Why Elon Musk isn’t funny

And how to be the opposite of Elon when it comes to getting laughs.

Spencer Crittenden on why Elon Musk isn’t funny (from “Elon Musk is dying to be funny. These eight comedians have some notes.”):

Crittenden: It’s hard to be funny and cool. You have to be able to laugh at yourself, which is just a skill he doesn’t have. … If you just were as obviously broken as you clearly are, people would like it more just because people root for an underdog. But that requires a level of vulnerability that he’s not comfortable with.

Vaguely related: Information design wiz Edward Tufte teaches people how to explain things clearly. But in one of his books, he describes how magicians fool people. His theory: Understand the wrong way to explain things clearly and you’ll learn how to do the opposite.

In Visual Explanations, he co-authored a chapter on magic with a professional magician, Jamy Ian Swiss. It is vintage Tufte—an exuberant illustrated analysis of card tricks, vanishing coins, flying water glasses unmasked. “To create illusions is to engage in disinformation design, to corrupt optical information, to deceive the audience,’’ the authors write. “Thus the strategies of magic suggest what not to do if our goal is truth-telling rather than illusion-making.’’

Along those lines, perhaps comedians can learn something from Elon Musk’s failed attempts to be funny. The LA Times asked comedians why Musk’s “jokes” always bomb. If you do the opposite of Musk, you’ll probably be on the right track. Excerpts below.

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Musk makes a lot of 69 and 420 jokes.

Laurie Kilmartin: In this year of our Lord 2023, 420 jokes can be funny if the person acknowledges how hacky they are. Elon seems to think they’re funny on their own, which is embarrassing. Personally, I love a good “noice” after any number that is or contains 69 but “69” itself is not a real punchline.

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He walked into the company’s San Francisco headquarters carrying a full-size sink, then posted a video of the stunt captioned “Entering Twitter HQ — let that sink in!”

Crittenden: Imagine that tweet — he’s walking in, video, carrying a sink — and it just says, “Entering Twitter HQ.” That’s funny! It’s just — it’s funny. Because why is he carrying a sink? It’s stupid. It’s funny. ... But him going, “Here’s my bit, here’s my prop, I’m Carrot Top, execute, slam dunk, here’s the punchline”? It’s like, no, let the picture be the punchline.

Josh Gondelman, writer, “Desus & Mero” and “Last Week Tonight”: It’s extremely sweaty, meaning it’s a LOT of effort for a very low yield. He took a literal long walk to the punchline.

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Was Musk trying to be funny when he notoriously called a cave diver who had criticized him a “pedo guy”?

Crittenden: Comedy is about expectations, and expectations are about understanding how people normally think. I think this is the breakdown where Elon Musk’s comedy usually happens.

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How do you make a small fortune in social media?

Start out with a large one.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk)

Crittenden: Stolen joke, made worse.... [John] Mulaney just did a stand-up act, and he has a very good version of this bit. It’s about cocaine and selling watches. The concept itself is funny, but it’s about the execution. … It feels like a very safe, market-tested form of vulnerability.

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Am thinking of starting new university:
Texas Institute of Technology & Science

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk)

Crittenden: “Tits” isn’t funny. “Funbags” is funny. “Boobs” is funnier than “tits.” Like, there’s a lot of — “rocket dogs.” “Chesticles.” If you want to find the comedy in breasts, it’s there.

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He reportedly made a joke about living in a simulation and quoted a line from “Chappelle’s Show” — “I’m rich, bitch” — but for the most part just kept getting booed by the crowd.

Jiaoying Summers: Never brag about yourself to the audience, it’s super unfunny and unattractive. There is only one thing Musk could have done to get the crowd on his side: give everyone in the audience a free Tesla, free stem cell therapies and an Elon embryo with a trust fund!