Elon Musk Shared Aspergers Diagnosis on SNL
Elon Musk has long been in the public eye for his space-age inventions and the multi-million dollar companies he runs. Musk is the founder, CTO, CEO, and designer for SpaceX, as well as being the CEO and product architect for Tesla, one of the biggest car companies in the world. He is no doubt a brilliant and driven engineer and businessman, reaching a new level of wealth by becoming a centibillionaire—holding the title of the current richest man in the world. This past weekend, on May 8th, 2020, Musk hosted Saturday Night Live’s special Mother’s Day episode.
During his monologue at the beginning of the show, he told the audience that he is the first person with Asperger’s syndrome to host SNL. Asperger’s syndrome, also known as AS, is on the autism spectrum, and it mostly affects social skills, as well as the expressions and regulation of emotion. According to WebMD, Asperger's syndrome is technically no longer a diagnosis on its own and it is now part of a broader category called autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This group of related mental health issues shares some symptoms, even so, lots of people still use the term Asperger's.
Elon Musk used his platform on the show to discuss his Asperger’s and how it had affected people’s perception of him. He joked during his monologue, “I know I sometimes say or post strange things, but that’s just how my brain works. To anyone I’ve offended, I just want to say, I reinvented electric cars and I’m sending people to Mars in a rocket ship. Did you think I was also going to be a chill, normal dude?”
Elon Musk hosting SNL on May 8th, 2021.
See Musk’s full SNL monologue here.