Elon Musk made headlines in April 2022 when purchased the social media site Twitter for a reported 43 billion dollars. The Tesla CEO and tech mogul has had a long history with the platform, and not all of it good. He's known for tweeting controversial takes and for refusing to filter his thoughts, and it's resulted in some pretty ridiculous posts.
From a notorious beef with Microsoft founder Bill Gates to trolling the Flat Earth Society, his activity on Twitter has been anything but boring. Plus, now that he owns the site and is working to take it private, things are bound to get even more unbelievable.
Updated on May 9th, 2022 by Tanner Fox: There's something to be said for Elon Musk's Twitter decorum; while not anywhere near as professional as one might expect, none could ever call the tech mogul boring or predictable. In one instance, he'll be extolling progress made by SpaceX, and, in the next, he'll be retweeting old memes.
As chaotic as his activity is, he clearly must have faith in the platform, as his recent wholesale purchase of Twitter was one for the record books. Time will tell what happens to the social media site under Musk, but, good or bad, there's no doubt that he'll be making new memes at every turn.
Is It Mars Or Moon?
Remember when Elon Musk tweeted a photo of the moon with a caption reading “occupy Mars?” For any other visionary billionaire, this would have been a major "oops" moment, especially since he was promptly called out by astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson. But, Elon simply admitted that he didn't pay a whole lot of attention when composing the post.
This is not just chaotic, but it's also a glimpse into how carelessly his other tweets may have been delivered or how little time he might spend on confirming data before he tweets.
Shorts Boy
Twitter users have often wondered how Elon Musk gets so much done in a single day, and his tweets can actually offer some perspective on this. In the same weekend, Musk sent out high-profile tweets about some important issues, investor-sentiment polls, a video of Tesla's most affordable electric car, the Model 3, moving over an icy tundra, and a super crucial update about the addition of short shorts to Tesla's merch line, which he promised to model.
The now-famous unisex red satin short shorts with the word 'S3XY' scribbled on their back, of course, took the internet by storm, and the company has even struggled to keep up with the huge demand.
Not A Miracle Worker
Shortly after his acquisition of Twitter, the internet was inundated with a flurry of fake tweets claiming that the billionaire would look to buy everything from Netflix to NASA. After the unprecedented takeover, anything seemed possible, but Musk made it known that he couldn't do the impossible.
Replying to one of these fictitious tweets, he clarified that he would ultimately not pursue a takeover of Mcdonald's in order to fix their ice cream machines, claiming that he's not capable of miracles. He's certainly got his hands full as it is, but, if Musk can't fix the restaurant chain's notoriously faulty soft-serve stations, no one can.
When He Fully Supported Kanye’s Presidential Run But Then Had To Backtrack
To no one’s surprise, Musk drew his conclusions too soon about his friend Kanye West’s presidential run. On July 4, 2020, Musk tweeted that Kanye has his full support to run for President, and, just four days later, he conceded that he may have been wrong about this decision, as he and Kanye have more differences of opinions than he thought.
Musk did the responsible thing by publicly retracting his support, but he should have learned about Kanye’s priorities before he declared his full support, especially since he had more than 47 million followers at the time.
Mars Attack
In 2015, Musk made an appearance on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert and suggested "warming up" Mars by dropping thermonuclear weapons on its poles. He may have been joking, or he may have been totally serious, but Colbert quipped that Elon's idea makes him sound like a supervillain.
Maybe Musk wasn't entirely joking after all, because, in August 2019, he tweeted about nuking Mars again and announced a T-shirt line.
That Time He Got Corrected By The Flat Earth Society
Known for his help in generating pioneering advances in rocket technology, Elon Musk is a vital part of modern-day astrophysics. In 2017, he took to Twitter to question why there was no society dedicated to the conspiracy regarding the shape of other heavenly bodies.
The Flat Earth Society replied shortly after, stating that, apparently unlike the Earth, Mars was already confirmed to be round. Quite how one planet could be round while its neighbor remains flat isn't known, and it seems like this revolutionary new field of thought stumped Musk, who never replied.
What Does It Mean?
It's entirely possible that the billionaire pioneer knows more secrets about America than most people, but it's pretty chaotic to tease such superbly dramatic secrets on Twitter without any context. He tweeted this weird Area 51 meme about America not using the metric system, which shows that Musk may just feel he "knows" something big about this.
America is currently the only industrialized country in the world that does not use the metric system. Musk claims that he knows something about this but feels that some secrets are too dangerous—but what can this possibly mean?
This Musk Attempt
Musk made everyone super curious after he tweeted that he wants to do away with physical possessions and will own no house. How exactly this would work for a multi-billionaire wasn't clear, but his then-partner Grimes was not in full support.
Musk's Twitter posts often come across as weird stream of consciousness ideas, things on which he almost certainly won't act, though he still feels the need to share them with his millions of followers regardless.
When His Tweet Tanked Tesla's Stocks
Musk has become somewhat infamous in the cryptocurrency community due his oft-wavering support of the tech leading to tremendous currency crashes. In a similar vein, in May 2020, he tweeted that Tesla's stock was, in his opinion, too high, and it soon took a noticeable tumble.
One investor then responded, claiming that he had lost thousands of dollars because of a single tweet. This goes to show that Musk's cavalier attitudes may seem like fun and games, but, in some circumstances, they can have a genuine impact on the real world.
Captain Mars?
Twitter does love a funny billionaire, especially since most tech honchos often take themselves too seriously on social media. Musk's quirky humor may be quite chaotic, but, at times, he's also self-aware.
This recent tweet, for instance, proves that Musk is aware of how people associate him with any Mars-related news. Responding to the now-viral full rotation video of the planet Mars by NASA—which has unfortunately since been removed—Musk simply wrote this cheeky pick-up line, and it had the Twitterati in stitches.
Bill Gates Beef
Coarse, controversial, and undeniably chaotic, this has to be one of the wildest things Elon Musk has ever tweeted. The Tesla CEO and the Microsoft co-founder have long had issues stemming from political disagreements, but the feud has never taken a more odd turn.
Comparing an unflattering image of Gates to an emoji, Musk captured the attention of tons of Twitter users, garnering 1.4 million favorites. It's almost difficult to believe that what might otherwise pass for schoolyard bullying is actually transpiring between two of the richest men on the planet, but that's not an out-of-place example of common social media parlance these days.
Elon Makes An Offer
This may seem like a pretty mundane tweet, but it ultimately proved to be one of the most chaotic in the platform's history. After purchasing around nine percent of Twitter's total shares, Musk made a bid to buy the entire company outright on April 14, 2022.
Though this was hotly contested, the board eventually acquiesced to Musk, who then moved to take the company private. It was one of the most significant moments in social media history, and it's hard to tell what Twitter will look like in the months and years after the multi-billionaire's buyout.