“Saturday Night Live” turned Elon Musk’s costly midterm losses into a Weekend Update segment, with featured player Jeremy Culhane playing the billionaire as a baffled, glib loser. Real-life Musk spent nearly $500 million backing Republican candidates this year, with much of the money going to his adopted home state of Texas. Tuesday’s election then flipped most of the state’s statewide races to Democrats. Co-anchor Colin Jost opened by telling Culhane’s Musk that he had wasted half a billion dollars. Musk answered with a single word: “Bad.”
The sketch let Jost needle him from there. He asked about Tesla halting Cybertruck production, another Texas headline this week, and Musk recalled the time one of his cars flipped over, calling it epic. Jost responded, “I cannot believe you are the richest person in the world.” Jost reminded him that he left California because Democrats ran it, then watched Texas turn on his candidates.
Culhane’s Musk reaches for the word “epic” at every opportunity, and he ended sentences with the word “Imagine,” a verbal tic that landed as a non sequitur each time. He called each of Jost’s jabs an “epic vulgar roast,” then asked Grok, the chatbot Musk’s company builds, to deliver its own. The AI called him “the worst thing South Africa has ever done.” At one point Musk offered Jost a fist bump, which Jost returned with visible reluctance.
Reviewers noted the shift in tone. Mike Myers played Musk earlier with broad, scenery-chewing swings, and critics described Culhane’s version as restrained and sharper. One review called it among the most contemptuous portrayals of a public figure the show has aired in years. Culhane, in his second season as a cast member, left open the possibility that Musk will return.
Musk’s representatives did not respond to a request for comment in the coverage found, and Musk has not publicly addressed the sketch. His political spending, though, has become a recurring subject in late-night satire. The segment also arrived alongside Weekend Update jokes about President Donald Trump blaming weak Republican candidates for the party’s midterm showing.
