Gary Zhou 
In a recent promo for his upcoming appearance as a guest host on Saturday Night Live, Elon Musk seemed to be in his (slightly awkward) element. Musk is set to appear on the popular late-night comedy show this coming Saturday, May 8, at 8:30 p.m. PST, alongside musical guest Miley Cyrus.
The Tesla and SpaceX CEO invited viewers to watch the forthcoming SNL episode with the award-winning singer. He also characterized himself as a “wild card,” since there isn’t anything that can predict what he’ll do. Cyrus agreed with him, mocking “rules” and the like.
“Hi, I’m Elon Musk, and I’m hosting SNL this week with musical guest Miley Cyrus. And I’m a wild card, so there’s no telling what I would do,” Musk said, adding that they would try to be “good-ish.” In a companion promo, the award-winning singer asked Musk what he was up to this week, to which the SpaceX CEO said that “I just did a successful rocket launch this week.”
While such a comment could seem bold given the inherently spectacular nature of rocket launches, Musk was simply downplaying SpaceX’s achievements over the past week. Musk’s remark was most likely in response to the successful test flight of Starship SN15, which successfully completed its first landing. But SpaceX didn’t stop there over the last seven days.
In addition to the successful launch of Starship SN15, SpaceX also successfully and safely returned four astronauts from the International Space Station with its Crew Dragon capsule. The astronauts on the Crew-1 mission spent a record-breaking 168 days in space. Of course, SpaceX’s workhorse, the Falcon 9, placed 60 new Starlink satellites into orbit before landing perfectly on a droneship in the middle of the ocean.
Perhaps the words “I just did a successful rocket launch this week” are a lot more modest than they sound when spoken by someone as talented and experienced as Elon Musk.
Despite some cast members’ reservations about Musk’s hosting gig on Saturday Night Live, things seem to be going smoothly for the SpaceX CEO and the late-night comedy show’s cast. Saturday Night Live cast member Pete Davidson said in a statement to Entertainment Weekly that the cast and Musk recently dined together, which is a tradition among the show’s guest hosts.
The dinner, according to Davidson, was fun, and no mention was made of the supposed scandals and protests by cast members who were opposed to the CEO. Musk was really good, according to Davidson, and he was looking forward to the episode.
“We didn’t discuss it at all because we’re all just like… I just don’t understand why this is the dude everyone’s so freaked out about. I was like, ‘What did he do? He’s just like a really wealthy businessman that makes, like, nerd s***.’ I don’t know. He’s really nice. I’m excited,” Davidson said.
