Elon Musk Played Wario In A ‘Mario Kart’ Murder Trial Sketch On ‘SNL’ And Drew Lots Of Reactions (original) (raw)

Elon Musk’s Saturday Night Live gig was much closer to droll and boring than a disaster, but he still got lots of reaction in his appearance on the NBC sketch comedy showcase. Musk was in nearly every sketch on Saturday, skipping only the cold open and starring in a number of different segments that gave him a chance to change the narrative about the billionaire with troubling opinions about science.

Musk took part in a “cringe” sketch about Gen Z Hospital, which drew some criticism that the use of AAVE language was simply defined as a younger generation just being odd. But the big reaction of the night (beyond Dogecoin crashing) was a _Mario Kart_-based sketch about Mario’s murder.

Grimes making her acting debut was notable, sure, but the large reaction to the sketch was meme-enthusiast Musk taking on the role of Wario, a frequent gaming meme of his own.

The sketch frames Wario as the murderer of Mario while cart racing, using a shell to take him out. Wario goes on trial, but his lawyer argues discrimination against him because of his heritage and reveals a love affair between Princess Peach and Luigi, Mario’s brother. There’s also Kate McKinnon as Waluigi.

Conceptually, it was another Nintendo-themed sketch idea from the show in Season 46. And there was considerable attention to detail, including a badge behind the judge that says the trial was taking place in Toad Town. There were a lot of reactions to the sketch, which mostly were about how odd it was that Musk dressed up as Wario for a bit that was ultimately about Italian discrimination and included Pete Davidson as Andrew Cuomo.

https://twitter.com/markerblot/status/1391429915619127296

In some ways, Musk as Wario became a meme of its own. The character was trending all day on Sunday as people reacted to the sketch, including on the show’s Twitter account.

The world's richest man is on national television dressed as Wario after having compared the value of a joke cryptocurrency to the global reserve currency only seconds before.

The memes are the message.

— Pomp 🌪 (@APompliano) May 9, 2021

Musk later called the sketch “my fav” on Twitter, though there were some that argued Wario should not be Italian at all.

Mario is Italian, but Wario is the negation of everything Mario; so it follows that Wario is not Italian

— Chris Wade (@saywhatagain) May 9, 2021

In any event, if you want to see Musk dance to a Wario theme song, you can watch the full sketch above.