CNN Guest to Acosta: ‘There’s a Genius of Incredible Talent on SNL Tonight, And They Also Have Elon Musk’
NYU marketing professor and podcast host Scott Galloway appeared with CNN’s Jim Acosta to talk about tonight’s buzzy Elon Musk and Miley Cyrus episode of Saturday Night Live, and offered a mixed review of how it could turn out.
Acosta introduced the segment by showing the SNL promo for Saturday’s show, and offering some background on the guest host gig. “Musk is the first guest host in six years who is not an athlete or an entertainer, the last one being [former President] Donald Trump in 2015. Talk about a category to be a part of,” he said.
Galloway said it’s an example of what he calls “peak fetish-ization of innovators” for some reason then noted that “even” Steve Jobs didn’t host SNL. So… alrighty then.
Acosta talked about Musk being “one of the wealthiest people ever” and asked why he would even want to do something like host SNL.
Galloway answered that would be fun, saying “wouldn’t you do this?”
“A guy like this, you know, doesn’t, isn’t worried about health insurance, or getting a car, so this is a lot of fun,” said Galloway cryptically. Presumably if you have to buy a car you wouldn’t want to be an SNL guest host. CNN show hosts and NYU professors are notorious for struggling to pay for insurance and transportation after all.
“You referenced something important, most of that wealth, that $160 billion has been accreted during the pandemic,” said Galloway. He didn’t say as a result of the pandemic, so perhaps he was just casting aspersions on the idea of having income in the last year. Sorry, ‘amid a pandemic,’ as the media likes to say, amid a pandemic.
“So we have an individual who has added the GDP of Hungary to his net worth during what has been the most severe crisis in American history,” he continued, implying some ill-gotten gain without explanation or challenge from Acosta. “So I think this raises a host of interesting issues that we’ll be talking about beyond whether or not he’s good or not.”
Galloway then delivered his Clever Closing Comment™: “I will admit, I think there’s a genius of incredible talent on Saturday Night Live tonight, and they also have Elon Musk.”
“I think Miley Cyrus is fantastic,” he added, perhaps his most correct take.
“She is, they’re both legends,” Acosta added diplomatically.
Watch the clip above, via CNN.
