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

Cold Opening – Mother’s Day Message

• An interesting opening with Miley standing on the home base stage.
• A lovely song by Miley, but how is it related to mothers in any way?
• Lovely to see the cast with their moms.
• Kate’s coming off lovable with her mom.
• A poorly-aged bit with Aidy’s mom plugging in Shrill, which I think was about to be canceled or was during this time.
• IIRC, this is Aidy’s ONLY appearance all night, I recall some saying that she refused to be in sketches with Elon, but I disagree as she had a cut sketch that would be performed next episode.
• (*sigh*) Seeing Beck with his mother is reminding me of his eventual departure.
• It’s insane how Melissa’s appearance in this open is her first appearance since Maya Rudolph’s episode in MARCH. This is absurd.
• Interesting see Chloe after Melissa, given how some Melissa stans started to moronically attack her for Melissa’s lack of airtime. Again, both are similar, but Chloe managed to do more than just impressions, she made those characters rather than mere vocal imitation & they felt lived-in, and not to mention playing many supporting and comedic roles. Melissa’s niche is on Update, and despite killing it multiple times, she still never got her break, absurd.
• Sadly, this is Punkie’s first & ONLY appearance all night. I think it’s for the better for her, given how this episode will turn out (hint: not good).
• An overall cute, funny, and warm special cold open. It also felt like the calm before the storm considering this episode’s reputation and eventual trajectory in quality.

Rating: ***1/2

Monologue

• I’ll just say it right now: I have nothing against Elon Musk, never cared for him nor his rapid fans that worship him & quote everything he says. Yet, I’ll disclose in my final thoughts why SNL booked him in the first place, and how it payed off in the end.
• Oh my, I’m sure that Elon was a great person behind the scenes at SNL and everything, but MY GOD, his attempt at comedy is cringeworthy.
• Now he’s bragging about his vision for the world. Oh just spare me.
• Now he’s launching into bunch of groaners with the OJ jokes. Sit down, Elon. You’re no Norm when it comes to “OJ is a murderer” jokes.
• Not caring for the various comments that Elon is making right now.
• It’s kinda sweet that Elon brought his mom onstage; and again I don’t hate Elon, unlike when Donald Trump (*shudder*) hosted back in season 41.
• Boy, his mom looks exactly like the typical mom of a multibillionaire.
• Some awkward moments & pauses between Elon and his mom.
• Overall, not a single laugh from me this entire monologue, just a bunch of groans and sighs. Possibly the worst monologue I’ve watched after the John Krasinski, Donald Trump (*shudder*) and Russell Crowe’s monologues in season 41.

Rating: *

Gen-Z Hospital

• It feels fitting that we are starting such episode proper with a particularly notorious sketch that went viral for all the wrong reasons.
• Really SNL? THIS is our lead-off sketch of the night?! Oh, this is going to be a LOOONG show isn’t it?
• At least Melissa looks gorgeous in that wig & getup, even more attractive than usual, which is probably the only positive thing that I could say about this sketch.
• I’m about one minute into this sketch, and boy, what am I watching?! What is THIS?! How did this get past dress?!
• This sketch is PAINFUL so far. The comedic conceit of everyone acting, sounding, and moving like TikTok influencers is comedy death. And I feel bad for Ego, Heidi, and Kate especially who’s great talents are being wasted in this sketch with very poor roles.
• Is it my copy (live version), or is the audience DEAD? I only hear crickets so far into this sketch.
• What’s with all the back-and-forth about “mom”? Who in the world talks like that?! I’m a 25 year-old and I’ve NEVER heard anyone close to my age speak like this.
• Not caring for the various little moments as the group are saying their final words to “mom”.
• This is such a fascinating sketch to watch and talk about, but more like how autopsy is fascinating, as this tripe is a complete walking corpse of a sketch.
• Awful, AWFUL ending.

Rating: *

Every Conversation With People You Haven’t Seen Since Quarantine Started

• A promising concept.
• A huge laugh early on from Kate’s inner thoughts saying: “Who the fuck is this guy?”.
• Beck’s always-reliable line deliveries are making his inner thoughts funnier than they should be.
• Great scene between Chris & Ego and him wondering if she’s his cousin, and her confirming that she IS.
• Sadly, this fun short comes to a screeching halt with the Elon Musk takeover.
• Oh, it turns out his scene is very brief, again thankfully.
• Good laugh from Beck’s “It affected me zero”.
• OH NO. Here comes Elon once again to derail this short, I don’t dislike him, but he needs to GO AWAY from my SNL.
• An overall pretty good short, not as strong, to me at least, as some think of it, but still good.

