Tech billionaire Elon Musk joked about his son’s name, smoking cannabis on a podcast and cryptocurrency as he hosted US comedy show Saturday Night Live.

Musk, boss of electric car manufacturer Tesla and aerospace company SpaceX, was joined on the hit US show by pop singer Miley Cyrus.

Saturday Night Live is an American pop culture institution and regularly invites A-list stars to host.

During the opening, Musk, 49, spoke of how he sometimes posts strange comments on his social media, adding: “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 also think I was going to be a chill, normal dude?'”

Musk also referred to an incident in 2018 where he inhaled from what Joe Rogan said was a combined marijuana-tobacco joint during an appearance on his eponymous show.

“A lot of times, people are reduced to the dumbest thing they ever did. Like one time I smoked weed on Joe Rogan’s podcast.

“And now all the time I hear ‘Elon Musk, all he ever does is smoke weed on podcasts’. Like I go from podcast to podcast, lighting up joints. It happened once, it’s like reducing OJ Simpson to murderer.”
`
South Africa-born Musk is in a relationship with Canadian musician Grimes and they welcomed their first child, a son, last year and made headlines for naming him X æ A-Xii.

Referring to the name, he said: “It’s pronounced cat running across keyboard.”

The show’s open featured Cyrus singing Dolly Parton’s Light of a Clear Blue Morning as the show’s stars appeared in sketches with their mothers in recognition of Mother’s Day which is this weekend in the US.

Musk introduced his mother, Maye, who said she was excited for her Mother’s Day gift.

“I just hope it’s not dogecoin”, she quipped, referring to a cryptocurrency started as a joke and about which Musk has previously tweeted, to which he replied “It is!”

PA Media