SNL has a new impression of Elon Musk, ‘the worst thing South Africa has ever done’

Saturday Night Live cast member Jeremy Culhane unveiled his impression of Elon Musk last night, depicting the SpaceX and Tesla CEO as an awkward loser who fumbles his attempt to befriend the hosts of Weekend Update.

This isn’t the first time the show has lampooned the world’s richest man (and one-time SNL host), with Mike Myers stopping by occasionally to wield a chainsaw before freezing and muttering, “Glitch!” 

Since Musk was in the news this week for spending half a billion dollars on candidates who lost in the midterms, then announcing plans to halt Cybertruck production, it’s maybe not surprising that Culhane’s version is a little less obnoxious and a little more desperate to be liked, doing his best to laugh off his setbacks and remind the audience, “My car did a flip!”

Eventually, Weekend Update co-host Colin Jost asks a pointed question about Musk’s week: “You moved to Texas because California was run by Democrats. You moved all your companies to Texas because you didn’t want to pay taxes. You even built your own town in Texas. And now Texas is run by Democrats. Now you’re going to have to pay taxes. So how does that make you feel?”

Culhane nods along with each step of the question, then answers, “Bad?”

To show that he’s a good sport about all this, Culhane also asks his chatbot Grok to do “an epic vulgar roast of me, Elon Musk.” Grok delivers, describing Musk as “the worst thing South Africa has ever done” and suggesting, “Maybe if you have 100 more kids, one of them will talk to you.”

SNL seems to have its knives out for tech executives this season, starting with Jane Wickline’s impression of Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei as a stuttering prophet of AI doom.

A couple weeks later, James Austin Johnson caricatured data center backer/”Marty Supreme” co-star Kevin O’Leary. Asked about the widespread data center backlash, Johnson-as-O’Leary smoothly replies, “All I want is to buy up 40,000 acres of God’s untouched splendor and replace it with a very loud computer that steals your job.”