Jeremy Culhane portrayed Elon Musk on Saturday Night Live’s Weekend Update this week, appearing opposite Colin Jost in a sketch built around the billionaire’s setbacks following Tuesday’s midterm elections. The featured player’s version of Musk struggled to answer questions about political spending, repeatedly steering the conversation toward a story about his car flipping.
According to Variety’s account, Musk spent nearly $500 million supporting Republican candidates, with particular attention to his home state of Texas, where most statewide races subsequently went to Democrats. Jost opened the exchange by pressing Culhane’s Musk about that spending. The character instead insisted that his appearance in the news concerned his car, describing the vehicle’s flip with a comparison to a Hot Wheels toy and presenting himself as unfazed.
The same response became a recurring device when Jost shifted to the halt in Tesla Cybertruck production, which Variety described as another major development in Texas during the week. Rather than address the production question, Culhane’s character returned to the car incident, embellishing his account with imagined reactions from onlookers and another attempt to project confidence.
The performance then moved into an extended fantasy involving Musk, Jost and Che spending time together and trading insults. Culhane’s Musk imagined the group turning away girls who wanted to join them, before describing his leather jacket transforming into armor while a crowd chanted his name. Jost responded with disbelief that the person telling the story was the world’s richest man.
Jost next delivered a pointed summary of the character’s predicament. Within the sketch, he linked Musk’s relocation from California to objections to Democratic leadership and described his companies’ move to Texas as motivated by taxes. He also mentioned Musk building his own town there, before framing the Democratic election victories as undermining those plans. Asked how that made him feel, Culhane’s Musk answered simply: “Bad.”
The exchange then turned to Grok, Musk’s artificial intelligence system. After calling Jost his “poorest friend,” the character promoted what he described as Grok’s ability to deliver an “epic vulgar roast.” He invited the system to demonstrate by directing insults at him.
The resulting jokes targeted Musk’s South African background, television appearances and relationships with his children. The demonstration brought the character’s enthusiasm to an abrupt end. Culhane’s Musk demanded that Grok be shut down as he departed the Weekend Update desk, closing the appearance with the advertised feature turned against its promoter.
