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Elon Musk dubs himself ‘the Dogefather’ ahead of SNL hosting gig on May 8

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CEO Elon Musk

Elon Musk is going to host the TV show on May 8.


James Martin/CNET

Elon Musk will host NBC’s Saturday Night Live on May 8 and he’s making jokes about his upcoming appearance. Late Tuesday, the billionaire businessman behind Tesla and SpaceX tweeted a reminder of his hosting gig, dubbing himself the Dogefather. The tweet references the meme-themed cryptocurrency Dogecoin, which Musk has tweeted and talked about before.

For a short tweet, Musk’s words may have had a real-world effect. Barrons reported a Dogecoin rally, reporting that the currency was up about 15 percent, to 31 cents, in Wednesday trading.

It’s not Musk’s first tweet about the upcoming SNL episode. On Saturday, he confirmed his appearance with a tweet, then added another in which he wrote, “Let’s find out just how live Saturday Night Live really is,” with a purple smiling devil-face emoji.

That tweet caused some confusion. SNL cast member Bowen Yang reacted in an Instagram story with a frowning face, and then said, “What the f— does that even mean?”

Cast member Andrew Dismukes also commented on Musk’s hosting in an Instagram story, referring to SNL alum Cheri Oteri, and writing “ONLY CEO I WANT TO DO A SKETCH WITH IS Cher-E Oteri.”

Musician Grimes, who shares a son with Musk, defended him on TikTok this week when commenters attacked Musk over issues involving the environment and women’s rights, while admitting “(definitely) he’s been very immature at points on Twitter.”

A press release from SNL announcing his host role described Musk as “the CEO and Technoking of Tesla and the chief engineer of SpaceX, which launched the second operational flight of its Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station on April 23.” Miley Cyrus will be the musical guest on the May 8 show.

Although Musk is a first-time host, Miley Cyrus has been the show’s musical guest five times.

Musk is an unusual choice, to say the least, but some nonactors have hosted in the past. Athletes such as Nancy Kerrigan and Lance Armstrong have hosted the show, as have politicians such as Rudy Giuliani and Al Gore. Even then-presidential candidate Donald Trump hosted in 2015.

And Musk is certainly no stranger to the spotlight (or to cracking a joke). He’s had cameos in Iron Man 2, The Simpsons and Rick and Morty — as Elon Tusk. And then there are the viral moments: taking a toke on Joe Rogan’s podcast, that could-almost-have-been-a-comedy-routine Cybertruck demo. And the tweets — including the one where Musk’s head was Photoshopped onto the Rock’s body. Musk also named his actually-a-thing tunnel-digging business The Boring Company. 

Naturally, there was some social-media reaction to the SNL news.

“I wonder how much Musk paid NBC and Lorene Michaels for the gig,” one Twitter user wrote, referring to SNL creator Lorne Michaels. “Bet it’s enough to finance SNL’s entire 2021-’22 season.”

“Elon Musk hosting SNL is huge for guys still making “that’s what she said’ jokes who think they’d be great at hosting SNL,” wrote comedian and author Josh Gondelman.

CNET’s Edward Moyer contributed to this report.

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source: cnet.com