Rating: ***1/2 (Musk’s involvement lowered my rating by half-a-star)

The Ooli Show

• Chloe’s Ooli character officially becomes recurring, after debuting in an Airbnb commercial towards the end of Chloe’s first season.
• Surprisingly, this is the only character from Chloe’s vast repertoire of characters that made it so far into SNL. Insane how barely Chloe was able to showcase her character skills so far into her tenure. I mean, her tenure is pretty good so far, but I want to see more sides of her talent.
• I adore Chloe, and she’s one of my favorites, so it pains me to say anything remotely negative regarding her, but man, I’m NOT caring for her character nor this sketch.
• Why use this tired talk show format? Why not use this character in a more creative setting? At least I should be happy with Chloe’s strong airtime this season.
• Elon looking like he came straight out of Sprockets.
• Elon is AWFUL in this sketch. It’s either his characterization of the role or he is that unfunny as a person.
• Kate is generally a strong impressionist (outside of her prosthetic-heavy portrayals of male politicians), but she’s not nailing Frances McDormand AT ALL. And is coming off unfunny and bland, which is almost unheard of Kate in her impressions.
• Not caring for the various dance movements in this sketch.
• Hey they at least gave Melissa an impression to do! It’s like they realized she exists outside of her dressing room.
• Melissa’s Björk is quite solid, but not as strong & memorable as the Kristen Wiig and Alex Borstein versions of Björk (come to think of it, Alex is a FAR stronger impressionist than most of the female impersonators on SNL, aside from maybe Ana & Chloe).
• Terrible, lazy, weak sketch overall. It felt like a throwback to the Fey & Myers eras, which is NOT a good thing.

Rating: *1/2

Murder Durder

• Here comes a very popular and well-liked piece from this season that’s widely regarded as a major season highlight. To tell you the truth, I’ve always DESPISED this pretape and found it to be the epitome of bad one-joke sketch in the past, but I’ll keep an open mind tonight.
• Meh, people from Pennsylvania speaking with thick accents, and pronouncing certain sounds in a funny way. Reminds me of the Coffee Talk sketches that have the characters speaking in a New York accent and pronounce the “aww” sounds.
• At least Beck almost saved this for me with his exaggerated performance.
• Solid dramatic acting from Kate, unsurprisingly, due to her immense talents, but much like the Gen-Z Hospital sketch (*shudder*) earlier, her talent is being wasted in a weak one-joke piece.
• OH NO. Now we have Elon to take over this already-weak short, spare me. Next please.

Rating: *1/2

Weekend Update

• Some good laughs from Michael’s rant about Florida.
• Ego Nwodim gets her second Update commentary so far into her tenure.
• Ah, I’m LOVING Ego’s demeanor and characterization in this role, she’s coming off very relatable and likable in her portrayal. In her two Update commentaries so far into her tenure, Ego proved herself in being such a reliable & warm presence behind the Update desk, so much fun to watch and review.
• A great dark turn with Ego’s commentary, and as one would expect, she’s performing this masterfully.
• An overall strong Ego Update commentary, she’s 2-for-2 so far into her tenure in providing both solid, relatable material & getting big laughs from me. And yes, I loved her two commentaries that she did so far in the currently-airing season.
• A huge laugh from the Biden/Carter/Giuliani joke, one of my favorites of the season.
• Here comes yet another notorious moment from this already-notorious episode: Elon Musk talking about cryptocurrency.
• Ugh at Elon calling himself “The Dogefather”, fucking unbearable.
• My god, the unfunny gag were Michael asks Elon about Dogecoin is insufferable, if Micheal asks Elon ONE more time what is Dogecoin….
• (*sigh*) He just asked again.
• Mercifully this commentary is over. Jesus Christ. This HAS to be, hands down, one of the grossest, shameful, and unfunny things that SNL aired in 46+ seasons, which is damn impressive.
• Ugh, Baby Yoda
• Out of this whole damn episode, Update is the one that’s destroying me! Why?! In THIS episode of everything?! What happened to Update all of the sudden after Ego’s commentary SNL?!
• Now he’s repeating the same tired lame photo-based “jokes” that were never funny the first time.
• End my misery, SNL. I’m BEGGING YOU. This commentary is giving me a serious headache.
• Thankfully, this Update is over. It started out hot, with a string of solid jokes & a great Ego Nwodim commentary. Then, it suddenly crashed-and-burned HARD with the terrible one-two punch of the Elon Musk and particularly Baby Yoda commentaries, the latter of which was fucking brutal to sit through.

