Was Elon Musk ever actually cool? At one point, long ago, he was respected enough to score a cameo in Iron Man 2, the guy then primarily known for Space X joking around with Tony Stark. In the last few years, though, we’ve come to learn way too much about him, including what he finds funny. Lo and behold, it turns out he’s a dork’s idea of a cool dude. For example, what in heavens is this?
On Tuesday, the world’s richest person dropped a truly gobsmacking new promo for the social media service he purchased for way too much money two Novembers ago. With computer graphics that wouldn’t pass muster in a mid-aughts installment of Elder Scrolls, it shows a panther with neon purple stripes and flashlight eyeballs hurtling towards the viewer. Once there, it slashes the screen, revealing the new name of the company that no one but him uses.
Did Musk think this neon panther was rad? He 1000% did. There is no chance that Musk didn’t think it was the sickest thing he’d ever seen. He probably thought others would agree. Alas, others did not.
And so, once again, the guy who wants to put gizmos in people’s brains got trolled on his own social media platform. A lot of people made old-timey computer/video game jokes.
Me, high on bathsalts inside a Frys Electronics in 2007:
The box for a EVGA ATI Radeon X800-PCI (With free copy of Half-Life 2 Episode 1): https://t.co/aOJqzgqWCn
— harris.zone on b’sky (@HarrisFoster) January 9, 2024
There was the inevitable Anchorman sex panther joke.
There were lots of miscellaneous yuks.
the entire X rebrand is best pictured as a child trying to imagine the “sickest” social media platform ever
it’s the digital equivalent of putting “danger do not cross” and warning labels on the door to your bedroom https://t.co/T9UZe40pG8
— Kʟᴏʙʙ (@KL0BB) January 9, 2024
And there were reminders of the appallingly large amount of money Musk paid for a service where everyone routinely makes fun of him.
But surely at least those smart enough to fork over actual money to use Musk’s otherwise free service think the neon panther is cool. They definitely don’t think he’s the biggest dork in human history.