Elon Musk's former Twitter lieutenant reveals her ex-boss was funny — though he told the same stories and jokes 'over and over'

• Ex-Twitter director Esther Crawford said Elon Musk is "oddly charming and he's genuinely funny."
• Crawford broke down her experience with Musk at Twitter in a 14-minute video on Wednesday.

Elon Musk isn't just a jokester on Twitter — at least according to one of his former lieutenants at the social media company.

"In person Elon is oddly charming and he's genuinely funny," Esther Crawford, the ex-director of product management at Twitter, said in a 14-minute video on X.

"He also has personality quirks like telling the same stories and jokes over and over," she wrote.

Musk has long been known for his juvenile sense of humor and unfiltered, combative nature. On Twitter, his tweets have ranged from low-brow sexual humor and jokes about marijuana, to theories on life on Mars and initiating feuds with the likes of Apple's CEO Tim Cook and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.

Despite his sense of humor, Crawford said the billionaire's personality could "turn on a dime" and could be hard to predict.

"I made peace with the fact that I didn't have psychological safety at Twitter 2.0 and that meant I could be fired at any moment, and for no reason at all," Crawford wrote of her time at the company under Musk.

Ultimately, the former director said that while she saw her termination as "a gift," she also grew from her experience at the social media company.

"I learned a ton from watching Elon up close – the good, the bad and the ugly," Crawford said. "His boldness, passion and storytelling is inspiring, but his lack of process and empathy is painful."

She "spilled the tea" on her time with Musk at Twitter in the 14-minute video.

The former Twitter director's recent comments come after she appeared to criticize Musk's decision to rebrand the company as "X." She was an early supporter of Musk when he took over the social-media company.

Last year, the former manager made headlines after a photo of her sleeping at Twitter's headquarters went viral as Musk touted his "hardcore" work culture.

Crawford worked at Twitter for over two years after her startup was acquired in 2020. After she was laid off in February, Crawford has taken a career break and has gone on to travel the world.