Musk-see TV: Mogul’s SNL episode skips Bond skit

Elon Musk photo on Twitter in 2015.

James Bond fans can breathe a sigh of relief. Elon Musk, a billionaire involved with electric vehicles and rockets (Tesla and SpaceX), hosted Saturday Night Live but avoided a “Woke James Bond” skit.

Musk on May 1 floated the idea of a “Woke James Bond” skit on social media. That seemed a real possibility because the billionaire has a Bond fixation. In 2013, he purchased the submarine car from The Spy Who Loved Me at auction. At one point, his photo on Twitter had him posing as a combination of Blofeld and Dr. Evil. (see above)

Saturday Night Live has been televised on NBC since 1975. The comedy show helped launch the careers of, among others, Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, Gilda Radner, Bill Murray, Eddie Murphy and Kate McKinnon. But critics depict the show in recent years as wildly uneven. And some of the skits on the May 8 telecast were awful.

Vox on May 7 published a story explaining why Musk was a controversial choice to host the show as well as examining its “outsize importance.” Robert Reich, a former U.S. labor secretary, posted a video on social media calling Musk “a modern day robber baron.”

SNL was scheduled to be livestreamed internationally on YouTube, a first for the show, according to Deadline Hollywood.

Could Elon Musk do a Bond skit on SNL?

Elon Musk photo on Twitter in 2015.

Billionaire Elon Musk is scheduled to host NBC’s Saturday Night Live on May 8. Musk also has a fascination with James Bond. Could Musk have the comedy show do a Bond skit?

On Twitter the night of May 1, Musk ssaid he was throwing out skit ideas. This tweet apparently was one of them.

Woke James Bond
SNL May 8

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 1, 2021

Wikipedia has this definition for woke:

Woke (/ˈwoʊk/ WOHK) is a term that refers to awareness of issues that concern social justice and racial justice. It is sometimes used in the African-American Vernacular English expression stay woke. Woke resurfaced in 2014 during the Black Lives Matter movement as a label for vigilance and activism concerning racial inequalities and other social disparities such as discrimination against the LGBTQ+ community, women, immigrants and other marginalized populations.

Woke has also been the subject of memes, ironic usage and criticism.

Some critics argue woke goes too far. If you type in “James Bond woke” into YouTube’s search engine, you’ll find a variety of fan videos who argue Bond has gone woke with No Time to Die, a movie nobody has seen yet outside of Eon Production and its studio partners.

To be sure, Elon Musk generates a lot of publicity. Could he be seeking some more attention with this? That’s an absolute possibility.

On the other hand, when a billionaire who is into electric vehicles and rockets teases the possibility you have to note it. If Jeff Bezos or Warren Buffett pulled something like this, it would get attention.

On top of that, Musk may be the world’s richest James Bond fan. He purchased the submarine car from The Spy Who Loved Me. At one point he had a Twitter avatar that evoked Blofeld and/or Dr. Evil (see above). And Musk’s Tesla electric-car company, Tesla, once had a “Project Goldfinger.”

Clearly, Musk has Bond on the brain. On Saturday Night Live, guest hosts get a lot of input into comedy sketches. We’ll see if Musk’s Bond enthusiasm spills into SNL on May 8.

(Slightly) revised NTTD spot appears on SNL

Last shot of No Time to Die spot on Saturday Night Live

Despite being delayed unti November, a spot for No Time to Die appeared during the first half-hour of the March 7 telecast of Saturday Night Live.

The spot appeared after an uneven skit featuring Daniel Craig, who was the host of the March 7 broadcast. The skit had Craig playing James Bond going crazy after placing winning bets in a casino.

As soon as the skit was over, the No Time to Die spot began.

That spot didn’t appear much different from recent commercials for the 25th James Bond film.

The major difference was the final shot at the end. It said, “THANKSGIVING.”

No Time to Die has been scheduled for next month. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Univeral (the international distributor) and Eon Productions said March 4 that the movie would now come out in November. The coronavirus has shut down theaters in key international markets, including China.

Both Universal and NBC (which televises Saturday Night Live) are owned by Comcast.

UPDATE (1:10 a.m., March 8): Saturday Night Live sent out a video of the skit on Twitter.

And now…a sneak peek of 𝐍𝐨 𝐓𝐢𝐦𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐃𝐢𝐞. #SNL pic.twitter.com/EQuxdIvX6P

— Saturday Night Live – SNL (@nbcsnl) March 8, 2020

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

UPDATE II (12:25 p.m., March 8): I missed this because it aired while I was writing the original post. The Weekend Update segment saw one of its “anchors” deliver a No Time to Die joke. Noting the delay in release date, it was suggested the date should have stayed in April but the title changed to “Time to Die.”

007’s Marvel superhero competitor in 2015

A Jack Kirby cover featuring Ant Man

When James Bond makes his return to U.S. cinemas in 2015, he’s going to have company in the form of one of Marvel Comics’ oldest (but not that well known to the general public) characters: Ant Man.

Scientist Henry Pym made his debut in 1962 in a story by Stan Lee, Larry Lieber and Jack Kirby, in Tales to Astonish No. 27. It was a one-off tale, in which Pym devises a formula that shrinks himself to the size of an ant. He shrinks so fast, he can’t reach the antidote.

Pym eventually ends up in an ant colony. He’s saved by one ant who acts differently than the others. Pym manages to reach his enlarging formula and swears off such formulas.

That is, until issue 35, when Pym returned, this time deciding he should be a superhero and takes on the guise of Ant Man. Eventually, Ant Man ends up as a founder of the Avengers superhero group. He also, in Tales to Astonish No. 49, decided to be Giant Man instead. Still later, Pym took on other superhero guises. Eventually, other characters took on the Ant Man mantle.

Marvel, now part of Walt Disney Co., is preparing an Ant Man movie and already set A NOV. 6, 2015 RELEASE DATE, the same date Bond 24 will arrive in U.S. theaters. EDGAR WRIGHT is slated to direct, and ACCORDING TO THE SCREEN RANT WEB SITE has completed the script.

Ant Man chats with the Flash on Saturday Night Live

It’s easy to imagine the jokes that will soon be cracked on James Bond fan message boards. “Ant Man? Bond will SQUISH him!” Figuratively speaking, that may happen. The character hasn’t gotten a lot of respect to date. Ant Man once was part of a 1970s Saturday Night Live skit, where he was portrayed by Garrett Morris and other superheroes (such as John Belushi’s Hulk) made fun of him.

Then again, Iron Man was once called a second-tier Marvel character until Robert Downey Jr. suited up in 2008’s Iron Man. Ant Man will also be the first Marvel film after The Avengers sequel starring Downey that’s scheduled for May 2015. So Ant Man will probably have a lot of publicity. Still, as far as 007 fans are concerned, Ant Man faces a large task taking on Bond at the box office.

APRIL 2013 POST: THE FAMILY MODEL (EON) VS. THE CORPORATE MODEL (MARVEL)

Saturday Night Live 007 parody

There’s a Casino Royale parody from Saturday Night Live available at the show’s site. The Bond-LeChiffre showdown gets a new twist. To view it click RIGHT HERE.