Elon Musk: Tesla CEO’s Most Controversial Moments

Musk has been all over the headlines for many years and is usually splitting opinions. Here is a round-up of some of his most controversial moments.

Smoking a joint on the Joe Rogan Podcast

We all know Musk is a big fan of memes, but what about when he became one? In 2018, Musk appeared on the Joe Rogan Podcast, one of the world’s most popular podcasts. During his segment on the program, Musk smoked a spliff from Rogan, who is a marijuana user.

Musk, on the other hand, appeared to be winging it when he was smoking the joint and didn’t inhale any of the smoke or get any of its benefits. His response, though, was priceless and will now exist in gif form for eternity on the internet.

Elon Musk later explained on 60 Minutes that he had no idea what he was doing with the cannabis. He revealed to Lesley Stahl: “I am somewhat impulsive. I don’t really want to try to adhere to some CEO template. I do not smoke pot. As anyone who watched that podcast can tell I have no idea how to smoke pot, or anything.”

Musk also referred to the incident whilst hosting SNL, “A lot of times, people are reduced to the dumbest thing they ever did. Like one time I smoked weed on Joe Rogan’s podcast,” he explained.

“And now all the time I hear ‘Elon Musk, all he ever does is smoke weed on podcasts’. Like I go from podcast to podcast, lighting up joints. It happened once, it’s like reducing OJ Simpson to murderer.”

Naming The Tesla Models S, 3 & X.

Elon Musk showed his ‘out-there- sense of humour from an early stage in Tesla production.

Tesla announced in 2017 that the three new models to be released would be the Model S, Model E and Model X. However, Ford threatened to sue over the E name (due to their Mustang-E), and thus it was changed to Model 3.

When Tesla launched the vehicles, it didn’t hide the fact that they spelt out ‘S3X’ and it definitely worked it’s magic and got everyone talking about the newly released cars.

If that wasn’t close enough to the mark, you’ll be shocked to learn that the SpaceX rocket “BFR” stands for “Big F**king Rocket.”

Sending His Car Into Space

SpaceX launched their Falcon Heavy rocket in February 2018 with a special package aboard courtesy of Musk. Yep, you guessed it, his car along with a mannequin wearing a spacesuit listening to David Bowie.

His Cameo In Iron Man 2

From Tony Stark to Steve Rogers and from Loki to Thanos, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has provided us with a plethora of memorable personalities. Even though Elon Musk was in a Marvel movie, he seems he won’t be making the cut. He had a small speaking role in Iron Man 2 back in 2010, appearing for less than 30 seconds. Despite this, he did have a few lines, such as telling Stark that he has an idea for an “electric jet.” Elon Musk has made cameos in a number of films and television series, including The Simpsons, South Park, The Big Bang Theory, and Rick and Morty.

The Baby Name That Confused Everyone

Musk and his now ex-partner, Grimes, welcomed their baby, X Æ A-12 Musk, in May 2020. They caused a lot of confusion when they revealed the chosen name as no one knew how to pronounce it.. even Grimes herself! Grimes took to the internet to explain how to pronounce the name but Musk had to correct her later on.

California law states that no numbers may be included in a person’s name; as a result, the pair had to transform the name to: XÆ A-Xii. This is probably even more perplexing than the original.

He mentioned the confusion during his Saturday Night Live monologue, saying: “It’s pronounced cat running across keyboard.”

Deciding To Sell 10% Of His Tesla Stock From A Twitter Poll

Musk recently hit back at claims that he could afford to solve world hunger by taking to Twitter. He put a poll out to see if he should sell 10% of his Tesla stocks and he would do it if it got the majority vote. Which surprise surprise, it did! Amazingly, Musk actually followed through with his word.

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1457064697782489088?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1457064697782489088%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fteslareporter.com%2F3563%2Felon-musks-plan-to-sell-10-of-his-tesla-stocks-causes-value-plummet%2F

The ‘RIP Harambe’ song 

The Internet’s most famous meme in 2016 was Harambe, the gorilla who became a global phenomenon after his death. Of course, Musk has to get involved in some way, so rather than putting out memes like everyone else, he composed an extremely auto-tuned song about the deceased primate.

He uploaded it to a Soundcloud called Emo G Records three years after the meme went viral as part of an April Fools joke. He followed up with another song called “Don’t Doubt Your Vibe” a year later, which is only slightly better.

Mocking pronouns 

Last year, there was another instance when Tesla’s CEO mocked pronouns for no apparent reason other than simply because he didn’t like them.

This started off looking like as an assault on transgender individuals, but Musk clarified his viewpoint as pro-trans and anti-pronouns, which was not much of a help to anybody.

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1339253909546823682?lang=en-GB

Did we miss anything? Let us know in the comments!