Elon Musk hosted SNL, made no apologies, and somehow the world kept turning anyway

By Gary Abernathy

Elon Musk hosted SNL and the world survived

Elon Musk hosted “Saturday Night Live” on, well, Saturday night, and the world didn’t end.

That must have been surprising to numerous critics who railed again Musk’s appearance. They didn’t like the Tesla and SpaceX founder being there for one reason or another, or a combination of reasons, ranging from the fact that he’s rich, and we all have to hate the rich, to the fact that he didn’t take covid-19 seriously enough, and a few other things that are so predictably PC that I won’t enumerate them. As mentioned earlier, some of the SNL cast also complained about Musk being booked.

Mainly, we were told that his appearance helps to “humanize” or “normalize” him, a complaint we used to get about Donald Trump when he was featured on a comedy show or some other spot that was anything but an attack on him. When Trump appeared on SNL, and later with Jimmy Fallon on “The Tonight Show,” critics said both times that chatting with Trump in a friendly way helped “normalize” him. Remember how Fallon was criticized because he tousled Trump’s hair, which, critics said, “humanized” Trump? After defending himself for a while, Fallon eventually came around, apologized, and started making the same boorish “jokes” and put-downs of Trump as his late night counterparts like Jimmy Kimmel, Stephen Colbert and others. He was required to repent to stay in Hollywood’s good graces.

After being a faithful SNL viewer since its inception in 1975, I stopped watching when Alec Baldwin replaced Darrell Hammond as the Trump impersonator and the show decided to cater only to the extreme left. But I did watch a YouTube clip of Musk’s opening monologue. It was funny.

But many remained very upset. Dean Obeidallah, a SiriusXM radio host, wrote on CNN that “SNL helped Musk whitewash his horribly irresponsible comments downplaying the risks of Covid-19 and his insensitive remarks about the transgender community.” Obeidallah was unhappy that “nowhere did Musk offer any remorse for his particularly reviled statements over the last 13 months.”

On what planet was it required for Elon Musk to apologize or “offer any remorse” for anything he’s ever said? Stories in our news media organizations these days are filled with demands for apologies, or reminders of things people said that they’ve never apologized for. I would appreciate an introduction to the person who makes the rules about when apologies are required, because there is clearly someone sitting On High and handing down hourly edicts about such things.

Obeidallah writes of Musk on SNL, “Incredibly, he thought his dumbest thing was to smoke weed on a podcast,” as opposed to comments Musk has made that Obeidallah considers much worse than smoking marijuana on a podcast. But maybe Elon Musk does think that smoking pot on a podcast is worse than anything he’s ever said about anything – and that’s his judgment to make.

I probably don’t agree with half of what Elon Musk says on any given day (I say “probably” because, to be honest, I haven’t researched everything he’s said due to the fact that, unlike some, I don’t have the time or interest in scouring the internet to keep up with what everyone on earth has ever said), but he has a right to hold any opinion on any subject he wants to hold — as do you, me and Mr. Obeidallah — even if those opinions are considered controversial, shocking, insensitive or rude. If every TV show in America does not boycott him – despite orders from On High – well, just give them time. Like Fallon, they’ll all fall in line eventually. In the meantime, occasionally swerving off the narrow PC Highway is a welcome reminder that being a lockstep nation should really not be the ultimate goal.  

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