Elon Musk is a self-made billionaire, the wealthiest man in the world, was born in South Africa, and is seen by many as the world’s savior. On the other hand, he’s also undeniably strange at times. Love or hate him; he’s never failed to be a divisive figure.
The Tesla and SpaceX CEO is known for some truly bizarre moments. Whether he’s dancing like a rhythm-impaired robot or publicly dueling with some of the biggest companies in the world, Musk is never short of outrageous behavior. Here are some of his most famous weird moments.
Believe it or not, the eccentric billionaire once produced his own song and uploaded it to SoundCloud. It was meant as a motivational song of some sort but ended up just being plain weird.
An eclectic mix of trance music and rhythmic mantra-style repetitions of the title made for one bizarre song. The strangest part is that if it’s played past the end, SoundCloud links to a rap song about ED for some reason.
Musk unsurprisingly has a diverse portfolio of business interests at his command. As one of the founders of a company called Neuralink, Musk hopes to develop brain implant technology.
The potential applications of this technology are wide-ranging and could have a host of benefits if perfected. However, Elon surprised people when he said that he also wanted to use it to teach primates to play video games with their minds.
Gwyneth Paltrow famously named her eldest child Apple, and she’s considered pretty normal. So when someone as eccentric as Elon Musk had children, you knew his baby names would be outrageous.
The billionaire didn’t disappoint on that front and named one of his many children X Æ A-Xii. His partner explained that it was a mix of Elvin and a reconnaissance vehicle used by the CIA. Speaking to Joe Rogan, Musk said, “I mean, it’s just X, the letter X. And then, the Æ is, like, pronounced ‘Ash’.”
Elon Musk’s sense of humor can sometimes be described as outlandish, at best. Musk and his partner publically admit to being users of nature’s best-known herb. When Musk spoke about making Tesla a private company, he joked that he set the share price as $420.
420 is a well-known euphemism to celebrate this practice. However, the joke went too far as the SEC was not informed about any of these musings and ended up suing Musk for securities fraud.
Rapper Azealia Banks made headlines in 2018 when she became embroiled in a weird feud that ended with her camping out in Elon Musk’s house. According to the rapper, she was invited to collaborate on a song with Elon’s partner, Grimes.
She claimed Grimes never showed up and was left stuck at Elon’s house, waiting around. Elon alleges he never met Azealia while she asserts that he was “tripping on acid” and “a humanoid mutant caveman.”
Elon once used artwork images of unicorn farts powering an electric car for Tesla publicity. The artist’s daughter noticed and called him out on it as they were not paid any royalties. Elon said he’d stop using it but hoped they wouldn’t sue as that would be “lame”
The dispute seemed to be resolved behind closed doors. So, yeah, basically, the richest man in the world once got into a spat over a farting unicorn, and this kind of tells you all you need to know about the unpredictable life of Musk.
Yup, that’s right, Musk has his own brand of Tequila too. The story behind it is as weird as any other from his life. Musk once declared war on an alcoholic beverage by tweeting, “We will fight Big Tequila!”.
The reason was that the Tequila Regulatory Council has a strict definition of what counts as actual tequila. In the end, Musk rebranded as Tesla Tequila and was able to bring his version of the Mexican classic to market.
So aside from Musk’s claim about mind-controlled video game-playing monkeys, he’s also suggested that Neuralink has implanted a chip into a pig. Named Gertrude, Elon described the work with her as follows: “It’s kind of like a Fitbit in your skull with tiny wires.”
Elon’s outlandish claims about his neurally controlled animals resulted in much criticism from journalists. Some claim he childishly clings to unnecessary fantasies rather than focusing on more important and substantive projects.
Elon showed early on that he had a college fratboy sense of humor. It was announced that Tesla’s first three models in their model 3 range would be named the ‘S’ model, the ‘E’ model, and the ‘X’ model.
Ford threatened legal action over the ‘E’ model, which necessitated its change to the ‘3’ model. Regardless of the name change, when the names of all three models are placed together, you get the following: “S3X”. Happy accident? We think not.
While it is widely known that Elon Musk is an occasional ‘herb’ user, when he went onto Joe Rogan’s podcast as a guest, people thought he went too far. Musk has the fate of thousands of employees, investors, and shareholders tied to his many public companies
Being their CEO, therefore, requires a degree of stability. So when Musk lit up a joint and drank whiskey right there at the podcast while he was live on air, he was roundly criticized for this behavior.
Elon may actually be the nearest thing to a real-life Tony Stark. His penchant for fast cars, flying rockets, eccentricity, and controversy, plus the fact that he’s an actual billionaire, do raise some similarities with the iconic superhero.
When Elon was asked about a meeting he had with Pentagon officials, he made people wonder if he did have similar ambitions to Iron Man. Musk’s answer was to casually state that it was “something about a flying metal suit….”. Oh, and did we mention, he also made a cameo appearance in Iron Man 2.
Musk has broken the internet on more than one occasion for his awkward and funny dance moves. At the opening of Tesla factories in Shanghai and Berlin, Musk treated jubilant crowds to his weird dance routines.
The performances have become so legendary that many of the images from these have inspired memes and GIFs. Then again, Elon has never been short of producing meme-worthy content.
In 2022, Musk began flirting with the idea of buying social media giant Twitter. He followed through, and a massive $44 billion deal was brokered.
Musk famously backtracked and is now embroiled in a potentially massive lawsuit for pulling out of the deal. Anyone else might have been anxious about being sued for billions. However, Elon’s response was to post hilarious memes and poke fun at the situation.
Elon Musk continues to divide opinion with his almost-daily antics. He is often criticized but never seems fazed by much. On the other hand, he has a massive following of people who believe he is the savior of humanity and that his ambitious Mars projects with SpaceX are actually a game changer for society. Love him or hate him, no one can deny that the eccentric billionaire is also a genius in many respects. Only time will tell whether he proves to be humanity’s savior or goes the way of Howard Hughes. What are your thoughts?
In order to protect the privacy of those depicted, some names, locations, and identifying characteristics have been changed and are products of the author’s imagination. Any resemblances to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, are entirely coincidental.
