On ‘Saturday Night Live,’ Elon Musk reveals Asperger Syndrome diagnosis

Elon Musk declared himself to be the first person with Asperger syndrome to host “Saturday Night Live” in the opening of his May 8 monologue.

“Or at least the first person to admit it,” he said on stage at Studio 8H.

Musk identified casually and then followed it up with a joke, noting that he’s “pretty good at running human emulation mode.” Musk also noted that he doesn’t have a lot of “intonational variation in how I speak, which I’m told makes for great comedy.”

Wearing an all-black dark suit and black T-shirt, the South African billionaire joked about his reputation as a genius, disrupter, entrepreneur as well as a proponent of sketchy digital economy trends such as cryptocurrencies.

He discussed his vision for the future — specifically a “renewable energy” one and that he believed “humanity must become a multi-planatary space-bearing civilization.” Because these goals sounded positive, he added that, “I think if I just posted THAT on Twitter I’d be fine.” Instead, though, he noted jokes he has made such as, “69 days after 420, ha-ha.” He wrote “ha-ha” at the end because he thought it was funny, he said. “To anyone I’ve offended, I just want to say, I reinvented electric cars and I’m sending people to Mars in a rocket ship, did you think I was also going to be a chill, normal dude?”

Musk also joked about his son’s name, saying it’s “pronounced like a cat running across a keyboard,” and lamented the volume of chatter about him in media and social media circles. “People are reduced to the dumbest thing they ever did,” Musk said, referring to the September 2018 incident when he was seen smoking marijuana while appearing on the podcast hosted by Joe Rogan. He made a surprising comparison of his reputation to that of accused double murderer O.J. Simpson. Musk joked that it was “like I go from podcast to podcast lighting up joints. It’s like reducing O.J. Simpson to murderer.” He noted that Simpson hosted “SNL” twice — and “killed it.”

Musk has been scolded by regulators for his pronouncements about his publicly held businesses in unusual channels for a CEO. He joked about “SNL” being live and the risk that posed for him.

“I could say something truly shocking — like I drive of Prius,” he said.

And although he did not appear in the special Mother’s Day cold open, he brought his mother Maye Musk onstage for a special spotlight moment during his monologue.

She played straight woman to her 49-year-old son, with their banter including a prompt to position him as a boy genius.

“Do you remember when I was 12 I created my own video game?,” he asked.

“I remember they paid you $500. You were too young to open a bank account so I had to open one for you,” she said. Beaming, she added, “You turned that video game about space into reality.”

He indulged his penchant for fantasy in observing, “Our reality might be a video game and we’re all just computer simulations being played by a teenager on a another planet.”

The segment undoubtedly was crafted in part to temper critics of the billionaire as out of control. Mother and son hugged to close the monologue segment as she gushed, “Break a leg tonight. I love you very much.”

He had small roles in subsequent sketches. He played one of a party full of people out for the first time after quarantine, and he did a German-ish accent in a bleached, spiked wig as the director of an Icelandic talk show.

And on “Weekend Update” he played a character close to himself, donning a bow tie and glasses as a financial analyst named Lloyd Ostertag, throwing an extended plug for Musk’s favored cryptocurrency Dogecoin.

After “Update” anchor Michael Che struggled to understand, Musk as Ostertag admitted, “Yeah, it’s a hustle.”

Musk made his hosting debut on the May 8 episode of “Saturday Night Live,” which was the first of the three final episodes of the 46th season and the first one back after a few weeks off.

The initial announcement came with criticism, as viewers, critics and even some of the show’s own cast members alike seemed to question the choice of host. In a now-deleted social media post, Aidy Bryant, for example, re-shared a message from Sen. Bernie Sanders which called out the “moral obscenity” of the wealth distribution in America, which also noted “the 50 wealthiest people in America today own more wealth than the bottom half of our people.” Chris Redd retweeted Musk’s post about “throwing out some skit ideas,” pointing out that he should be calling them “sketches,” not skits.

In the week leading up to the show, though, various cast members appeared on talk shows and attempted to smooth over concerns. On “The Breakfast Club,” Michael Che acknowledged that Musk “is a polarizing guy” but said that was what “makes the show interesting.” He also said he felt that if other one-percenters, such as Oprah or Tyler Perry were coming on the show, “we’d all be excited about it.” (Both Oprah Winfrey and Perry do have performing backgrounds, though.) Pete Davidson called Musk “the guy that makes the earth better kinda and makes cool things and sends people to Mars” on “Late Night With Seth Meyers.”

Miley Cyrus opened the episode with a song dedicated to “all the moms out there.”

Taking place the night before Mother’s Day, this episode has historically been treated as a Mother’s Day episode, with special songs and sketches dedicated to and often featuring cast members’ mothers. This cold open was no different.

Standing on stage at Studio 8H, she sang part of Dolly Parton’s “Light of a Clear Blue Morning” before bringing out some of the NBC late-night sketch comedy series’ cast members and their real-life mothers, including Kate McKinnon and Laura Campbell, who did a quick impression of Molly Shannon’s Mary Catherine Gallagher, and Aidy Bryant and Georganne Vinall, the latter of whom plugged her daughter’s show. When Bryant noted that “SNL” is not just her show, Vinall followed it up by plugging the third and final season of “Shrill” on Hulu.

Kyle Mooney’s mother Linda Kozub Mooney noted that he owed her two Mother’s Day gifts since they couldn’t spend this time last year together.

“I kind of thought the trip out here was the gift,” he said, to which she replied a firm, “No.”

Beck Bennett and Mikey Day appeared on stage together with their mothers, which resulted in a gag in which Day’s mother said she “couldn’t wait” to be able to hug, but she was talking about Bennett. Meanwhile Chris Redd’s mother joked that she hadn’t seen him since “Thanksgiving, and Christmas, and our spring break vacation,” and Kenan Thompson said his mother, Elizabeth Ann Thompson, “taught me everything I know, including reaction shots,” which lead to them showing off a classic one. Heidi Gardner appeared with her mother, as well, although she said, “They didn’t write me a joke,” and then later pulled her mother back on stage while Cecily Strong didn’t want to say her punchline because she was just “too happy” her mother was there.

Melissa Villaseñor’s mother complimented her on her ability to do impressions, though when Villaseñor attempted to impersonate her own mother, she was told, “That one needs work.” Chloe Fineman told her mother she was her best friend, to which she was told her mother’s best friend was Fineman’s father. “And we must go, dad’s asking Elon Musk for financial advice,” Fineman said as they exited stage right.

Bowen Yang’s mother kissed him on stage and then sprayed Purell on his face, and Ego Nwodim’s mother told her she was proud of her but “of course” would be more proud if Nwodim was a doctor. New cast members Lauren Holt and Punkie Johnson toasted with their mothers, and when Johnson’s mother downed the whole glass, she said, “What? It’s been a long year.”

Pete Davidson joke-lectured his mother about being more responsible when she admitted she almost didn’t make it because she was “playing Madden with [Timothée] Chalamet,” while Colin Jost’s mother was holding cards she said Michael Che gave her to read live. “You shouldn’t do that, you’re going to get our whole family canceled,” he said.

Cyrus continued singing in between the appearances and wished both Parton, who is her godmother, and her mother Tish Cyrus a happy Mother’s Day before everyone appeared for the iconic “Live from New York…” sign off.

For the first time ever, “Saturday Night Live” was also livestreamed on YouTube in more than 100 countries.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.