May 8, 2021 – Elon Musk / Miley Cyrus (S46 E18)

by Matt

MOTHER’S DAY
musical guest sings “Light Of A Clear Blue Morning” for castmembers’ moms

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— Miley Cyrus wearing a very Miley Cyrus outfit here.
— Ah, our semi-annual “let’s bring out everyone’s moms” sketch for the season! It feels like it’s been some time since the last big one—S43, to be exact, though the At Home finale featured a cute mother’s day tribute with photos from the entire cast—and doing something like this after such a nightmarish season, drenched in pandemic protocols which have largely withheld the cast from their families… it makes things feel a lot more sweet.
— It’s also a very nice song choice for her to be singing Dolly Parton’s song, “Light of a Clear Blue Morning,” what with Dolly being her godmother. (Could we ever be that lucky?) 
— Right out the gate we have Kate and her mom, and it’s easy to see where Kate gets her loopy energy—she’s a complete ham, and they both do some Mary Katherine Gallagher shtick together.
— Oh god, I spoke too soon, Mrs. Mooney might win the ham-off tonight. 
— As it’s turning out… there’s actually shockingly little on the page here? Hell, when it’s Heidi and her mom’s turn, the joke is that they didn’t even write her a joke. Most of the humor here feels like it’s coming out of a mix of goodwill and some serious heavy-lifting from the cast’s natural charm. The actual interplay is very lackluster, and everyone is getting so little time (maybe a consequence of how ginormous the cast is?) that very, very little is registering.
— Kenan’s mom proving that reaction shots run in the Thompson blood line is very cute, at least.
— It’s also nice to see both Bowen and Ego’s mothers, given that they’ve talked about the long road to their parents accepting their dreams. (Ego, memorably, turned her relationship with her parents into a classic sketch earlier this season.) And look where they are now: doing subpar comedy bits alongside their children! 
— Good god, look at everyone cramming on and around the stage.
— I have such a paper heart, and this cold open should’ve had an easy job landing with me, but… there was just nothing good written here. Even as an opportunity to give cute little winks to the audience goes, it doesn’t fully work because it feels so uninvolved, as if the gesture of getting everyone’s mom onto the show was good enough. Spiritually, it sort of is, but as entertainment, it falls disappointingly flat. Hopefully this is the night’s only disappointment.
STARS: **

MONOLOGUE
neurodivergent host & his mom [real] talk about the future & his past

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— Full disclosure: I haven’t watched a single second of this episode since I saw it live, and when I saw it live, I was under the heavy influence of several edibles which made the entirety of my watch experience feel like I was peeking into some horrible alternate reality where SNL was, oh my god, kind of bad??? So it’s exciting, and also disorienting, to go back into it with full awareness that everything that I’m seeing is actually real, whether or not I’d like it to be.
— Also, I’ll get this out of the way right now… Elon Musk never should have hosted SNL. It doesn’t matter that he’s a prominent figure, and someone who considers himself funny—none of that suggests that this is a good idea, not just moralistically but at a fucking baseline. This man does not have an ounce of natural charisma. He’s the sort of guy who takes a joke that’s been dead for months, decides to do it in real life for the lolz, and then immediately starts firing people after that wimpy attempt at relatability. Let that sink in.
— Also, I mean, right off the bat, they’re having Elon joke about the lack of tonality in his voice, and how poorly that lends itself to comedy. Too little, too late guys—he’s in the building, doing his monologue right now.
— Elon also announces that he’s the first person with Asperger’s to host SNL. Disregarding the iffiness of that terminology (something something Nazis), he’s not—Dan Aykroyd is. I will never stand for Aykroyd erasure.
— Because of his autism, Elon jokes that he won’t make a lot of eye contact with the cast tonight. God, that’s gonna fuck things up so much! SNL in these years is of course known for its performers staring naturally at each other instead of out at iffily-placed cue cards. He’s gonna ruin everything!
— Oh no, I’m just over one minute into this monologue. Alright.
— On the topic of megalomaniacal supervillains, Elon has the body language of Gru from Despicable Me. It’s really something to take in.
— After an applause break, Elon says a sentence and then mugs for five straight seconds until he gets another applause break.
— Elon also manages to weave both Joe Rogan and OJ Simpson into one joke. Those are just two things that feel harrowing to be invoked in the same breath from this person especially.
— It’s also right about now that I’m starting to notice the very awkward audience response in this monologue, which feels overeager to the point of artificiality. It reminds me of how Kim Kardashian’s monologue next season has a very bizarre, forced sense of rhythm to it that made the audience feel like they were doing a call-and-response exercise. The fact that Elon is somehow even less natural delivering jokes than Kim, though, knocks all of this into the deepest recesses of the uncanny valley. It feels like a dystopian broadcast.
— Now, Elon’s brought his mom out, Maye Musk, and it’s even more awkward. They’re executing their rapport to pin-drop silence with the sort of chemistry that feels like they’ve never met before now. 
— I remember some people online being impressed by how jovial and fun Elon came across in this monologue way back in the days where I guess Elon’s status as an insane threat to the welfare of our society was less prominent, to which I can simply ask… what? Even giving him the benefit of the doubt, this whole thing—SNL trying to sell us on the idea of Elon Musk—is just uncomfortable and skin-crawling. It’s gonna be a long night.
STARS: *

