Following Elon Musk's criticism of Dana Carvey's portrayal of him on Saturday Night Live (SNL), the comedian said on Friday that the billionaire's "incredible accent" is tough to mimic.
SNL's November 9 episode saw the aftermath of the 2024 election in which President-elect Donald Trump won a decisive victory over Vice President Kamala Harris. Playing the vice president for SNL's 50th season is Maya Rudolph while Trump is played by James Austin Johnson.
The episode's cold open began soberly as SNL cast members discussed Trump's victory and joked they had all been in his corner from the very beginning.
Carvey had then debuted an impression of Musk who was one of Trump's biggest donors during the election and has since been appointed to have a formal role in the incoming administration. Mimicking Musk's antics on the campaign trail, Carvey's Musk jumped up and down and performed some dance moves as the show's cast members looked on with straight faces.
However, the skit has since caught the attention of Musk on his social media platform X, formerly Twitter, in which he criticized NBC's long running comedy sketch show and wrote, "SNL has been dying slowly for years, as they become increasingly out of touch with reality."
Musk, who also hosted an episode of SNL in May 2021, also replied to an X post with screenshots of Carvey wearing a "gothic" black Make America Great Again (MAGA) hat in the skit, writing, "They are so mad that @realDonaldTrump won."
In a Friday episode of his Superfly podcast with comedian David Spade, Carvey spoke about his impression of Musk and said he struggled to come up with an accent for Musk, noting his "incredible accent" stems from several regions.
"I can't do Elon Musk very well but I can do something that sounds not like anything. He has an incredible accent...South Africa via Canada, via Pennsylvania. It's almost like, it's a little bit of Australian in there, a little bit of British, but he's not totally that," Carvey said.
Musk was born and raised in South Africa before moving to Canada and then the United States.
Newsweek has reached out to Musk via Tesla's email for comment.
While Carvey did not address Musk's criticism of SNL directly, he revealed that he would return to the show in December.
"So now, if you ever see me on SNL—I'm going back in December—you see me come off the stage, just remember, within seconds, I will be skipping for quite a while," Carvey said.
Carvey, who was a regular cast member on SNL from 1986 to 1993, returned this season to play President Joe Biden leading up to Election Day.
Carvey's remarks come as Musk has continued to be at the forefront of the upcoming Trump administration as the president-elect announced earlier this month that the founder of Tesla and SpaceX would lead what he called the "Department of Government Efficiency" or (DOGE), along with entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, to "dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies."
No such department exists and the president-elect didn't offer many details about how it would operate or how it would be staffed, if at all. Trump's statement said DOGE "will provide advice and guidance from outside of Government, and will partner with the White House and Office of Management & Budget."
The appointment of Musk has raised concerns since he frequently posts his political opinions on X, which he bought in October 2022, and has continued to speak on what he aims to do given his recent appointment.
University of Michigan public policy professor Donald Moynihan previously told Newsweek that while "[DOGE] will be a Federal Advisory Committee" instead of an actual department, Trump's statement does not address that Musk's companies are the recipients of government contracts and subsidies.
"Both of those things are fine until Musk is given charge of government, and gets to make recommendations about which agencies should have reduced budgets, or which officials should be fired," Moynihan said. "Musk has enormous and multiple conflicts of interest that should prohibit him from working in the Trump administration. It becomes impossible to maintain the claim that the government will not now favor Musk when he has power over their agencies."
Moynihan added that Musk's involvement in the federal government "creates the appearance of corruption and increases the chances that such corruption will take place. It increases the risk that policy will be made and implemented to satisfy the desires of the richest man in the world rather than the American public."
Following Trump's announcement, Musk said that "[a]ll actions of the Department of Government Efficiency will be posted online for maximum transparency."
Responding to the professor's comments, Trump-Vance spokesperson Brian Hughes previously told Newsweek that "the transition team will ensure the Department of Government Efficiency and those involved with it are compliant with all legal guidelines related to conflicts of interest."
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