New York — Jeremy Culhane Debuts New Musk Impression on SNL

Saturday Night Live cast member Jeremy Culhane debuted a new impression of Elon Musk on the show's Nov. 7 broadcast, portraying the Tesla and SpaceX chief executive as an awkward figure eager to be liked rather than the chainsaw-wielding caricature Mike Myers had used in prior appearances, according to TechCrunch.

The segment landed during a week in which Musk drew headlines for spending roughly half a billion dollars backing midterm candidates who ultimately lost and for announcing plans to halt Cybertruck production, TechCrunch reported. Culhane's version of Musk leaned into those setbacks for laughs, at one point reminding the Weekend Update audience, "My car did a flip!"

What did Colin Jost ask Musk's SNL character?

Weekend Update co-host Colin Jost pressed the Culhane-played Musk on a political reversal: "You moved to Texas because California was run by Democrats. You moved all your companies to Texas because you didn't want to pay taxes. You even built your own town in Texas. And now Texas is run by Democrats. Now you're going to have to pay taxes. So how does that make you feel?" Culhane's Musk responded with a single word: "Bad?"

What did Grok say about Musk on the show?

To demonstrate he could take a joke, the character asked his own chatbot, Grok, to deliver "an epic vulgar roast of me, Elon Musk." The bit, as described by TechCrunch, had Grok call Musk "the worst thing South Africa has ever done" and suggest, "Maybe if you have 100 more kids, one of them will talk to you."

Is this the first time SNL has mocked Musk?

No. Myers has periodically appeared as Musk wielding a chainsaw before freezing and muttering "Glitch!" — a recurring bit predating Culhane's version. Musk himself hosted SNL in the past, making him both a past host and a recurring target of the show's impressions.

Which other tech executives has SNL targeted this season?

The Musk sketch was part of a broader pattern this season, per TechCrunch. The same episode featured Jane Wickline playing Elizabeth Holmes in a spoof of the Theranos founder's documentary "You Can See Everything," though TechCrunch noted most of the segment's jokes centered on host Druski rather than Holmes. Wickline has also played Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei as what TechCrunch called "a stuttering prophet of AI doom," and James Austin Johnson caricatured investor and data-center backer Kevin O'Leary. In that bit, Johnson's O'Leary responded to public opposition to data centers by saying, "All I want is to buy up 40,000 acres of God's untouched splendor and replace it with a very loud computer that steals your job."

TechCrunch framed the run of sketches as evidence that "SNL seems to have its knives out for tech executives" this season, pointing to the Musk, Amodei, Holmes and O'Leary impressions as a cluster rather than an isolated gag.