Telsa CEO Elon Musk is all set to host a skit on Saturday Night Live (SNL) which would premier on May 8 with the title 'The Dogefather'. It is expected he would showcase his favourite cryptocurrency Dogecoin and the buildup to the SNL show has already got the meme currency to new lifetime heights.
Rumours are doing the rounds that the regular supporting performers of SNL are unhappy that Elon Musk has highjacked the famed show as they believe he's doing it just to establish his personality and is aspiring to be a demagogue just like former president Donald Trump, who also hosted SNL once in 2004 and again in 2015 while he was running for the presidency simply to grab the limelight.
The tensions first came to light when Musk tweeted on May 2, just a week before the show, asking his followers to advise him some skit ideas to portray on SNL, and that is when people assumed that the SNL employees including writers and performers aren't keen on working with him and have made him fetch the content ideas all by himself.
''Throwing out some skit ideas for SNL. What should I do?'' He tweeted and followed up with another tweet claiming to be an idea of his own. ''Irony Man – defeats villains using the power of irony,'' and ''Baby Shark & Shark Tank merge to form Baby Shark Tank,'' hinting that the SNL team have not provided any content and are unhappy that he's asked to host the show.
Why Do SNL Performers Dislike Elon Musk Hosting The Show?
Though Elon Musk is loved and adorned as a visionary entrepreneur, his statements about several issues are controversial. Considering the fact that during the first Covid-19 breakout across the United States in February, 2020, Musk downplayed the pandemic stating ''the coronavirus panic is dumb.''
Musk also sent an email to all Space X employees saying he doesn't really think that the Covid-19 pandemic is "within the top 100 health risks in the United States," and said people were far more likely to die from a car crash than die from contracting Covid-19, despite evidence suggesting otherwise.
Considering SNL is a left-wing leaning show praising the Democratic party and poking fun of Republicans, especially Donald Trump, SNL staff feel Musk is just another Trump in the making using the platform to further his agenda.
''More sinister is the way that Musk can turn 'Saturday Night Live' into just another platform for his fans and his 'content,' whatever that may be,'' wrote Jesse Hassenger for the AV Club.
Hassenger also wrote that giving the platform such as SNL to Musk is dangerous as he's trying to build a cult like personality for himself and is using it to boost his presence and his financial assets.
''Musk is closer to the eccentric-moron Trump who hosted in 2004 than the aspiring-demagogue Trump who hosted in 2015. The difference has more to do with how the ecosystem of fame has shifted, establishing terrifying cults of personality around seemingly anyone with some manner of megaphone.''
Musk also goes around giving ridiculous statements to aspiring youngsters that the world isn't real and people are living in a stimulated artificial environment that is designed to please someone else. The statements are not liked by a section of people and have accused him of being deranged.
Will SNL Performers Not Been Seen On The Dogefather?
The Wrap quoted a source from SNL saying that if any cast member or writer is upset or uncomfortable performing with Elon Musk, he or she is free to sit out with no questions asked or forced by the executive producer Lorne Michaels to perform, and would let them sit that one out, confirmed this insider.
When asked if any performer has decided to sit out of the show, the source said no, but continued, ''It sounds like no one is actually taking that option.''
