Elon Musk SNL Sketches Ranked: Touching Mother's Day Tribute Kicks Off Wildly Uneven Night

There was so much perceived interest in Elon Musk’s hosting debut on “Saturday Night Live” this weekend that the show was broadcast live globally via YouTube … which is a bit of a disappointment.

If this was many of those people’s first experience with “SNL,” they were in for a bit of an underwhelming evening. For all the hype and controversy ahead of Elon’s appearance, the overall final product was far less impressive than his ability to launch a rocket into space.

There were sparks of brilliance -- Pete Davidson’s Chad going to Mars was everything we could have asked for in that terrible premise -- and some great character performances from the likes of Kate McKinnon and Beck Bennett, but there were others who appeared to really be phoning in their performances (*ahem*Cecily Strong*ahem*).

Were these silent protests, or just an off-week for some of the cast? As we close in on the final episodes of the season, perhaps burnout becomes a thing.

Overall, though, this was a letdown from a solid ensemble. They have proven themselves good enough by this point, the host shouldn’t matter nearly as much as it appeared to here when it comes to putting on a good show. Even “Weekend Update” didn’t fire as sharply as it has been!

It wasn’t all bad, though, as we did get some delightful sketch appearances by both Miley Cyrus and Elon’s girlfriend, Grimes. Plus, this year marked the return of the cast celebrating their mothers by putting them on television, which is always an emotional and charming delight.

At the top of the monologue, Elon also revealed that he has Asperger's syndrome, making him the first person with this condition to host an episode of "SNL" -- or at least that's what he thought. More than likely that distinction goes to Dan Aykroyd, who was both a part of the original cast, and a host, who opened up about his own diagnosis with The Daily Mail in 2013.

We'll give Elon that he's the first to announce it while hosting. That seems a lock.

As usual, we're ranking all the sketches from worst to first, including the Monologue, Cold Open, "Weekend Update" and any sketches that were cut for time but made their way online. We'll skip the musical guests, because they're not usually funny -- unless Ashlee Simpson shows up. We wrap up with a look at the cast-member who had the strongest week.

For a non-performer, Elon actually did much better than we might have expected. Add to that the extra pressure of global scrutiny and weeks of controversy, and he really handled himself well. He also opened the monologue by revealing he has Asperger’s syndrome, making him the first “SNL” host with that condition. He was charmingly awkward, unapologetically geeky and then things got really cute when his mom came out and proved she’s got some comedy chops of her own!

Elon Musk managed to work in admitting that he’d changed his mind about masks -- was this whole show an attempt to improve his image with his detractors? -- but overall, this sketch was about bringing his forward-thinking ideas to the Old West where they’re even more outlandish. Elon has about one performance style, which was to be expected, and so he carried himself well enough here, but the rest of the sketch wasn’t quite as funny as it could have been with the overall premise.

Straight from Iceland, we were thrilled to see Melissa get a little bit of a spotlight for her Bjork impression, but this was mostly Chloe Fineman’s ridiculous nonsense. Since the guests didn’t matter, we’d have preferred anyone to Pete Davidson’s not-an-impression-of Steve Buscemi, though Kate McKinnon’s disinterested Frances McDormand was right on point. The “Cousin Checker” app was a cute sponsor and  Elon Musk constantly asking Chloe out was another fun addition, but ultimately, the premise wasn’t executed to its full potential.

Colin Jost addressed the host controversy with a pretty funny joke about him needing an alibi as another rocket crashed to earth, while Michael Che commented on Jeff Bezos’ own rocket endeavors with a commentary on why rich white people are trying to leave the planet… and how much Black people should probably avoid them right now. The boys also tackled Trump’s new blog, and why Republicans still care so much about him, as well as Florida voting restrictions, vaccine hesitancy, Broadway and more.

The tired mother trope, Ego Nwodim did the best she could with this Disneyland-themed take, but they didn’t really find anywhere clever or unique to go with it until the closing moments when we got a fun little reveal. Other than that, the whole thing was a bit listless and haggard, just like Ego’s character.

“SNL” cropped Jimmy Carter’s oversized feet out of that viral photo of him meeting the Bidens with his wife, because it’s the only part that starts to break the illusion, but the joke they gave with it wasn’t worthy any of that effort. Che got in some sharp barbs about the Capitol attack and police brutality, while Jost got some serious groans for his Snow White consent joke. Yikes!

