SNL, Lorne Michaels Slammed After Elon Musk Announced as Host: 'Retire… Bootlicker'

NBC's Saturday Night Live (SNL) and Lorne Michaels, the show's creator, faced mounting online backlash Saturday after it announced that Tesla CEO Elon Musk will host the variety program next month.

On Saturday afternoon, the official SNL Twitter account shared the news about Musk and that Miley Cyrus will also serve as the musical guest for May 8. The move immediately drew backlash from critics and fans online, and within minutes, "Lorne Michaels" began trending on the social networking platform.

Musk, the eccentric billionaire CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, has become one of the most controversial business leaders in recent years.

He has drawn outrage for his stance on COVID-19 throughout the pandemic. As the crisis grew in March 2020, Musk tweeted "the coronavirus panic is dumb."

Last month, Musk argued without evidence that there's "some debate" over the safety of the vaccines. He has also insisted that "kids are essentially immune," despite evidence showing that children can catch the disease and become sick.

Some Twitter users criticized SNL and Michaels for simply allowing a billionaire CEO to host, while others expressed outrage that the show would give a platform to a person who has shared dangerous coronavirus remarks. Users also accused Michaels of failing to learn a lesson after letting then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump host the show in 2015.

"Lorne Michaels remains the undefeated bootlicker," tweeted Ben Schouten.

The Palmer Report, a liberal political blog, tweeted: "Of course Lorne Michaels is letting dangerous loon Elon Musk host SNL. TV networks pay no price when they do harmful things for ratings. SNL paid no price for letting Trump host. Cable news paid no price for lying about Hillary's emails. We all pay a price–but not the TV folks."

"Well, I am glad that Lorne Michaels and SNL learned their lesson from having Trump host, and they'll never do something that Ill-advised aga...," tweeted @neatpickleye.

Director Aaron Stewart-Ahn posted: "Can't wait for Lorne Michaels to look at all the talent that's out there and have Matt Gaetz host with Chet Haze as musical guest and a special game show skit with a cameo by Kyle Rittenhouse."

"Proof that Lorne Michaels learned nothing from giving Donald Trump a platform," wrote @TMROJ.

@JayThurberShow tweeted: "Lorne Michaels helped humanize Donald Trump, too, by sticking him on 'SNL' and Jimmy Fallon. Coming next season: Kim Jong-un and Vladimir Putin!"

"Little bit confused, do people think that the very rich Lorne Michaels is a friend of the working class who just does an oopsie sometimes?" said writer Maura Quint.

@JeffandWill tweeted: "SNL is objectively the worst it's ever been, Lorne Michaels needs to retire and NBC needs to clean house completely."

Newsweek reached out to NBC for comment. This story will be updated with any response.