Elon Musk’s costly political misadventure and a rough product week became fodder for a fresh Elon Musk SNL parody on Weekend Update, with Jeremy Culhane stepping into the mogul’s shoes to deliver a halting, non-sequitur-heavy impression.
The sketch, which aired Saturday with Colin Jost at the Update desk, framed Musk as a man trying to spin a series of losses into something else entirely. Jost opened by reminding the character that he had spent roughly half a billion dollars on the midterms and that nearly every candidate he backed had lost. Culhane’s Musk responded by pivoting to a car stunt, describing a flip with childlike excitement and comparing it to a Hot Wheels toy.
Jost pressed further, noting the irony that Musk had moved to Texas because California was run by Democrats, only for Texas to now be run by them as well. Asked how that felt, the character offered a flat “Bad” before steering the conversation back to the car and a string of verbal fillers.
A Grok Roast That Cut Deep
The writers then had the parody Musk ask his AI chatbot, Grok, for what Culhane’s character called an “epic vulgar-roast.” The results were brutal: the chatbot declared him “the worst thing South Africa has ever done,” joked that his television appearances felt like an episode of “Hate on the Spectrum,” and suggested that if he had a hundred more children, perhaps one would speak to him.
The sketch also nodded to Musk’s real-life attempt to recast his electoral losses as vindication for conspiracy theories about rigging the 2024 election. In the parody, though, the character remained fixated on the car flip and a barrage of “so, you know, uh” hesitations.
A Different Take From Mike Myers
Culhane’s restrained performance marked a shift from Mike Myers’s recent portrayal of Musk, which had leaned into scenery-chewing and manic energy—including a cold open a year ago in which the character bellowed “Legalize Comedy” behind depictions of Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The newer impression left open the possibility that Culhane could reprise the role in future episodes.
The episode also landed in a busy pop-cultural moment for Musk. Alex Gibney’s four-hour investigative documentary deconstructs the mogul’s myth and argues he is more dangerous than caricatures suggest. The film notes that Musk has been savvy at adopting cartoonish behaviors that lead people to underestimate him—a point underscored in the sketch when Jost, after another rambling tangent, said he could not believe Musk was the richest person in the world.
SNL’s Complicated History With Musk
Saturday’s segment also carried a whiff of atonement. Five years ago, Musk himself hosted SNL in an appearance that prompted a boycott from multiple cast members, led to Chloe Fineman crying, and is now viewed as a bad choice to cuddle up to a toxic figure. The new parody, by contrast, kept its distance—though some critics may argue it still turns Musk into a colorful media character rather than a graver threat.
For now, the sketch captured a week in which Musk’s political bets came up empty and his Cybertruck was officially deemed a failure. In the world of Weekend Update, at least, the response was a car flip and a chatbot’s sharpest insults.