GEN Z HOSPITAL
zoomers mourn death of their bestie with young vernacular

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— Hey barkeep, I wanna die tonight!
— Now here’s a sketch that generated quite a bit of controversy after it aired, and somehow, not just for being bad! There were some accusations that it was appropriating AAVE as a source of humor, which… is valid, to some extent. I think that opens the doors for a broader discussion on how much contemporary slang, especially among younger people, is co-opted from black culture. There’s a legitimately interesting satirical premise in there for sure. But the fact that this was written by Michael Che means that we’ll never approach anything tactfully, and SNL leaves itself all too vulnerable to criticism. I suppose that’s the credo of this whole goddamn episode, though…
— Either way, this sketch is bad. Bad, bad, bad. The whole joke is just everyone talking with overwrought slang use which is ill-fitting of the serious situation that it’s being applied to.
— Elon: “What I have to say now might be a lil’ cringe.” To say the least…
— As a minor note—because I mean how many variations can I have on saying this sketch sucks?—the set feels so weirdly barren. Like there’s a bunch of stuff and then vast empty space in the middle. Combined with the cast’s very loud outfits, everything visually clashes… it’s a sketch that you could tell was bad without even having the volume on.
— The audience, while initially a bit receptive, has really started to die in the back-half. I can’t blame them. I know that when you’re actually in the studio you laugh at things more than you’d think, but this is an indefensibly weak sketch which no amount of goodwill could fully mask. Case in point: when Melissa walked out with a Supreme urn, nobody responded to it at all.
— Elon Musk: [fully swallows line of dialogue] Mikey: “That was beautiful, Doctor Bruh.”
— The fact that this was our lead-off sketch is, like, a red flag atop a red flag.
STARS: *

EVERY CONVERSATION WITH PEOPLE YOU HAVEN’T SEEN SINCE THE PANDEMIC STARTED
rusty social skills make conversations awkward at post-quarantine party