In a rare host appearance as an “Update” correspondence, Elon Musk was actually a good foil for both Che and even Jost as they asked over and over again the question on everyone’s mind right now, “What is dogecoin?” It turns out the answer is both straightforward and absolutely incomprehensible for most. At least, they finally got a straight answer out of him, and it’s about what we expected.

Kyle Mooney’s Baby Yoda has always been more stupid than funny, and we found ourselves drifting during his latest appearance,too. The new angle of him being jacked on performance-enhancing drugs and challenging Baby Groot to an MMA match was somewhat clever, if a few years out of date already. It seems mostly like they just want to make sure they get use out of that elaborate costume than really having anything to say with the character. All in all, this was the weakest “Update” in quite a while, making it even more disappointing it was so long.

Cecily Strong was definitely phoning this one in, but there were some spirited performances from Kylie Mooney as Luigi and … look at Grimes as Princess Peach! The whole trial of Wario was pretty funny in general, but we definitely appreciated the twist ending featuring Pete Davidson. But what was up with that very pregnant pause before he started talking? Clearly there was some sort of technical issue there which really sapped the momentum and drained a lot of humor from the twist.

Do you think the writers Googled Pennsylvania stereotypes to write up this chop show parody about how these cop shows Google regional stereotypes? It was all about bad accents -- like really, really bad accents -- cheesesteak sandwiches and bonus appearances by both the Philly Fanatic and the Flyers mascot, Gritty. For sheer stupidity, it was pretty entertaining watching the cast try to talk in that ridiculous accent while investigating the murder of a “durdur.” It went on a little longer than necessary, but it was clear the cast was having so much fun with it.

Anyone who wanted a brief rundown of all the slang Gen Z is currently using -- well, not all of it -- need look no further than this ridiculous sketch about six teens waiting in a hospital waiting room to see if their “bestie” is gonna make it or not. Elon Musk was just as Gen Z as the rest of them, only as the doctor, while poor Melissa portrayed the nurse in yet another minimal role for the versatile performer. Still, the dialogue was so campy and over-the-top, it actually still managed to be funny despite also being way too extra, bruh.

Okay, we’ll admit that final punchline, so to speak, got a surprised laugh out of us. Chad remains as stupid as ever, and we definitely enjoyed his interactions with Miley Cyrus as his dramatic lover. But mostly we’re surprised that Pete Davidson still manages to wring so much humor out of such a seemingly limited character. Sending him to Mars and having him play the hero was a fun twist, as it’s the circumstances that create humorous situations. Oh, and we’re still giggling over that ending.

Light on humor, though there were moments of adorably awkward funniness, but always high on sentimentality, we kind of love it when “SNL” brings out the moms for Mother’s Day. And with Covid having disrupted things for so long, there was an extra layer of happiness in seeing the cast get to embrace their mothers publicly on the stage. We even got some cute joke deliveries throughout, but this was mostly about feeling good … and Miley Cyrus’ incredible vocals. She just keeps getting better and better!

The lost art of socializing, lost to a pandemic. Will we ever regain it? This was definitely a good use of reaction shots and voice-overs as various party-goers try to mingle and make small talk, not sure who they recognize, not sure what to really talk about. Guess what’s not an effective conversation starter? Revealing which vaccine you got … where does it go from there? Some of it was general party awkwardness, but we appreciated the extra layer of absurdities and the performances from the cast. After having already talked about his own innate awkwardness, Elon Musk fit in seamlessly here attempting to talk with Heidi Gardner, whose internal “I”ll kill you” had us cracking up!

Perhaps the distractions from outside the show added extra pressure, but this wasn’t the strongest episode of the season by far, and there were not a lot of great moments for the cast themselves. Mikey was his usual utility player as a straight man, and there were a few breakout character moments, like Pete’s Chad, but it was an off-night for sure.

That said, Kate McKinnon pulled in a quietly dominant performance, punctuated by her spot-on and hilariusly dour impression of Frances McDormand. Add to that her sliding effortlessly into Gen Z, post-Covid chat and a Pennsylvania murder detective, and she showed as much versatility in this one show as most stars seek in a career.

While the grand Elon Musk experiment sparked a few interesting moments, it was ultimately as much a dud as almost every other time a non-performer or entertainer has hosted this show And it wasn’t even entirely his fault, as the material wasn’t great (unless he was vetoing better “skit” ideas).

“Saturday Night Live” returns next week with host Keegan-Michael Key and musical guest Olivia Rodrigo.