Michael Che, actor and co-anchor of “Weekend Update” on “Saturday Night Live,” discussed business magnate and multi-billionaire Elon Musk’s controversial upcoming appearance on “SNL” set for May 8.
Che appeared virtually on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” on Wednesday and discussed the episode. Che joked, “Well, I was all on board for it till I found out that, like, did you know he’s rich? … Now I’m, like, against it.”
“I wish they would’ve told me that before,” the co-anchor joked, before he added, “It’s going to be interesting … It’s cool that people care about who’s on the show, you know? I think, like, that’s what makes it kind of cool.”
“The show’s [been] on 46 years and people still care about who’s being booked,” he said. “I think that’s kind of dope.”
Che also seemed to support Musk when he discussed the topic on Monday’s “Late Night With Seth Meyers” on NBC. Che was asked about Musk’s appearance by former “SNL” cast member Meyers.
“Yeah, you know, that’s gonna be exciting, too,” Che said. “He’s the richest man in the world; how could you not be excited for that?”
Musk has received criticism from members of the cast who were reportedly unhappy that he would be hosting an episode of the show. Many seemed to take issue with the fact that Musk is wealthy.
The Daily Wire reported:
NBC announced on April 24 that Musk, 49, would co-host the show with Miley Cyrus, becoming the first nonactor or nonathlete to host the show since Donald Trump in 2015 and prompting Musk to tweet mockingly, “Let’s find out just how live ‘Saturday Night Live’ really is.”
The news of Musk hosting apparently triggered the cast; Bowen Yang blurted, “What the f *** does this even mean,” in an Instagram Story post. Aidy Bryant reacted by reposting a tweet by Sen. Bernie Sanders that called it a “moral obscenity” that “the 50 wealthiest people in America today own more wealth than the bottom half of our people.”
SNL writer Andrew Dismukes posted on Instagram: “Only CEO I want to do a sketch with is Cher-E Oteri.”
Musk has ruffled some leftist feathers in recent years. The Daily Wire reported, “as recently as late February, when asked for comment by The Washington Post about a profile in the Post that quoted various critics slamming him for being stretched too thin, Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and Space X, fired back at the Post and ostensibly its owner Jeff Bezos, snapping, ‘Give my regards to your puppet master.’”
One month before that, responding to a story satirizing Big Tech censorship, Musk tweeted, “A lot of people are going to be super unhappy with West Coast high tech as the de facto arbiter of free speech.”
According to The Daily Wire, “Musk has evinced some conservative views for some time. In May 2020, he gave an indication of how fed-up he is with the leftist governance of what was then his home state of California, apparently urging followers on Twitter to join the conservatives of America as he tweeted succinctly, ‘Take the red pill.’”
Singer Miley Cyrus is set to be the musical guest on the upcoming “SNL” episode. Cyrus also received criticism from fans when she reached out to Musk over social media in advance of the show.
As The Daily Wire reported, “Cyrus got caught up in the hate-fest after she cheerfully responded to Musk’s retweet of [a] meme that featured him swinging on a wrecking ball — a reference Miley’s famed music video.”
“‘Might be something there haha,’ Musk said in response to the meme, to which Miley commented, ‘I’m down if you are! #MileyAndMusk to the moon!’”
Twitter users took to the platform to push back against the singer’s friendly attitude toward Musk.
From Fox News:
Fans were none too pleased to see Cyrus’ chummy response to Musk online.
“Delete this we will pretend that we didn’t see,” one fan replied to the stars.
“Miley please you don’t have to pretend to like him,” another wrote.
“No thanks we only want miley,” another said, criticizing Musk’s upcoming appearance.
Another Twitter user asked Cyrus to not “associate” herself with Musk.
“Bestieeeee it’s not too late delete this,” another told the “Prisoner” singer.
“this is so embarrassing for u miley…,” one person responded.
“SNL” will return on May 8 and be aired live at 11:30 p.m. ET on NBC.