The funniest joke suggestions for Elon Musk's Twitter CEO successor, from Elizabeth Holmes to Meghan Markle
- Elon Musk announced Thursday he would be handing over the Twitter CEO role to a woman.
- Reports suggest NBCUniversal's Linda Yaccarino could be up for the top job.
Months after Twitter users voted for Elon Musk to step down as the company's CEO, the billionaire announced Thursday that he'd found someone to takeover the position.
"She will be starting in ~6 weeks!" Musk tweeted. "My role will transition to being exec chair & CTO, overseeing product, software & sysops."
Speculation began almost immediately as to who the mysterious woman could be.
Insider reported that Twitter staff thought that Ella Irwin, its head of trust and safety, could take over the top job, although media industry insiders pointed to Linda Yaccarino, head of global advertising and partnerships at NBCUniversal.
The Wall Street Journal also reported that Yaccarino is in talks to take over as Twitter CEO.
But among Twitter's rank and file, joke suggestions have been flying left, right, and center. Here are some of the funniest and most-implausible.
Elizabeth Holmes
The Theranos founder has been back in the news recently with a New York Times profile which attracted some criticism for what some saw as a sympathetic portrayal of the convicted criminal.
She was sentenced to 11 years in prison on four counts of fraud and conspiracy after Theranos was found to have been making false claims about its blood test devices.
Caroline Ellison
The former CEO of crypto trading firm Alameda rose to infamy for her role in the November downfall of crypto exchange FTX, and rumored relationship with its cofounder, Sam Bankman-Fried.
Prosecutors allege that Alameda had a $65 billion line of credit to draw on FTX customer's funds through an account on the exchange which had privileged access. Ellison has pleaded guilty to charges which carry up to 110 years in prison.
Grimes
According to data collected by Casino.org, the musician was the third-most popular candidate tweeted about.
The "Oblivion" singer doesn't have any tech company experience, but users were likely latching onto her former relationship with Musk. She gave birth to their son, X Æ A-12, in 2020 – who now shares his first name with Twitter's parent company.
Elona Musk
Some fans of Musk think he won't really be stepping down as CEO – especially given his jokes about his Shiba Inu dog taking the helm.
Instead of any real candidate, they've taken to FaceApp to turn Musk into a woman – with "Elona" briefly trending on Twitter.
Shiv Roy and Gerri Kellman
If you haven't heard of these two, it's probably because you've missed out on HBO's "Succession."
Shiv is the only daughter of the family patriarch, Logan Roy – widely believed to be based on Rupert Murdoch – who acts as Waystar Royco's President of Domestic Operations.
And Gerri acted as the company's interim CEO, seen as a stable placeholder before Logan picked one of his children as heir.
They've both won fans for their no-holds-barred attitude and willingness to stand up to the men, with Harper's Bazaar calling Shiv "the ultimate girlboss."
Meghan Markle
The Duchess of Sussex has made some shrewd business moves, signing deals with Spotify and Netflix since she and Prince Harry quit the Royal Family. She was the 7th-most tweeted about candidate, per Casino.org's data.
Markle also has some media experience, because she used to run her own blog called Tig.
Liz Truss
The British conversative who was prime minister for 49 days before resigning last October was a popular joke suggestion among UK tweeters. It's totally absurd to suggest that an English politician who was fairly popular with voters before floundering once in power, could take on a top role a social media company, right?
Well strangely enough it has actually been done before. The UK's former deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg, became Facebook's vice president for global affairs and communications in 2018. He lost his parliamentary seat a year earlier after backing a rise in university tuition fees despite promising not to.
It most likely won't be happening again, though.