On Saturday, billionaire tech mogul Elon Musk revealed that he has Asperger's syndrome in a monologue on "Saturday Night Live." He appeared as a financial expert in another segment and jokingly remarked that Dogecoin is a "hustle". The SpaceX founder referred to himself as "the first person with Asperger's to host SNL or at least the first to admit it."
Asperger's syndrome is an Autism spectrum disorder characterized by restrictive and specialized interests, difficulties in social interactions, and impaired non-verbal communication. Healthline notes that people with the syndrome may have above-average intelligence.
It's the first time the billionaire has linked himself to the condition. However, he's not the first one with Asperger's to host the show. The Canadian actor Dan Aykroyd is known for Asperger's syndrome who also hosted the SNL back in 2003.
Musk later followed up with some jokes and quips about his "strange" tweets and apologized to "anyone offended," saying, "this is how my brain works." He also joked about his son's name, known as X Æ A-12, referring to the meaning as "cat running across the keyboard."
In keeping with the Mother's Day theme on the show, Musk also brought his mother, the former model Maye Musk, who joked about Dogecoin, saying she hopes her Mother's Day gift is not Dogecoin, with Musk jokingly replying "it is."
Elon Musk is known to often tweet about Dogecoin, referring to himself as "Dogefather." The Tesla founder's positive tweets about the particular cryptocurrency were frequently correlated with the surge in its value.
Cryptocurrency is promising, but please invest with caution! https://t.co/A4kplcP8Vq
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 7, 2021
However, on "SNL"'s "weekend update" segment, Elon Musk, appearing in the character of financial expert Lloyd Ostertag, discussed Dogecoin with the segment's hosts and jokingly agreed with one of the hosts that it's a "hustle."
Joke or no joke, Dogecoin's value had risen to 73 cents on Saturday, which fell to 51.4 cents during the show.
The coin happens to be the 4th largest cryptocurrency by market cap, and its traders and investors keenly listen to Musk for his insights.
Bloomberg reported that Dogecoin traders and investors were hosting "watch parties" for "SNL", hoping that the billionaire tech mogul would discuss the coin and its merits which could drive the coin's value even higher.
Even though it was a comedy, the weekend update segment seems to have had the opposite effect.
Dogecoin was created back in 2013 by software engineers Jackson Palmer and Billy Markus as a payment system operating on blockchain technology free from the traditional banking systems. It features the face of dog breed Shiba Inu from the famous Doge meme.
An online community of Dogecoin quickly grew as its value started getting a boost from the likes of Elon Musk.