2021.05.09 埃隆-马斯克不只是个名人

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Elon Musk Is Not Just a Celebrity
The Tesla CEO’s SNL performance was neither redemptive nor entertaining. But it served a classic purpose: glossing over his real power.

By Spencer Kornhaber
Elon Musk on the set of 'Saturday Night Live'
Will Heath / NBC
MAY 9, 2021
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However your 2021 is going, what’s undeniable is that after Donald Trump left office earlier this year, a strange cultural quietude settled upon America. No one would dare call it peace. But the audiences for TV news and online media immediately shrunk. Rather than fretting quite as much about an imminent civil war, commentators have been arguing about sexy hip-hop videos. Saturday Night Live, the rare 21st-century entertainment that most Americans seem to maintain some awareness of, has been adrift: Millions of viewers have been sitting out the 2021 season. The show’s most notable segment this year was about sassy icebergs.

Recently, though, America has appeared to be auditioning a new candidate for prime agitator of profitable controversy: Elon Musk. When SNL announced that the 49-year-old Tesla CEO would host last night’s show, it kicked off a national argument with all-too-familiar overtones. Musk is a billionaire commanding a personality cult with trollish tweets. He’s a self-styled savior of mankind who also downplayed the threat of COVID-19. He’s a white man who thinks he’s funny but who really, really isn’t. Some pundits chided SNL for elevating a figure who has used public platforms to bully and spread misinformation. Others cheered open discourse and capitalism. Musk’s fans dreamed of him plugging their favorite cryptocurrency, Dogecoin. SNL appeared all but sure to bust its ratings slump.


Read: SNL is breaking with its old patterns

The episode that ultimately aired didn’t feel worth the fuss. It wasn’t offensive, redemptive, memorable, or even entertaining. Yet, as Trump’s history with SNL shows, the cloak of mildness and mediocrity can be useful for someone whose true influence has little to do with comedy or charm.

The pundits who said SNL would “humanize” Musk were onto something, though it’s tough to criticize the humanization of any living, breathing person. The show opened with a feel-good Mother’s Day montage of cast members bantering with their moms while Miley Cyrus sang Dolly Parton’s “Light of a Clear Blue Morning.” Musk’s mom later joined him for his monologue. But first, he showed up onstage alone, dressed in a dictator-chic suit, and offered this factlet: “I’m actually making history tonight as the first person with Asperger’s to host SNL.”



The historicity of that milestone for SNL was debatable (the actor Dan Aykroyd said, years after hosting the show, that he had Asperger’s syndrome too). For Musk, though, the remark represented a first-time public disclosure of a personal condition. He then touted his grand vision—“a renewable-energy future” in which humanity becomes “a multi-planetary spacefaring civilization”—while acknowledging his antics have often distracted from that vision. “To anyone I have offended, I just want to say, I reinvented electric cars and I’m sending people to Mars on a rocket ship,” he said. “Did you think I was also going to be a chill, normal dude?” An apology for dissing vaccines or attacking whistleblowers, this was not. It was, however, decent brand management.

In an oddly insistent way, much of the episode reiterated Musk as myth rather than man by having him play versions of his own persona. When he appeared as a “Gen Z Hospital” doctor trading slang with a group of kids, it brought to mind Musk’s penchant for recycling memes on Twitter. Later in the episode, Musk played himself, the SpaceX head honcho, confidently communicating with a Mars colony in crisis (Pete Davidson’s recurring doofus, Chad, became a hero and went splat—RIP Chad!). One bit had Musk playing an unfairly stereotyped villain, Nintendo’s Wario, while Musk’s girlfriend, the singer Grimes, made a cameo as Princess Peach. The last sketch of the night featured him pitching Wild West versions of his Boring Company; buried in the bit was, finally, a tepid mea culpa for mocking COVID-19 safety measures.


None of this meta-Musk riffing worked well as comedy, but also none of it was worse than the expected SNL nonsense. Like so many previous hosts of the show, Musk came off as just another celeb undergoing a PR ritual with enthusiasm but not inspiration. In the most trenchant sketch of the night, a pre-filmed vignette about the awkwardness of post-quarantine small talk, he blended in well as a normie at a cocktail party. He also did fine when introducing the evening’s musical guest, Cyrus, who continued her impressive reinvention as the gritty-voiced ambassador for Baby Boomer rock to the internet generation.

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Read: Elon Musk’s SNL hosting gig is a trap

Only during “Weekend Update” did the particular significance of Musk’s power assert itself. To kick off the segment, co-hosts Colin Jost and Michael Che made mildly pointed barbs about recent rocket-related headlines. A Chinese spacecraft had broken apart and crashed back to the Earth only moments before the broadcast—a perfect example of how science like the kind Musk funds can have consequences for even the human beings who aren’t paying attention.

