No 'SNL' Cast Members Are Boycotting Elon Musk's Episode (Exclusive)

Elon Musk; Lorne Michaels (Photos: Getty Images)

Elon Musk is hosting “SNL” on May 8, a booking that did not appear to be very well-received by some cast members and writers. But none of them plan to boycott the upcoming episode, a person close to production told TheWrap.

On Friday, Page Six reported that “Saturday Night Live” cast members won’t be forced to appear alongside controversial billionaire Elon Musk when he hosts the show.

That’s true, our source said, except that unwritten *rule* is not Musk-specific. If a cast member or writer was upset or uncomfortable performing with any host, executive producer Lorne Michaels would let them sit that one out. And in this case, as of Thursday, it sounds like no one is actually taking that option. (In hindsight, a whole bunch probably regret not exercising that option when then-presidential candidate Donald Trump hosted the long-running sketch comedy program in 2015.)

On Sunday, Bowen Yang posted a photo on Instagram of a tweet from the Tesla CEO that read, “Let’s find out how live ‘Saturday Night Live’ really is,” to which Yang replied, “What the f-k does this even mean?”

Shortly after Elon Musk’s hosting gig was announced, fellow cast member Aidy Bryant posted a retweet from Sen. Bernie Sanders calling it a “moral obscenity” that “the 50 wealthiest people in America today own more wealth than the bottom half of our people.”

Both Yang and Bryant’s posts have since been deleted.

Musk, the Tesla and SpaceX billionaire, has become a polarizing figure on social media.

He has earned fans for his tech ideas and eccentric appearances on podcasts like “The Joe Rogan Experience.” On the flip side, he’s been slammed on Twitter for spreading COVID-19 misinformation during the early days of the pandemic, his rants against media outlets that have run investigative articles against Tesla, and a threat on Twitter to revoke stock options from his employees if they moved to unionize (he was forced to take the tweet down by the National Labor Relations Board).

Miley Cyrus will be Musk’s musical guest, her sixth time undertaking the gig.

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