Comedian Chloe Fineman says Space X owner Elon Musk made her cry when he hosted “Saturday Night Live” in 2021.
Fineman recalled working with the tech billionaire in a since-deleted TikTok, months after fellow cast member and writer Bowen Yang alluded to the behind-the-scenes drama during an appearance on Bravo’s “Watch What Happens Live!” Yang cryptically revealed in August that a host brought several staffers to tears because “he hated the ideas” they had. Speculation abounded and Fineman confirmed her part in it Monday.
The “SNL” star broke her silence after blowing up the Tesla chief executive’s “butt hurt” reaction to “SNL” alumnus Dana Carvey’s impression of him in Saturday’s post-election episode. (Carvey returned to Studio 8H as a bouncy, fist-pumping version of the “Dark MAGA”-boasting Musk in the cold open, claiming he would run the country after former President Trump’s re-election last week. Fineman said that world’s richest man and Trump loyalist is “clearly watching the show” despite his barrage of “rude” criticism on his X platform.
“I’m gonna come out and say at long last that I’m the cast member that he made cry, and he’s the host that made someone cry,” Fineman said in her video. “Maybe there’s others.”
“Guess what, you made I, Chloe Fineman, burst into tears,” she continued, “because I stayed up all night writing this sketch. I was so excited. I came in, I asked if you had any questions and you stared at me like you were firing me from Tesla and were like ‘It’s not funny.’”
The “Megalopolis” and “Despicable Me 4” star said she waited for Musk to say he was just kidding, but he did not. Then she accused him of “pawing” through her script and — while mimicking his South African accent — claimed he didn’t laugh at the sketch a single time. She did not name the sketch; however, she and Musk appeared together in “The Ooli Show” sketch of the May 2021 episode on which she received a writing credit. Fineman played an Icelandic talk-show host and Musk played her smitten producer.
She conceded that the sketch that made it into the episode “was fine” and that she “actually had a really good time” doing it. She also admitted that Musk was “really funny in it.
“But, you know, have a little manners here, sir,” she concluded.
Although Fineman deleted the video, it was saved and re-posted on X where Musk replied to it Monday and explained his assessment of the work.
“Frankly, it was only on the Thursday before the Saturday that ANY of the sketches generated laughs,” Musk said. “I was worried. I was like damn my SNL appearance is going to be so f— unfunny that it will make a crackhead sober!! But then it worked out in the end”
Musk did not apologize or mention making any cast members cry.
Representatives for Fineman and “Saturday Night Live” did not immediately respond Tuesday to The Times’ requests for comment.
Before Fineman posted her TikTok, Musk ranted about the most recent episode on X.
“Dana Carvey just sounds like Dana Carvey,” Musk tweeted in response to a clip from the cold open, adding in another tweet that, “They are so mad that @realDonaldTrump won.”
He also claimed that the long-running, Emmy-winning sketch series “has been dying slowly for years, as they become increasingly out of touch with reality.” Musk, who is expected to be an influential voice in Trump’s incoming administration, also accused the show of a “last-ditch effort to cheat the equal airtime requirements” when Vice President Kamala Harris appeared in the Nov. 2 episode, before the election, claiming that it “only helped sink her campaign further.”