Then Musk appeared, playing a bowtie-wearing cryptocurrency expert named Lloyd Ostertag. Here was the moment the internet had been panting about. Cryptocurrency has recently graduated from a subcultural phenomenon to an asset class with greater value than all of the U.S. dollars in the world. In the previous month, the market capitalization of Dogecoin—a joke online currency that Musk once called “pretty cool”—had surged to more than $73 billion. Social-media platforms were boiling with excitement that Musk’s SNL appearance would boost its value even more.



Musk ended “Weekend Update” by howling “to the moon!”—the rallying cry of Dogecoin—yet really he’d sunken the currency into a lagoon: Over the course of the episode, its value plummeted 28 percent. Poor Dogecoin. Really, Musk had done exactly what the currency’s devotees wanted by talking at length about crypto. As Che and Jost expressed mystification about online money, Musk acknowledged, “It’s a hustle,” but also said, “It’s the future of currency. It’s an unstoppable financial vehicle that’s going to take over the world.” Well, which is it—is Dogecoin a hustle, or is it the future? Both things can be true. Online currency has no value outside of its own hype, which is a function of marketing, groupthink, and, yes, memes.

It’s worth remembering that Musk wields influence outside of hype. He commands billions in capital and has credible designs for transforming human civilization altogether. Yet when watching him perform sketches with little intrinsic comedic value but lots of self-referentiality, his true significance becomes obscured. He comes to feel like just a celebrity—someone who matters only because people feel that he matters. Critics aren’t wrong to say that this sort of portrayal can be dangerous. The reaction to the episode will cleave into the familiar clans of a culture war—fans and haters—when really the audience should be united in wariness. Musk could drop a rocket on any of our heads, whether we’re laughing at him or not.

Spencer Kornhaber is a staff writer at The Atlantic.



埃隆-马斯克不只是个名人
特斯拉首席执行官在SNL的表演既没有救赎性，也没有娱乐性。但它达到了一个经典的目的：掩盖了他的真正实力。

斯宾塞-科恩哈伯报道
埃隆-马斯克在 "周六夜现场 "的拍摄现场
Will Heath / NBC
2021年5月9日

无论你的2021年如何发展，不可否认的是，今年早些时候唐纳德-特朗普卸任后，美国出现了一种奇怪的文化宁静。没有人敢说这是和平。但电视新闻和网络媒体的受众立即缩减。评论员们不再像以前那样担心即将发生的内战，而是在争论性感的嘻哈视频。周六夜现场》是21世纪少有的、大多数美国人似乎还保持着某种意识的娱乐节目，一直在漂泊。数以百万计的观众已经退出了2021年的赛季。该节目今年最引人注目的部分是关于时髦的冰山。

不过，最近，美国似乎正在试演一个新的候选人，作为有利可图的争议的主要煽动者。埃隆-马斯克。当SNL宣布这位49岁的特斯拉首席执行官将主持昨晚的节目时，它拉开了一场全国性争论的序幕，其中包含了所有熟悉的色彩。马斯克是一位亿万富翁，他用巨额的推特指挥着一个人格崇拜者。他是一个自诩为人类救星的人，还淡化了COVID-19的威胁。他是一个自认为很有趣的白人，但他真的，真的不是。一些学者指责SNL抬高了一个利用公共平台进行欺凌和传播错误信息的人物。其他人则对公开讨论和资本主义欢呼。马斯克的粉丝们梦想着他为他们最喜欢的加密货币Dogecoin打广告。SNL似乎都肯定会打破其收视率的低迷。


阅读：SNL正在打破它的旧模式

最终播出的那一集感觉不值得大惊小怪。它没有攻击性，没有救赎性，没有令人难忘，甚至没有娱乐性。然而，正如特朗普与SNL的合作历史所显示的那样，温和和平庸的外衣对一个真正的影响力与喜剧或魅力没有什么关系的人来说是有用的。

那些说SNL将使马斯克 "人性化 "的学者们是有道理的，尽管批评任何活生生的人的人性化是很难的。该节目以一个感觉良好的母亲节蒙太奇开场，演员们与他们的母亲打趣，而麦莉-赛勒斯则演唱了多莉-帕顿的《蓝色清晨之光》。马斯克的母亲后来加入了他的独白。但首先，他独自出现在舞台上，身着独裁者的时尚西装，并提供了这样一个事实："我今晚实际上创造了历史，成为第一个主持SNL的阿斯伯格症患者。"



