because I stayed up all night writing the sketch,” she added of Musk. “I was so excited, I came in, I asked if you had any questions and you stared at me like you were firing me from Tesla and were like, ‘It’s not funny.’ I waited for you to be like, ‘Ha ha, JK.’ No. Then you started pawing through my script, like flipping each page, being, like, ‘I didn’t laugh once, not one time.'”
The sketch did end up making it to air, and Fineman admitted that she “actually had a really good time” and Musk was “really funny in it. But, you know, have a little manners here, sir.”