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— I remember when I first saw this, I dismissed it pretty early on as another lazy concept for the night—it does sound like the sort of thing you’d see Buzzfeed do, where the whole premise is just the title and how “relatable” that is—but in light of this sketch being fairly well-received by a lot of other people, I’m gonna give it a fair shake.
— Nice to see everyone getting to use their talents at underplaying, especially Kate, Beck, and Ego. They’re always fun to watch being more deadpan.
— There is something I like about this sketch, because I do like observational comedy and it’s darn near the closest we’ll get to slice-of-life material in these years of the show, but I’m still not a huge fan of the format. While it’s something that SNL never leaned on too much, it’s just something I’ve seen too many times and become kind of desensitized to.
— Of all of Elon’s uses in this episode, this is probably the best by default. Being in a pretape means he’s a bit more at ease, and the show can lean into his natural, uncanny energy. I like that he’s the one person at this house party who thinks that his awful small talk is going well, too—with some added catharsis from Heidi’s internal monologue about how dumb what he’s saying is.
— The one bit of this pretape I remember most vividly is Heidi thinking “I’ll fucking kill you” after Elon makes a jab at her. Surprised that clip didn’t get more play in the wake of this episode, though it’s not as flashy as “Gen Z Hospital” or “Wario Courtroom,” I suppose.
— Beck: “I went to one dinner outdoors and one dinner indoors. (Do I have brain damage? I think I might have permanent brain damage.)”
— Even if the whole “cousin incest” angle between Ego and Chris is pretty tired by this point, I like that their two-hander has a bit more progression to it. It’s probably the most interesting portion to return to even if none of the two-person scenes are bad. Chris’ superb facial acting is also, as usual, a fun thing to key into. 
— A very solid button, with Dismukes giving a toast before quickly realizing that he’s at the wrong house.
— This definitely isn’t as bad as I recalled, and it was smart to put it more up top the show to rebound from the episode’s painful start, but it’s nothing too special. Just some nice, soft pandemic humor. I might be more positive towards it if it was in an episode with a better atmosphere, though.
STARS: ***½

THE OOLI SHOW
Frances McDormand (KAM) visits oddball Icelandic talk show

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— Hey look, it’s Chloe’s only original character again! I’ve never known what to make of Ooli as someone who’s never really known what to make of Chloe’s character work; while I enjoyed that first, digital exclusive Ooli sketch for breaking format, I can’t say I was a big fan of her At Home sketch (which felt like kookiness for kookiness’ sake). And now she’s in a talk show setting, where SNL original characters and impressions go to die—how fun! It’s almost like they were scraping the bottom of the barrel trying to find sketches for Elon or something.
— Also: Elon straight-up looking like Dieter from Sprockets. Sure. Whatever.
— The whole gist of this sketch seems to be “Oh, look at how kooky these Icelandic weirdos are!” Some shades of the Nunis, some shades of The Prince Show, and naturally some of Kristen’s Björk impression in there as well—all of which are things I never particularly liked. I like whimsy, but when you force it too much it comes across as tryhard instead of particularly charming… and this sketch is trying very hard.
— I usually like Kate’s Frances McDormand impression (which I didn’t remember being a part of this), but it feels like she’s going extra muggy in this. Maybe it’s that veteran reflex to try to milk a laugh out of a clearly sinking ship, but this sketch doesn’t need more of a sense of desperation to it.
— Speaking of impressions I forgot were a part of this sketch, Pete as Steve Buscemi. Would you believe he’s not nailing this one?
— Basically the one good thing about this sketch is that it made a little opportunity for Melissa to do her Björk impression, and it’s, par for the course with Melissa, incredibly good. But watching this whole-ass sketch for ten seconds of Melissa fun? Very much not worth it.
STARS: *

MURDER DURDER
southeast Pennsylvania accents dominate crime story

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— It feels weird to use this term in the context of modern SNL, but with how much the show’s distanced itself from doing direct show/movie parodies, this sketch feels very throwback-y. While it’s a direct response to Mare of Eastown, it also feels kinda like a spiritual successor to the great “Don’ You Go Rounin’ Roun to Re Ro” sketch from Season 36.
— I will say, one difference between this sketch and “Re Ro” which points towards the stylistic shift in the show’s comedy overtime: I don’t know how much we need Alex as the audience surrogate pointing out how confusing Kate’s Philly accent is. I had the same issue with that “Lesbian Period Drama” sketch from last episode, where Kate sorta existed to comment on what was happening in a way that immediately says, “Don’t believe this could be a real thing—this is a parody!!” It doesn’t really have to be underlined.
— Lots of very guilty amusement in this. I can see how it would be polarizing, and while this isn’t my favorite thing ever, I think that it’s still pretty fun. As with the earlier “Pandemic Conversations” pretape, both Kate and Beck are getting particularly fun work, with the former doing some solid underplaying while spitting out strings of nonsense and the latter going full ham with the lines about how his “durdur” was murdered.
— Weird that we have back-to-back sketches that make a joke about being so regional that everyone is kinda related to each other.
— Alex: “[That’s your] granddaughter?? How old are you?” Kate: “I’m a Philly 40.”
— Hmm, the Gritty stuff is maybe good for a cheap laugh, but it’s another thing that kinda hurts the suspension of disbelief.
— Elon is woven into this as cautiously as possible, and while he’s not very good here, he at least lands the final joke of the piece as a sketchy priest who openly admits that he murdered Beck’s daughter. The less lines you give him the better he does.— “Murdur Durdur: this is where Joe Biden’s from. Wow.”
STARS: ***½

