Unless you live under a rock, you must have seen at least a hundred memes about Elon Musk, the entrepreneur and owner of Tesla, SpaceX, and now X (formerly known as Twitter). Musk is famous not only for his business enterprise, but also for his online presence and his often-bizarre posts.
His popularity has boomed in the last few years, especially ever since he bought Twitter, so it’s no wonder that online creators constantly make memes about him. One such creator made a funny infographic, which can be found on betting.us, and represents the hypothetical purchase of Wrexham FC by Musk.
Read this article to find out what online creators often satirize Musk about, and specifically what inspired that infographic designer to make his creation.
Musk Memes
Elon Musk is hailed by some as the next Thomas Edison or Nicholas Tesla, but many rethink this comparison nowadays. Musk’s reputation has suffered in the past few years for a multitude of reasons.
For one, he lost many liberal fans when he showed support for Republican politicians like Donald Trump. He then lost the majority of his LGBTQ+ fan base when he made comments against trans people.
In addition, people were not so happy with his handling of Twitter (now X). There have been numerous technical issues ever since he assumed control of the site and he removed certain features and added new ones (like paid subscription) which are unpopular.
Other people are also criticizing his handling of SpaceX and Tesla. There have been accidents with Tesla cars, while a few SpaceX rockets have failed to launch. Some blame Musk for these incidents and point towards his lack of self-awareness and lack of trust in experts. One of the most recent things that made headlines for the wrong reasons, and many memes along with it, was the launch of CyberBeer, Tesla’s limited-edition beer, which costs a whopping $150 for two bottles. Customers have reported rusty packaging and many claimed the beer just tasted bad.
Now that you have the context, you can understand why people are making memes about Musk. Here’s what the memes are most often satirizing:
- Musk’s delusions of grandeur
- Musk’s distrust in anyone who’s not him
- Musk’s conservative politics
- Musk being a hack, and not an inventor
- Musk’s greed exhibited by the high prices of his products and various subscription models
- Musk’s lack of humour or his cringe jokes
- Musk’s hypocrisy (e.g., pretending to be a freedom of speech absolutist and then censoring people on X)
You can easily find thousands of memes on the topic if you browse any social media for an hour.
Infographic
Now let’s break down the infographic that inspired this article. First of all, why did the creator choose to portray this hypothetical situation?
Wrexham FC, a Welsh football team, was recently bought by two Hollywood actors – Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney – which took the world unprepared as they lack the proper experience and are after all – Americans. Still, Reynolds and McElhenney are doing their best in their attempt to return Wrexham FC to its past glory.
Musk actually commented on Wrexham in recent times, saying that the club fees were too low which likely inspired the designer to make this infographic. Let’s break down all the jokes in the infographic as to what would happen if Musk buys the team:
- Fire Everyone – Musk famously fired a lot of people when he bought Twitter which led to a whole array of problems, and this is what the creator is making fun of.
- Rebrand the Club – Musk changed Twitter’s name to X, a nod to SpaceX, and the creator suggests that Musk would rebrand Wrexham FC to X-Ham.
- Announce Billion Dollar Sponsorships – The designer is, rightfully, saying that Musk would cut sponsorship deals between his new team and his companies Tesla and SpaceX.
- Lure Messi, Ronaldo and Neymar – Musk loves support from influential people and when he doesn’t get it, he buys it. The infographic creator claims he’d do the same by signing the biggest football stars to his new club.
- Sign the Next Generation of Talent – The designer funnily adds that Musk would sign kids to the club based on their performance in the video game FIFA and think it’s a genius move.
- Introduce a Paid-Subscription Model – Musk would add a blue Twitter check mark equivalent for Wrexham FC fans.
- Self-Driving Team Bus Lost – Here, the graphic designer makes fun of Tesla’s failure to launch a functional self-driving car.
- Joe Rogan Spotted in a Local Wrexham Pub – The creator references Musk’s love for the podcaster and his infamous podcast where Musk smoked weed.
- X-Ham AFC Deducted Points for Using AI Players – Musk would employ androids with AI technology which would lead to harsh penalties from the National League, as per Musk’s interest in AI.
- The Interplanetary Super League is Born – The creator references Musk’s grandiose desire to colonize space, so the next logical step is to make a football league for the whole galaxy.