Saturday Night Live has taken a swift aim at Elon Musk, following the Tesla CEO’s controversial salute towards Donald Trump on inauguration day that many have deemed fascist.
Musk, 53, was heavily criticised, including pushback from his own family, after he touched his chest and raised his right arm towards the sky as a gesture of thanks to Trump. He then repeated the salute just seconds later.
During the 26 January episode of SNL, Weekend Update host Michael Che mocked Musk for the salute, once again drawing comparisons to the Nazis and Musk’s own Tesla brand.
“Elon Musk was criticised for his speech at a rally after the inauguration in which he appears to give the Nazi salute. But come on, Elon Musk is not a Nazi,” Che said of the man behind the much maligned Cybertruck. “The Nazis made nice cars,” quipped Che, referencing the origins of Volkswagen.
Musk previously responded to the widespread criticism, and rather than denying it was a Nazi salute, he instead said his critics needed “better dirty tricks” because comparing their political opponents to Adolf Hitler is “sooo tired”.
Musk’s Tesla company has become a target for his critics following the salute scandal.
The owner of a Cybertruck that was vandalised with the word “Nazi” says she believes the offensive graffiti was targeted at Musk.
Amanda Lopez-Lara, from the Bay Area, California, said that following the recent controversy surrounding the tech billionaire, the incident was unlikely to be a “coincidence”.
Meanwhile, the British activist group, Led By Donkeys, projected an image of Musk’s salute onto Tesla’s Berlin Gigafactory, accompanied by the phrase “Heil Tesla”. The group, along with Germany’s Centre for Political Beauty, accuse Musk of using his wealth to “degrade democracy”.
It comes after SNL’s Chloe Fineman admitted that she had “no regrets” for calling out Musk after he allegedly made her cry when he hosted the show in 2021.
“Remember when I got in trouble for calling out Mr Nazi Salute?” the comedian shared in a Tuesday (21 January) Instagram Story. “Ya no regrets.”
Last November, Fineman, 36, alleged that the Tesla billionaire, who hosted the show in May 2021, brought her to tears after telling her that her script wasn’t funny.