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest & The Kid LAROI [real] perform “Without You”

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— Blue: I like that Miley Cyrus has reached the point where she can use her star power to bring lesser-known artists on SNL and let them share (if not borderline steal) her spotlight. I know she and the Kid Laroi were promoting the latter’s then-recent remix of her song, but this performance still feels more like a Kid Laroi performance than a Miley Cyrus performance.
— Ugh, Miley’s voice is annoying me as soon as the opening verse starts. Her enunciation and breath support could be improved.
— The Kid Laroi needs to back off the microphone. There are a lot of loud, distracting plosives in his initial verse. I also don’t care for the effects on his voice. (But I still prefer it over Miley’s.)
— I’ll forgive Miley for breathing before the last word of each phrase of the verse, because those phrases are long and seamless and it sounds difficult to conserve one’s breath when singing them. But the phrases on the chorus aren’t as long, and thus it bothers me to hear the Kid Laroi breathe between the words “without” and “you” at the end of the chorus.
— The brief moment where the Kid Laroi harmonized with Miley on the second verse was iffy. He even adjusted his in-ear monitor after that, perhaps to hear Miley’s voice better.
— On the other hand, Miley’s harmonizing on the chorus is flawless.
STARS: **

WEEKEND UPDATE
just back from Disneyland, weary mom Pauline (EGN) laments lost vitality

financial expert (host) dodges the question “What is Dogecoin?”

