Elon Musk Mocks Dogecoin On SNL, Dogecoin Value Plummets
Elon Musk joked about Dogecoin on Saturday Night Live and now its value is dropping.
This article is more than 2 years old
Elon Musk recently hosted Saturday Night Live, and the results were…interesting. He was definitely funnier and more charismatic than many expected him to be, but that does not quite make up for the fact that there was considerable pushback to the announcement that he would be hosting. Now, Musk’s SNL comments on the hot new-ish cryptocurrency known as Dogecoin are causing its value to plummet.
On the most recent episode of Saturday Night Live, Elon Musk referred to Dogecoin as a “hustle.” His use of the word may be the cause of a dramatic drop in Dogecoin’s value–nearly 30% according to most major news outlets.
If you do not quite know what Dogecoin is, here’s a quick primer: in December 2013, software engineers Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer created Dogecoin, a type of cryptocurrency that derives its name from the popular “doge” Shiba Inu meme, to evade standard banking fees. You can check out Elon Musk’s comments in the YouTube clip below:
As the above video makes clear, SNL is very obviously poking fun at Dogecoin, and Elon Musk seems to be enjoying his time in the show’s spotlight. And despite his very pointed jabs at the form of payment, he seems to accept it as legitimate currency. Earlier today, news broke that SpaceX is now accepting Dogecoin as payment for “DOGE-1 mission to the Moon,” which will launch sometime next year. This begs the question: was Musk working from a script or did he improvise the “hustle” line? It is tough to tell.
As the CEO of Tesla, Inc. and the founder, chief designer, and CEO of the aerospace manufacturer SpaceX, Elon Musk is one of the wealthiest people on the planet. As such, his influence on our lives and culture is significant and far-reaching. He has established himself as a trendsetter and a formidable force in the technology space, but those things by themselves are not enough to impress everyone. His appearance on SNL did not go over well with people who are still understandably upset that he mocked gender pronouns and very publicly threatened Tesla labor organizers. Even certain SNL cast members were reportedly not pleased with the show’s decision to include Musk in one of its episodes.
As is the case with most mega-rich celebrities, everything Elon Musk says and does has the potential to affect society in some pretty significant ways. The affects of his Dogecoin comments proves that. And he is no stranger to controversy. In July 2020, Musk tweeted that he did not think another government stimulus package was a good idea. This obviously didn’t go over super well with those who struggled during the government-mandated lockdowns.
If you are on the Dogecoin train and have a lot riding on this particular form of cryptocurrency doing well, keep an eye out for any potential drops in its value. It’s obviously very difficult to predict these things, and Elon Musk definitely didn’t intend to impact Dogecoin in this way. That being said, though, Musk likely won’t be changing his tune anytime soon.
