When most people think of the tech industry the first thing that comes to mind is Apple and its founder Steve Jobs, whose passing in 2011 from cancer rocked the industry and much of the world. Since his passing, the rapidly growing industry has shifted dramatically and seen the rise of a number of new players that have emerged to take Jobs’ former throne. The obvious front runner to take the spot, if he hasn’t already. is Elon Musk, the CEO of the electric car company Tesla and space technology company SpaceX. Musk’s hopes and goals are to facilitate space travel and exploration as well as the development of electric consumer vehicles, however in his albeit limited free time he has showcased his sense of humor via his personal Twitter account. Now he will seemingly get the chance to put that humor on full display as Musk is slated to host an episode of the legendary television series Saturday Night Live this spring.
SNL is notorious for its use of guest hosts from comedians like Tom Hanks to musicians like Justin Timberlake and just about everyone else in between. So while a tech CEO hosting a comedy show might sound outlandish, it really isn’t, and even if it was, SNL has always thrived on the outlandish. Musk is certainly the right pick of the litter when it comes to CEOs as well, who lost his position as Tesla’s chairman when he jokingly tweeted that he was going to take the company public when its stock price hit $420. The tweet also cost him $40 million, however his antics on Twitter certainly have not stopped proving that Musk sees the value in a good joke, making him a prime candidate to host SNL. Eager fans won’t have to wait long either as Musk is slated to host the May 8th episode in a few short weeks with Miley Cyrus slated as the musical guest.
Despite his wealth and position of power, it is pretty clear that Elon Musk is one of those guys who just doesn’t like to take life too seriously. He has never really been the status quo of what you’d expect of a man in his position, but when you are as successful as he has been you can’t argue with his methodology. SNL has had its fair share of odd and surprising guest hosts and while Musk might rank towards the top of that list, I personally have confidence in his ability to put on a good show. We will just have to wait until May 8th and find out for ourselves.