jacked & juiced Baby Yoda has become a mixed martial arts fighter

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— Elon Musk, white nationalism, Donald Trump, and Ron DeSantis all back-to-back in Update tonight. I guess nothing really changes!
— It’s hard to say if this Update is much better or worse than usual… I feel like I tend to enjoy the Jost/Che pairing far more than some of my other reviewers, even by this state of their tenure, but this week’s feeling sort of tired, like they’re just doing their thing. And none of that is helped by how thick the atmosphere feels with Elon being in the building, either—because as per usual, SNL is stellar at taking actions that hurt its ability to be properly satirical.
— Oh, thank goodness, Ego’s here to save the day! I remember this Update feature being cut multiple times over the past few years, so it’s perhaps no great surprise that she’d finally get it on an episode that’s up to so little.
— Everything about Ego’s characterization as a weary mother enduring her darkest hours at Disneyland is absolutely perfect. I love when she gets to dig into character work this deep and key into her dramatic acting chops—I’m always a sucker for absolutely ridiculous, overly-specific writing being executed with an earnest, committed performance.
— “Sleeping Beauty… why is that hussie so tired? She don’t have kids! Y’know, I could be pretty, too… but I sleep on my feet like a horse!”
— Great twist with Ego starting to monologue while somber piano music plays, and I always love when they throw in bizarre, meta details like Che being the father to her children. (“CJ’s starting to look just like you!” “Who is CJ?!” “Che Jr.!” “Wait a minute, so his name is Che Jr. Che??”)
— “When little CJ wanted a souvenir, I showed my breasts to Goofy for some Mardi Gras beads in the French Quarter! Turns out I ain’t have to do all that, they was complimentary!”
— Such a solid piece, and it really feels like the first time anyone has actually been mentally there in this whole episode.
— Oh, good god, Elon as a financial advisor talking about how awesome Dogecoin is. It’s so, so hard to pick a low point tonight. 
— “Thank you Michael, call me the Dogefather.” Some guy in the audience: “YEAHHHHHH!!!!” Oh buddy, it’s a shame you can’t see what’s happening to the value of your crypto right now…
— There’s literally no jokes to this. Elon is just telling us about Dogecoin, how it works, and where it came from. What the fuck is going on, guys?
— Ah, okay, so the joke is just Che repeatedly asking what Dogecoin actually is. I’ll give it to Che that he’s the only person who could come close to making this sort of thing funny, but this whole bit is literally a shameless advertisement wedged in the middle of this episode. Complete trash. At least Elon seems more comfortable here than he usually is, but is that a good thing?
— The best part about this segment is that someone on reddit made a chart showing the value of Dogecoin across Elon’s SNL episode, and it was at its literal lowest point during this Update segment. Talk about failed promotion!
— To add insult to injury, now we get Baby Yoda, which shows some intelligence on SNL’s part—I bet this is the kind of shit that crypto bros find super funny.
— I hate talking poorly of Kyle because I love him so much, but Baby Yoda is, in my opinion, the worst thing he ever did. If it was a one-off, sure, whatever. But somehow, he’s appeared six times in four seasons. He was literally the closest thing to a farewell that Kyle got before leaving the show in Season 47. Why is this such a prominent character? Why has this come to define the end of his tenure? Is it seriously, like, the only thing Kyle was able to get onto the show at a certain point? Because if so, that’s really sad.
— Every installment they add some slight physical change to the character, which I guess constitutes a greater sense of character development than most recurring SNL bits have? Either way, here, he’s got jacked puppet arms, which are funny for maybe a second.
— I didn’t take any more notes… this is bad stuff. Somehow, even in a night where there’s some uncharacteristically wretched material, this might be one of the most unenjoyable segments.
— As a whole, despite one great correspondent piece, both Baby Yoda and Elon’s Dogecoin shilling drag this one down mightily, as does the tired feel of the joke-writing.
STARS: *½

WARIO TRIAL
trial reveals deeds of Wario (host), Luigi (KYM), Princess Peach (Grimes)

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— Oh boy, it’s time!
— This sketch spares no time getting to its main reveal—within literally three seconds, we cut to Luigi. Even if this is a dumb sketch, I feel like if they relished in the set-up longer that could’ve hit the slightest bit more. As it is, it feels like everyone’s kinda rushing through this.
— Aaaand here we go, the image that will forever be burned onto SNL’s legacy: Elon Musk dressed as Wario. It’s a truly harrowing sight, but I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t a monstrously funny visual. Like… we’ve fallen so far over the course of the night, and this is just where we are now. 
— For the sake of explaining their premise further, Mikey is literally just reading actual quotations off of the Wario Wiki as in-sketch evidence.
— I had no memory of Kate briefly appearing in this sketch doing some very broad Italian work as Waluigi. Somehow it’s still more tame than the Frances McDormand impression she did a few sketches ago.
— Heh, at one point Kyle-as-Luigi walks directly in front of the camera (ninth screencap).
— Cecily seems to be having a blast hitting that question mark block with her hammer. Glad she can ground herself in a simple joy amidst the general dissociation.
— Grimes, Elon’s then-wife, makes a cameo appearance here as Princess Peach, to literally zero applause. I recall she made an Instagram post talking about how anxious she was to be on the live show, and seeing her in this sketch, I fully understand that feeling. I remember some people pointing out that the character’s never had an Italian accent to further scrutinize this sketch, but… it’s not like we really had to dig for things to roast here. 
— Jesus Christ, the visual of Luigi getting an erection, although heavily censored, is kind of upsetting (on top of being very desperate).
— Heh, Pete fully misses his cue to come out as Andrew Cuomo, leading to several seconds of dead air—as if we weren’t already struggling enough with that.
— Wretched ending with the sketch turning into a message from the Anti-Italian Defamation League. I will say this, though; there have been so many completely intolerable sketches in this episode, some of the lowest of the low you’ll ever see with not even a hint of enjoyment to them. But this one… it’s crisp. It’s deeply hilarious, all entirely in spite of itself, and it’s maybe the closest that modern SNL has come to reaching a level of ironic enjoyment to the degree of The Room. The complete lack of merit to the premise and writing; everyone in the cast feeling like they’re in the midst of an out of body experience; Elon, against all odds, committing to this harder than anything else in the entire episode—truly a chef’s kiss in the art of absolute trash. It’s the best that a stain on SNL’s legacy could ever be.
STARS: * (but if we’re talking ironic enjoyment, a nice ***½)