Rating: **1/2 (The one-two punch of Musk and Baby Yoda lowered my rating by two full stars)

Wario Trial

• Here comes yet another a very notorious SNL sketch that’s widely been regarded as amongst the nadirs of the current era.
• Right from the “hilarious” cutaway to Elon-as-Wario you could tell this is gonna be a trainwreck sketch.
• Elon’s performance here is weird, too slow and lethargic in his delivery and characterization. The version that probably most people are familiar with (the YouTube upload of this sketch), feature Elon playing Wario in more energetic way, yet he still sucked. Well, guess what, his performance in the version that I’m watching is somehow even worse.
• This feels like a YouTube sketch from 2008. Man, what is happening to SNL this season? Why do so many sketches have that low-budget, hollow, flat, high school production-esque feel? I noticed that particularly in that horrible Future Ghost sketch in the premiere & some other sketches too this season, what happened all of the sudden SNL?!
• Not caring for Heidi’s delivery, which is something I never say about her.
• Mikey’s delivery is starting to get on my nerves, he has to be the culprit behind this disaster.
• Ouch, just realized that I barely say that about Mikey, as I generally like him a lot, outside of his REACTING sketches.
• Grimes’ scene bombed with the audience, again adding to my point regarding the hollow, dead, high school production-esque feel of this sketch.
• Did SNL not get the memo that Peach is supposed to be posh English royalty?
• Oh, now we’re getting juvenile and desperate, with the visual of Luigi’s blurred erect penis.
• And the sketch keeps going on and on and on and on…
• Now this is turning into a PSA shit, and if not even Kenan could save nor steal this, you know you fucked up big time.

Rating: *

The Astronaut

• Great production value on this short.
• OH NO. This turns into a freaking Chad sketch?!
• Miley is at least good in this.
• Yeah, this is pretty much the usual one-note, unfunny, uninspired, snooze-inducing Chad stuff. We at least had a solid performance from Adele to elevate the material last time. Elon here, on the other hand, is just oof.
• Thankfully, this is now over.

Rating: *1/2

Cowboy Standoff

• Ah, the fitting capper for tonight’s episode, with the obligatory “Elon the genius inventor” sketch.
• This is Cecily’s third & FINAL appearance all night, which is something unheard of before in her tenure were she would be regularly heavily featured throughout the season. I recall this made me, and many other fans believe that she’ll be leaving after this season, due to also her contract expiring & being supposedly given a “sendoff” in the finale. And those who thought Kate would leave are dead wrong, as it’s IMPOSSIBLE for her to leave without getting a massive farewell episode and special sendoff similar to Phil Hartman, Will Ferrell, and Kristen Wiig.
• Leron? Don’t tell me that Elon is supposed to be playing an ancestor or something, who’s just as genius as Elon. I guess this is SNL’s obligatory dick-sucking sketch for our billionaire host.
• OH GOD that genius line, delivered by poor Alex, is such a not-so-subtle quick ass kiss to Elon, excuse me, I meant Leron.
• MEH at the self-driving horses being known as horses line, I bet whomever wrote that “joke” is patting their self on the back for a “clever” and “groundbreaking” joke.
• (*groan*) That re-inventing the wheel line is such an ass-kissing moment in full-force.
• I’m about two minutes into this and I don’t know what the HELL am I watching.
• I’m more than halfway into this sketch & I have to ask: where the fuck is the joke in this? What’s the comedic conceit or the through line in this laughless dud? How did this make into air, or dress, hell! How the fuck did this pass the table read??!! Oh, I see, it’s because it’s our obligatory billionaire ass-kissing & dick-sucking sketch, similar to how when Donald Trump (*shudder*) hosted and they gave him a shameless post-monologue sketch about how “great” he’ll be as president and how much “winning” he’ll achieve for America.
• Now Cecily’s singing. Just fucking end the episode already!

Rating: *

Segments Ranked From Best to Worst

Every Conversation With People You Haven’t Seen Since Quarantine Started

Mother’s Day

Weekend Update

The Ooli Show

The Astronaut

Murder Durder

Monologue

Wario Trial

Gen-Z Hospital

Cowboy Standoff

Final Thoughts:-

• The expected trainwreck given who our host is. Now, let me be clear, I don’t think that Elon Musk is NOWHERE near as bad or controversial as Trump, but having him on was simply a stunt move by SNL to regain relevancy in the post-Trump era, pure and simple. Having Mr. Musk, give how universally famous he is an entrepreneur, would give SNL, in an ailing season, much exposure, which was EXACTLY what happened with this episode.
• Elon Musk was as funny as one would expect him to be. While he was FAR AND AWAY better than the other disaster hosts (Milton Berle, Steven Seagal, Dieon Sanders, Paul Reiser, Tom Green, Donald Trump (*shudder*), Paris Hilton, Russell Crowe), he barely if ever impressed me throughout the episode. Not helping him how the show wrote him in some of this era’s more embarrassing & bafflingly bad sketches.
• The experience of reviewing this episode was not what I would expect, while I gave mostly negative reviews to the majority of the material, I had a blast tearing into the sketches & pretapes, only the horrible one-two punch of Elon & fucking Baby Yoda on Update made me somewhat miserable. Unlike my experience reviewing the other worst (at least to me) shows from this season.

Up Next:-

• Keegan-Michael Key hosts with musical guest Olivia Rodrigo.