Elon Musk delivers SNL monologue

Elon Musk has appeared on Saturday Night Live, poking fun at his own eccentricities and appearing to reveal that he has ‘Asperger’s’ in his opening monologue, and sending the price of his favored cryptocurrency Dogecoin plunging after joking that he would buy some for his mom for Mother’s Day.

As the hotly anticipated episode aired, many users complained that streaming options on the NBC app were crashing, presumably due to high user volume.

Notably, SNL cast member Aidy Bryant did not appear in any sketches alongside Musk, after appearing to take a dig over the centibillionaire’s fortune in an Instagram story. After appearing in the Mother’s Day cold open, which did not feature Musk, Bryant did not appear in the rest of the show.

In his monologue, Musk himself did not mention by name the joke cryptocurrency Dogecoin by name, sending the price of the volatile asset plunging dramatically as he spoke.

His mother Maye, who made a guest appearance for Mother’s Day, did say she hoped that his gift would not be Dogecoin, to which he replied: ‘It is!’

‘I’m actually making history tonight as the first person with Asperger’s to host SNL. Or at least the first to admit it. So I won’t make a lot of eye contact with the cast tonight,’ Musk said in his monologue.

Asperger syndrome is an autism-spectrum disorder characterized by difficulties in social interaction and nonverbal communication.

Musk shared his vision that humanity ‘must become a multiplanetary spacefaring civilization’ before going on to joke about his eccentric nature and frequently bizarre Twitter posts.

‘Look I know I sometimes say or post strange things, but that’s just how my brain works,’ said Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX.

‘To anyone I’ve offended, I just want to say: I reinvented electric cars and I’m sending humans to Mars on a rocket ship. Did you also think I was going to be a chill, normal dude?’ he joked.

‘A lot of times, people are reduced to the dumbest thing they ever did,’ he continued. ‘Like one time, I smoked weed on Joe Rogan’s podcast. And now all the time I hear “Elon Musk, all he does is smoke weed on podcasts.”‘

‘It happened once! It’s like reducing OJ Simpson to murderer! That was one time,’ Musk joked.

Musk went on to poke fun at the name he and his girlfriend, the musician Grimes, selected for their young son, displaying it on the screen: X Æ A-Xii.

‘It’s pronounced, cat running across keyboard,’ he joked.

Musk went on to appear in numerous sketches on the show, and clearly appeared to be having fun.

In one sketch, he appeared as doctor at ‘Gen Z Hospital’, delivering bad news in youthful slang to a group of teens worried about their friend.

Another sketch was titled ‘Every conversation with people you haven’t seen since quarantine started,’ and featured nervous conversations at a house party.

‘Really good’ says Musk’s character when asked about how his wife is doing. ‘We’ve been working from home so we’re really productive and we get to see each other more.’

In a voiceover, Musk is heard thinking: ‘We’re getting divorced, and I’m losing my job.’

In another sketch, Musk portrayed a producer named Ragnarok on a bizarre Icelandic talk show, on which he proclaimed his love for the host Ooli.

During the Weekend Update segment, the first joke took aim at Musk, with Colin Jost noting that a Chinese rocket booster had crashed into the Indian Ocean just an hour before the show aired live from New York.

‘For once we know it’s not Elon’s fault. A lot of people have been wondering, why is he hosting our show and now we know, it’s because he needed an alibi,’ joked Jost.

Later in the Weekend Update segment, Musk appeared in the character of ‘financial expert Lloyd Ostertag’ to explain cryptocurrencies including Dogecoin.

‘It started out as a joke based on an internet meme, but now it’s taken off in a very real way,’ he said. Pressed over and over again to explain what Dogecoin is, ‘Ostertag’ finally admits: ‘Yeah, it’s a hustle!’

Breaking character, Musk then laughs and shouts ‘to the moon!!’ in the rallying cry for Dogecoin boosters.

In one sketch, Musk portrays the evil video game character Wario, who is put on trial for killing Mario, his Nintendo arch-rival.

In a digital short designed as a trailer for a movie titled The Astronaut, Musk plays the steely ground controller for a Mars mission whose fate lies in the hands of a bumbling astronaut named Chad, played by Pete Davidson.

For a Western-themed sketch, Musk portrayed a reluctant posse member who proposes tunneling underneath the outlaws, a reference to his Boring Company venture.

The decision to tap the Tesla CEO and ‘Technoking’ to host the NBC sketch comedy show was seen as a risky gambit by creator Lorne Michaels to boost ratings and expand audience.

For the first time in SNL’s 46-year history, the episode featuring Musk aired live internationally on YouTube in more than 100 countries. The stream was not available to U.S. viewers.

‘SNL is a global phenomenon and this livestream marks the first time audiences around the world will experience the show simultaneously along with the US,’ Frances Berwick, chairman of NBCU’s entertainment networks, said in a statement.

‘It’s incredibly exciting to create this worldwide event with host Elon Musk and musical guest Miley Cyrus,’ he added.

Saturday’s episode of the show quickly became one of the most hotly-anticipated of all time, due to the decision to cast the controversial Tesla boss as host for the evening.

The decision drew an instant backlash from its long-running cast members when it surfaced last month, with many making digs at Musk on social media.

Even hours before the live show, tensions were still simmering with sources saying some cast members ‘are getting a little too big for their britches.’

Musk’s girlfriend Grimes also hinted she will be joining him and Miley in an Instagram post where she told fans: ‘Tune into SNL tonight and watch me try acting’.

Grimes did appear as Princess Peach for the Mario Trial.