THE ASTRONAUT
on Mars, pool boy Chad’s sacrifice saves SpaceX colony

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— Oh cool, more promotion of Elon’s stuff!
— Miley Cyrus is here, for whatever reason? I guess just because she likes getting involved with the show whenever she’s a musical guest, which is fair enough; I don’t mind her presence. It just feels like she’s slotted into this sketch rather randomly, and there’s kind of a bad taste in my mouth from how much she defended Elon at the time when people questioned her being the musical guest for the episode. 
— Speaking of, Pete also kinda skirted around Elon’s controversy with some general defense of how cool Elon was when he was interviewed this week on Fallon, which was worth an eye-roll but like, whatever. I can’t sit here and scrutinize everyone’s choices too much. Either way, this great meeting of the minds brings us the final Chad pretape, so… yaaaayyyy!
— Elon: “To save your fellow colonists, you’ll have to make the ultimate sacrifice.” Pete: “Heh. Sack.” You can tell how much they’re stretching that joke in this character’s tenth appearance.
— The scene between Pete and Miley, with her revealing she’s pregnant with his kid (“No thank you.”) is pretty fun, at least by the standards of a Chad sketch.
— It should also go without saying, but apropos of the quality of the writing, this sketch has some amazing set design and staging. Mad props to the SNL crew as usual for managing to do all of these effects convincingly in a week.
— There’s surprisingly less to say about this sketch than I was expecting; despite the “epic” scenario at play, the execution is very straightforward. Chad turns a knob and basically saves the Mars colony. I feel like there could’ve been a lot more to it given the labored set-up.
— The most memorable part of this sketch is Chad’s head exploding when he attempts to take off his space helmet. It’s fine. I like the touch of that being broadcast around the entire globe. It does feel weird that the past two Chad sketches ended with him dying, but at least this iteration feels like a proper end to the character. I’ve spoken of Chad before and there’s a lot that I want to like about him, namely that every sketch places him into increasingly more distinct premises which is very rare to see in recurring characters these days… but Chad is such a flat character that it doesn’t frequently make a big difference.
— Either way, it’s better than a lot of the other stuff in this episode I guess. 
STARS: **

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Plastic Hearts”

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— Blue: Miley’s pink dress is stunning!
— Just as I was getting into the percussion groove, Miley had to ruin it by opening her mouth. “OW!” is right… that was painful…
— Fairly impressed by Miley’s belting on the chorus. Her sense of pitch is decent, if not her timbre.
— Oops, I spoke too soon… Miley was flat on the lines that follow “I just wanna feel something.”
— Other than Miley, this song is great. The brass section, percussion, melody are really grabbing my ear.
— Miley sounds better singing in her lower register on “I just wanna feel…” When she’s belting, she sounds like she’s straining her voice. Shame this song wasn’t written in a lower key… or recorded by a different singer.
— Feeling very conflicted, because I think I love this song. Why does Miley Cyrus have to be the one singing it??
STARS: ***½

COWBOY STANDOFF
in the Old West, visionary (host) proposes ambushing a gang via a tunnel

