Saturday Night Live made waves over the weekend by announcing its next host would be a billionaire with questionable scientific beliefs, despite owning a company responsible for sending humans into space. Though Musk has plenty of fans online, the reaction across social media was largely negative for a number of reasons, with some comparing the move to the show’s infamous decision to let Donald Trump host during his run to the White House in 2015.
Musk drew plenty of reaction from skeptics on Saturday, but as the weekend went on, one meme triumphed above all. In recent years, SNL has announced hosts and musical guests with images of yellow, blue and pink index cards. They did the same on Saturday when announcing Musk and musical guest Miley Cyrus, and an intrepid poster with the Twitter handle @bonerwizard decided to edit out the names and let people go wild picking their own host and musical guest.
have fun you turkeys pic.twitter.com/xI61K4KHeU
— paige (@BonerWizard) April 25, 2021
Their own suggestion was pretty good, and very quickly the pairings got more and more absurd.
— Ras Trent Reznor (@brodeep) April 25, 2021
— Rap Game Ina Garten (@KaraBTweets) April 25, 2021
Not a huge fan of his early work but looking forward to seeing what he does here https://t.co/IWz6WXepqT pic.twitter.com/u5IL80P5Pc
— Ash Diggs (@AshDiggs_) April 25, 2021
Great. https://t.co/ZSC860EBhO pic.twitter.com/v3C7laBYKD
— 𝙶𝚞𝚜 (@disgustud) April 25, 2021
https://twitter.com/Rob__Sly/status/1386280242159960064
Dream scenario
https://t.co/R9Hyf8fmly pic.twitter.com/TT4e4bta9p
— Stephen Hoover (@hooveycomedy) April 25, 2021
[P] Okay, fine, I’ll play. https://t.co/Cb9C6xFjE0 pic.twitter.com/8T2ln1rQPC
— Paul and Storm (@paulandstorm) April 25, 2021
Tune in! (Cameo by Waddles) https://t.co/p3a6ubFdoV pic.twitter.com/9gv6BO6CYw
—
Cyntholai
(@ckatmyla) April 25, 2021
Let’s Gooooo https://t.co/OmAWyM5xrX pic.twitter.com/f7Le5iSskV
— Ken McGraw (@KenMcGraw) April 25, 2021
https://t.co/9WHTBLx0m9 pic.twitter.com/Zg4UGohrbr
— Paul F. Tompkins (@PFTompkins) April 25, 2021
Some, however, were actually pretty good suggestions.
i choose to imagine a better world pic.twitter.com/eE9iXofkWJ
— the vaccinated introvert gamer (@keithmwatt) April 25, 2021
Of course, this isn’t the first time the format has been used to make a joke. In fact, SNL writer Steven Castillo has used the format to make his own jokes on Twitter and Instagram in the past. This one is a particular favorite.
He made his own joke about the Musk pick on Saturday as well, so perhaps the show will be in on the joke of it all when Musk actually swings by next month.
Lorne finally let me pick the host!!!!! https://t.co/VQYyWpRJtG
— Steven Castillo (@STEEEZUSCHRIST) April 24, 2021
The only way to see if Musk can actually pull it off is to watch. Or, I suppose, just wait to see some clips surface on Twitter and quote tweet it with your own take.