A look back on Elon Musk's middle-school humor: from jokes about 420 and 69 to 'Titter'
Grace Kay
- Earlier this month, Elon Musk changed Twitter's sign at its headquarters to "Titter."
- It's rare that the 51-year-old goes a day without cracking some kind of joke.
Elon Musk has long been known for his sense of humor — for better or worse.
From constantly posting memes on Twitter to creating gag products, it's rare that the 51-year-old goes a day without cracking some kind of joke.
Last year, Musk called humor "one of the great joys of life."
Source: Twitter
Musk's jokes have been known to ruffle feathers, and they haven't always been the most savory.
Experts previously told Insider that Musk's online antics — from jokes about masturbation and Hitler to starting feuds on Twitter — could be harmful to his companies
"When you have a CEO who is making those types of comments, it can be very off-putting," Nicole Stgerman, the Lead Outreach and Education Coordinator at Equal Employment Opportunity Commission told Insider in 2022. "There's a reason you don't see other executives saying these kinds of things. The CEO both creates and represents the culture of his company."
In the past, some of Musk's comments on Twitter have landed him in hot water with the Securities and Exchange Commission, and have been cited in several employee lawsuits against Tesla.
Source: Insider
Most recently, the billionaire changed the sign at Twitter's San Francisco headquarters to "Titter."
Last week, Musk said on Twitter that the "W" on the Twitter sign at the company's San Francisco headquarters had been painted over.
"Our landlord at SF HQ says we're legally required to keep sign as Twitter & cannot remove 'w', so we painted it background color," the billionaire tweeted.
Before Musk announced the change, several Twitter users had posted pictures of the sign in which the "w" appeared to have been taped over.
The billionaire's joke struck a chord with one of his former lieutenants at Twitter, who called him to task for it.
It wasn't the first time the billionaire has made a boob joke.
In 2021, Musk joked that he wanted to start a school that would have the acronym "TITS," adding that it would have "epic merch."
"Am thinking of starting new university: Texas Institute of Technology & Science," he tweeted.
The tweet received some backlash online and was later cited in a sexual harassment lawsuit against Tesla.
And his "Titter" sign was not his only antic this month.
He also briefly changed his name to "Harry Bolz" on his Twitter profile and posted a penis joke about Honoré de Balzac.
Musk often incorporates references to marijuana into his jokes.
Earlier this month, he announced that Twitter would start eliminating legacy blue checks for users that had not subscribed to Twitter Blue by April 20. This was a nod to one of his classic jokes, as the date is also an unofficial holiday for cannabis smokers.
The billionaire has incorporated the number 420 into many of his ventures over the years.
In January, Musk said he thinks 420 has "karma," but he's not sure if it's "good or bad." The Tesla CEO made the comments during a trial over a tweet in which he said he had secured funding to take the car company private at $420 per share.
The number was also part of Musk's Twitter deal. He took the company private at $54.20 per share in October.
He also frequently cites the number 69, which is a sexual reference.
In 2021, Musk said it was "a total coincidence" that stacking SpaceX's Super Heavy Booster 4 and the Starship prototype Ship 20 would reveal the number 420. He also volunteered that the booster's height was 69 meters after the company cut it down for "manufacturing efficiency."
Source: Twitter
In 2020, Musk changed the starting price of the Tesla Model S to $69,420.
Musk has also pointed out that his birthday is 69 days after 4/20.
Despite all the weed references, Musk has said he doesn't "even know how to smoke a joint."
The billionaire said last year on the Full Send podcast that he and the "whole of SpaceX" had to be drug tested for a year after he smoked weed on a 2018 podcast with Joe Rogan.
Sources: Insider
The billionaire doesn't just like to crack jokes on Twitter.
The day before he officially bought Twitter, Musk showed up at the company's headquarters with a bathroom sink.
"Entering Twitter HQ – let that sink in!" Musk tweeted after spending months preparing to battle the social media company in court over his attempt to back out of the $44 billion purchase.
Source: Insider
Last week, Musk told BBC his Shiba Inu, Floki, is the CEO of Twitter.
Musk has also incorporated his sense of humor into his products at Tesla.
The Tesla CEO has said he named the company's electric cars Model S, Model 3, Model X, and Model Y because the letters spell "S3XY."
In 2019, he joked that "Ford killed 'SEX.'" Tesla had wanted to name its sedan the Model E, but the name was already registered under Ford, so he opted for the name Model 3.
Source: NBC
Tesla owners could even bring Musk's sense of humor into their cars. In 2019, Musk announced that Tesla owners would be given the option to replace the sound of their car horn with fart and goat noises.
