Elon Musk’s costly foray into the U.S. midterm elections became late-night fodder over the weekend, as Saturday Night Live devoted a Weekend Update segment to the billionaire’s political spending and the awkward fallout that followed. The sketch, which aired November 7, featured comedian Jeremy Culhane as Musk and anchor Colin Jost guiding the bit through a series of deflections. At the center of the joke was Elon Musk midterm spending—a topic Jost introduced by noting that Musk had been in the news for “wasting” money on the elections.
Culhane’s Musk, however, had no interest in discussing politics. Instead, he insisted that his actual newsworthiness came from a car stunt. “I’m in the news because my car did a flip,” the impersonator said, comparing the maneuver to a Hot Wheels toy and adopting a mock-casual “thug life” attitude. The reference pointed to Tesla’s October demonstration of its next-generation Roadster, which was shown kick-flipping in the air.
A Pattern of Diversion
The sketch returned to the same evasion when Jost asked about Musk’s decision to halt production of the Cybertruck—an announcement that came two days after the midterm elections. Once again, Culhane’s Musk waved off the question and steered the conversation back to the airborne car. He described the flip as “epic,” mimicked sound effects, and claimed he had been utterly unbothered, even cocky, about the whole thing. The repetition served as the segment’s comic engine: no matter the subject, the punchline remained the same.
That structure allowed SNL to nod at several of Musk’s recent headlines without dwelling on any single one. The real Musk had donated at least $446 million to conservative political action committees ahead of the midterms, including a significant sum directed toward supporting conservative candidates in Texas. But the investment did not produce the desired result. Texas, along with several other states that had traditionally voted red, turned blue in this election cycle.
The Financial Fallout
The political setback was quickly followed by a financial one. According to the report, Musk’s net worth dropped by $33 billion in a single day, while shares of Tesla and SpaceX tumbled. Those details formed the backdrop for the Weekend Update segment, which framed the billionaire as a man eager to change the subject.
Toward the end of the sketch, Culhane’s Musk introduced a fictitious new feature for Grok, the chatbot associated with his ventures, called “vulgar roast.” The fake Grok then delivered a pair of cutting lines. One jab suggested that Musk was the worst thing to come out of South Africa; another needled him about his large family, implying that if he had a hundred more children, one of them might actually speak to him. The bit closed on that note, leaving the impression of a tech mogul whose attempts at humor and reinvention had been thoroughly upstaged.
For SNL, the segment fit neatly into Weekend Update’s tradition of skewering public figures after major news cycles. For Musk, it added a cultural dimension to a week already defined by political disappointment and market losses. The sketch did not attempt to litigate the specifics of his donations or the blue wave that swept several states; instead, it used repetition and absurdity to suggest that the billionaire would rather talk about a flipping car than confront the results of his expensive political bet.