对SNL来说，这一里程碑的历史性是值得商榷的（演员丹-艾克罗伊德在主持该节目多年后说，他也有阿斯伯格综合症）。不过，对马斯克来说，这句话代表了他首次公开披露个人状况。他随后吹捧了他的宏伟愿景--"可再生能源的未来"，其中人类成为 "多行星的航天文明"--同时承认他的滑稽行为常常分散了对这一愿景的注意力。"他说："对于任何被我冒犯的人，我只想说，我重新发明了电动汽车，我正在用火箭船把人们送到火星。"你以为我也会成为一个冷静的、正常的人吗？" 这不是为诋毁疫苗或攻击告密者而道歉。然而，这是很好的品牌管理。

这一集以一种奇怪的坚持方式，通过让马斯克扮演他自己的角色，重申他是一个神话而不是人。当他以 "Z世代医院 "医生的身份出现在一群孩子面前时，这让人想起了马斯克在Twitter上循环使用备忘录的嗜好。在这一集的晚些时候，马斯克扮演自己，SpaceX的头儿，自信地与处于危机中的火星殖民地进行沟通（皮特-戴维森的复读傻子查德成为了英雄，并被打飞了--RIP乍得！）。有一个节目让马斯克扮演一个不公平的定型反派，即任天堂的Wario，而马斯克的女友，歌手Grimes，则客串了桃子公主。当晚的最后一个小品是他推销他的狂野西部版本的Boring公司；最后，埋在这个小品中的是对嘲笑COVID-19安全措施的不温不火的道歉。


这些元气满满的Musk扯淡作为喜剧效果很好，但也没有比预期的SNL胡闹更糟糕。就像该节目以前的许多主持人一样，马斯克只是作为另一个名人在进行公关仪式，充满热情但没有灵感。在当晚最尖锐的小品中，一个关于隔离后闲谈的尴尬的预制小品，他很好地融入了一个鸡尾酒会上的普通人。他在介绍当晚的音乐嘉宾赛勒斯时也表现得很好，赛勒斯继续她令人印象深刻的重塑，作为婴儿潮时期摇滚乐在互联网时代的代言人。

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只有在 "周末更新 "中，马斯克的力量的特殊意义才得以体现。为了拉开这个环节的序幕，共同主持人科林-乔斯特和迈克尔-切对最近的火箭相关头条新闻进行了温和的讽刺。一艘中国航天器在广播前不久解体并坠落回地球--这是一个完美的例子，说明像马斯克资助的那种科学，甚至对不注意的人类也会产生影响。

然后，马斯克出现了，他扮演一位名叫劳埃德-奥斯特塔格的戴着蝴蝶结的加密货币专家。这就是互联网一直渴望的时刻。加密货币最近已经从一种亚文化现象发展成为一种资产类别，其价值超过了世界上所有的美元。在上个月，Dogecoin--一种被马斯克称为 "相当酷 "的网络货币--的市值已经飙升至730亿美元以上。社交媒体平台沸腾了，认为马斯克在SNL的亮相将进一步提升其价值。



马斯克在 "周末更新 "节目结束时嚎叫着 "到月球去！"--这是Dogecoin的集结号--但实际上他已经将该货币沉入了一个泻湖。在这期节目中，其价值暴跌了28%。可怜的Dogecoin。实际上，马斯克通过大谈特谈加密货币，正是该货币的信徒们所希望看到的。当切和乔斯特对在线货币表示神秘时，马斯克承认，"这是一种喧嚣"，但也说，"这是货币的未来。它是一种不可阻挡的金融工具，将接管世界。" 那么，到底是哪一种呢--Dogecoin是一种喧嚣，还是它是未来？这两件事都可能是真的。在线货币在其自身的炒作之外没有任何价值，而炒作是营销、群体思维，以及，是的，备忘录的功能。

值得记住的是，马斯克在炒作之外也有影响力。他拥有数十亿美元的资金，并有可靠的设计来完全改变人类文明。然而，当看他表演的小品没有什么内在的喜剧价值，却有很多自我暗示，他的真正意义变得模糊不清。他开始觉得自己只是一个名人--一个只因为人们觉得他重要而重要的人。评论家们说这种描写可能是危险的，这并没有错。对这一集的反应将分裂成文化战争中熟悉的氏族--粉丝和仇视者--而实际上，观众应该团结一致，保持警惕。马斯克可能会在我们任何一个人的头上扔下一枚火箭，无论我们是否在嘲笑他。

Spencer Kornhaber是《大西洋》杂志的一名工作人员。