The billionaire likes to sell gag merchandise.
In 2020, Musk sold Tesla tequila, and it quickly sold out. Last year, his tunnel-building venture, The Boring Company, began selling a perfume called "Burnt Hair" that went for $100 a bottle.
These products join a long list of of wacky merchandise, from The Boring Company's "Not-A-Flamethrower" to Tesla's red satin "S3XY" shorts — a dig at Tesla short sellers.
This week, SpaceX unveiled its Starship Torch in honor of the rocket Musk wants to take to Mars.
Over the years, Musk has made jokes at the expense of his peers...
The billionaire has taken aim at several tech executives, including Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos.
Last year, Musk appeared to mock Gates's weight by posting a tweet with an emoji of a pregnant man after he accused the Microsoft founder of shorting Tesla's stock.
Similarly, Musk said in 2021 that he sent Bezos a silver medal after his wealth surpassed the Amazon founder's fortune and he temporarily took on the role of the richest person in the world.
...and at politicians.
Last year, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said she was considering ditching her Tesla after she got into a spat with Musk on Twitter.
"Tired of having to collectively stress about what explosion of hate crimes is happening bc some billionaire with an ego problem unilaterally controls a massive communication platform," she tweeted.
"Stop hitting on me, I'm really shy," Musk responded.
Ocasio-Cortez initially said she was referring to Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's CEO, but she later deleted the tweet.
Musk has also taken shots at President Joe Biden and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
He called Biden a "damp sock puppet in human form" last year after the president highlighted EV production at Ford and GM instead of Tesla. Musk compared Trudeau to Hitler in a 2022 tweet he later deleted.
Musk has been known to befriend comedians.
Last year, The New York Times reported that Musk is good friends with the deadpan comedian Nathan Fielder and often tries to make him laugh at parties. One comedy writer told the publication that they believe Musk has a "deep-seated need to be recognized as funny."
The billionaire also appears to be friendly with Justin Roiland, one of the creators of the animated comedy series "Rick and Morty," and appeared to defend Roiland after he was charged with domestic abuse. The TV writer was later cleared of the charges.
Sources: Insider, The New York Times, Insider, Associated Press
He even reportedly tried to buy The Onion at one point.
When the satire publication did not sell, Musk briefly attempted to launch his own comedy news site, The Verge reported.
In 2018, The Onion appeared to poke fun at the billionaire and his attempts to recruit writers from The Onion to his own venture.
Musk is also a fan of The Babylon Bee, a conservative satire site, and even sat down for an interview with the media company in 2021. One of the first things he did when he took over Twitter was reinstate The Babylon Bee's Twitter account, which had been previously banned for an anti-trans tweet.
Sources: Insider, The Verge, The Babylon Bee, The Daily Beast
Musk has tried his hand at TV comedy a few times himself.
Over the years, the billionaire has made at least 11 cameos in movies and TV shows, including recurring roles on "South Park" and "Rick and Morty." Musk often plays himself or variations of himself on the shows.
Source: Insider
Musk's sense of humor hasn't always been so well received. It's landed him in trouble a few times.
In 2018, Musk was sued for defamation after he called a British diver who helped rescue a group of boys that were trapped in a cave a "pedo" on Twitter. Musk later apologized for the tweet. He won the lawsuit in 2019.
At the time of the incident, billionaire investor Ron Baron told Musk to stop tweeting.
"You should not respond to any criticism in the news or on Twitter," Baron told Musk in an email from July 15, 2018 that was uncovered in a lawsuit against Tesla and Musk. "If something really upsets you, go for a walk around the factory. Get an ice cream cone. Just don't use Twitter."
A year later, Musk had to pay $20 million for a settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission after he tweeted that he had "funding secured" to take Tesla private. While Musk's plans to take Tesla private weren't a joke, it's an example of how the billionaire's presence on Twitter has impacted his companies.
Even Musk has acknowledged that at times he has shot himself in the foot with his humor and active tweeting.
Last week, he told BBC that he probably "should not tweet after 3:00 a.m."
"Have I shot myself in the foot multiple times? Yes," Musk said. "If you're gonna tweet something that maybe is controversial, save it as a draft then look at it the next day, and see if you still want to tweet it."
In the past, Musk has said he's prone to tweeting from the toilet.
"I'm tweeting more or less stream of consciousness," he said at a TED Talk. "I'm literally on the toilet or something, like, 'Oh this is funny' and then tweet that out."
Sources: Insider, Twitter, TED.com
Musk, SpaceX, and Tesla did not respond to requests for comment.
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