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— I think this is the least-remembered sketch of the night, but if memory serves, it’s also my least favorite. We’ll see how it goes this time. Who knows? Could be great.
— For the sake of brandishing Elon’s ego, this sketch casts him as an Old West version of himself who is obsessed with the idea of constructing a tunnel to ambush a rival gang. The sketch, of course, portrays his idea as ridiculous, because it’s so funny and cool and relatable to host SNL and let them take little baby digs at your whole deal.
— Generally speaking, I don’t like crediting writers for certain pieces unless I think they’re very good pieces, because I don’t like the idea of antagonizing writers at SNL—I respect them all, and they’re clearly good at what they do even if SNL is a show where talent can easily get squandered or misconstrued. Whereas I haven’t really put names on most of the stuff in this episode, though (it would be overly cruel)… I do have to mention that this sketch was written by Colin Jost and Bryan Tucker. Both are very talented people who have written some of my favorite sketches of all time, but Colin especially always ends up cosigning on these really butt-kissy sketches that are designed to make controversial people look good by taking very polite pokes at them that have been cautiously workshopped and endorsed by the person the pieces kiss up to. (See: the Morgan Wallen sketch from earlier this season, “Aladdin” from next season’s Kim Kardashian episode, “White House 2018” from Trump’s Season 41 dirge.) I’m just sick of the impulse; it’s like a very tacit and playful admission of, “Yeah, we get it, but we’re SNL!” As I said when writing about the Morgan Wallen piece, it’s having their cake and eating it, too. Truly horrible stuff.
— Oh right, I should be watching this sketch.
— Some mild amusement from the line about how “self-driving horses” are actually just horses. You can at least count on Jost and Tucker to get some fun lines out most of the time, even if it has to be birthed from these harrowing circumstances.
— I had to briefly check. I’ve only used the word “harrowing” two other times in this review which is kind of impressive. I’ll probably use it one more time before we’re all done here.
— I love the ongoing battle tonight between Elon and the multitude of ill-advised accents he’s had to put on for his characters. He’s not winning.
— Elon can’t laugh either. He’s literally just saying “Hohohohoho.” and “Hehehehehehe.” I’m not deliberately transcribing it to look bad, I promise.. You can hear the periods.
— Oh my god, he’s talking about crypto again.
— There’s some random sound off-screen—something falling?—that causes Kenan to break a little (sixth screencap), because this is the kind of sketch where the funniest moment is unplanned.
— Super weird beat with Elon’s character admitting that he didn’t believe in wearing masks while robbing banks in the past. Why would he try to own up to that through metaphor? That’s not really a funny thing to admit.
— The ending with it suddenly turning into a song about Kyle’s dying bartender character, Earl, is just plain dumb, though the touch of him acquiring a vulture puppet at some point to poke at his wound is mildly interesting, if not just because the sketch never draws any attention to it. (I actually missed when the vulture appeared.) Flaw or easter egg? You decide.
— Either way, such a turd. 
STARS: *

GOODNIGHTS

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IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— Harrowing. It seemed like a huge mistake when Elon Musk was announced as a host, and he did nothing to prove that wrong once the night was properly executed. This felt like an absolutely miserable week; if the show succeeded at capturing Elon’s voice and “sensibilities,” it simultaneously managed to accomplish the feat of exposing how gratuitously humorless he is as a person. 
— While many are probably gonna be quick to pinpoint this episode as similar to Donald Trump’s S41 hosting gig—which is an apt comparison—I feel that this episode is somehow a fair amount worse as far as the writing quality goes. That episode was at least smart enough to contribute a handful of more functional pieces amidst its garbage that conveniently hid its host, but aside from some okay pretapes, this one is wall-to-wall trash and pushes Elon to the forefront. Plus, at least Trump won at the end of the day by hosting SNL and showing off his cool dance moves. Everyone here loses—Elon’s cryptocurrency stock plummeted, he looked absolutely terrible every time he participated, and SNL once again tainted its legacy with a horrible decision that it’ll never be able to undo. 

MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS

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RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Murdur Durdur
Every Conversation with People You Haven’t Seen Since the Pandemic Started
The Astronaut
Mother’s Day
Weekend Update
Wario Trial
Monologue
The Ooli Show
Gen Z Hospital
Cowboy Standoff

TOMORROW
SNL rebounds with a legitimately brilliant decision for once: Keegan-Michael Key hosts for the first time, as covered by Anthony