Elon Musk the Tesla chief executive, SpaceX founder and soon-to-be “Saturday Night Live” host is an open admirer of memes.
“Who controls the memes controls the universe,” Musk tweeted last summer. He has called the visual jokes “modern art” and shares them regularly on Twitter, where he has more than 52 million followers.
Musk doesn’t make many memes himself. Instead, he finds them online and has others send him their favorites. Sometimes he reposts his favorites without citing their origins.
This practice isn’t unusual. Many people on the internet share other people’s memes without giving the creators credit, in part because credit can be hard to discern. Memes rely on reinterpretations of joke formats, and it’s not always clear where they begin.
Elon Musk: Memelord or meme thief?
7 May, 2021 11:35 PM
6 minutes to read
SpaceX owner and Tesla CEO Elon Musk frequently steals memes, which has become a meme in itself. Photo / AP
SpaceX owner and Tesla CEO Elon Musk frequently steals memes, which has become a meme in itself. Photo / AP
New York Times
By: Taylor Lorenz
Elon Musk the Tesla chief executive, SpaceX founder and soon-to-be Saturday Night Live host is an open admirer of memes. Who controls the memes controls the universe, Musk tweeted last summer. He has called the visual jokes modern art and shares them regularly on Twitter, where he has more than 52 million followers.