- "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" called out Elon Musk over his drama with Don Lemon.
- In a parody video, Musk has a conversation with himself asking softball questions.
Stephen Colbert mocked Elon Musk reportedly bristling at the interview questions that Don Lemon said led to the end of his partnership deal with X.
The late-night host posted a video about "the Elon interview of Elon" that includes a parody clip of Musk interviewing himself. The video points out that Musk is a self-proclaimed "free speech absolutist" but reportedly was angered at the subject matter Lemon asked during their real-life interview.
"Coming soon: The only interview style that meets Elon Musk's approval," Colbert captioned a post on Threads.
The clip depicts the parody Elon Musk sitting across from himself asking softball questions.
"Coming soon to X, Elon Musk sits down with the only person on the platform that can be trusted with free speech: Elon Musk," a narrator says. "Elon asks Elon the tough questions."
The parody Musk then asks if the Tesla CEO is good at his job, works hard, and has high integrity. The other Musk answers affirmatively to each question.
The narrator closes out the Colbert video joking that X is "where everyone named Elon can speak Freelon."
Former CNN host Lemon announced on Wednesday that the deal he'd announced with X for "The Don Lemon Show" had been terminated by Musk hours after he'd interviewed the owner of the platform. Lemon said Musk had grown "upset" and "mad" at questions about his reported ketamine use, recent meeting with Trump, and whether he held a responsibility to moderate antisemitism and hate speech on the platform.
Musk invited Lemon to work with X on his show after he and CNN parted ways. In his statement on his canceled partnership, Lemon said the X owner had gone back on his word.
"His commitment to a global town square where all questions can be asked and all ideas can be shared seems to not include questions of him from people like me," Lemon said.
Following his announcement, the official X Business account put out its own statement on the issue. It emphasized the company's support of free speech and assured that "The Don Lemon Show" would be allowed to post its content to X — but that its partnership with Lemon wasn't happening.
"However, like any enterprise, we reserve the right to make decisions about our business partnerships, and after careful consideration, X decided not to enter into a commercial partnership with the show," the statement said.
Lemon's interview with Musk is still set to premiere as part of the "The Don Lemon Show" on Monday.