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30 Mind-Boggling Facts About Elon Musk That Made Us Stop and Stare in Disbelief

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By Augustine Mbam - - 5 Mins Read
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Elon Musk, the Tesla CEO and the founder of SpaceX, is many things, but boring is definitely not one of them.

You might be a fan of the guy, or you might think that there’s too much hype going on around him, but it’s hard to deny the fact that he’s one of the most influential people in the world of technology and space flight.

Topless Elon Musk on a yacht (Photo: Backgrid)

Still, there’s so much we don’t know about him! Here are 30 weird and hilarious facts about Elon Musk that left everyone speechless.

Musk Helped Create Tony Stark

Looking at Tony Stark (aka the Iron Man) and Elon Musk it’s hard not to notice at least a few similarities. A tech genius, a celebrity, and a humanitarian trying to change the world for the better - it rings a bell, doesn’t it?

Well, it turns out Elon Musk’s appearance in Iron Man 2 wasn’t the only thing connecting the two characters, although that was a huge giveaway if you look at the bigger picture. Mark Fergus, the writer of Iron Man, admitted that the character was an amalgam of several people - Steve Jobs, Donald Trump (eh, before the Presidency), and Elon Musk.

Elon Musk had enough showmanship and celebrity qualities to become the base of the future superhero character. And in a way, with all his unbelievable plans on colonizing Mars, don’t you think he resembles one himself?

Musk Admitted He was, in Fact, an Alien

How can we trust this guy, really? One second he’s all ‘nah, I’m not an alien, you’re being weird, guys’, and the next one he’s openly admitting to being one!

Seriously, we never know whether he’s joking or not, but knowing his peculiar sense of humor, we can probably all agree that he’s joking most of the time. Is life just a huge joke to you, Mr Musk?

Well, if it wasn’t for his outstanding humor, the Internet would have lost thousands of hilarious memes and, let’s admit it, the man does know how to go viral in a blink of an eye. We applaud you, Elon Musk! Whether you’re, in fact, an alien or a true earthling, time will tell.

Elon Musk - a Time-Traveller?

Well, this certainly isn’t the maddest conspiracy theory we’ve heard about Elon Musk, but it might be the most solid one. After all, there is proof (kind of) that Elon Musk isn’t who he says he is!

We don’t know where Elon Musk’s fans dug up this World War I photo of a pilot with a strong resemblance to Tesla’s CEO, but here it is. The resemblance is, indeed, uncanny, but is it enough to state that it is Elon Musk from a different era?

Most people argue that this is the only way we can explain Musk’s striking engineering and business success - he simply knew what would happen next and made his choices accordingly. First with PayPal, then with Tesla, and now with Twitter… the man must know something others don’t!

Elon Musk Made the Most Embarrassing Joke Ever

According to Elon Musk, he’s always been somewhat socially awkward and things that were obvious for most people were sometimes very puzzling to him. Maybe that’s why he’s struggling a bit with what’s appropriate to say on social media and TV, and what’s not?

Elon Musk confessed that he regrets many of his tweets and we can only imagine the amount of  regret he has over this inappropriate joke he made during the episode of The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.

Musk made the most hilarious comment on the video showcasing the new automatic ‘snake charger’ that plugs into the car on its own. He smiled and advised everyone not to drop anything near the prototype charger. The host really didn’t know how to react to that!

He Actually Confessed to Being a Vampire

And why are we not surprised? It’s not like we haven’t thought about it ourselves. Elon Musk has been called a time-traveller recently, but the genius entrepreneur brushed off any such allegations. Instead, he confessed to something far more convincing! Well, in a way.

In his usual witty style, Elon Musk replied that no, that was definitely not the case. In fact, he was a 3,000-year-old vampire and complained about how difficult it was to maintain all the different personalities he had to come up with century after century.

Well, this is also a type of time travel, although you don’t get to glance into the future, but over thousands upon thousands of years, you do pick up a trick or two when it comes to business or entrepreneurship. This conspiracy theory might be the most plausible of them all!

Musk Owns a James Bond Car

Well, if you had millions of dollars to spend on the things you love, wouldn’t you buy a James Bond car for yourself? We would definitely consider such a purchase!

Elon Musk, being a geek and a fanboy of all high-tech gadgets, didn’t think twice about buying a James Bond submarine car that was featured in The Spy Who Loved Me movie.

The car was considered lost for years but then was suddenly discovered in 1989 in a storage container in New York. Years later, in 2013, Tesla CEO bought the vehicle for almost $1 billion and became the proud owner of the James Bond Lotus Esprit car.

The 50 Shades of Musk

If you’re getting some heavy Marquis de Sade vibes from this picture, then you’re right on point! Well, some people also believe that it looks like Elon Musk was cosplaying Vampire Lestat for some reason, but we’ll stick to the original version.

So, why would a world-famous entrepreneur dress as a writer and philosopher known for his sаdistic experiments and all things weird and deviant? Well, apparently, because ‘women love it’!

And we can’t really argue with that, especially after the phenomenon of 50 Shades of Grey that revealed to the world just how many people enjoyed dеviаnt stuff when it came to love life. Still, we never expected to see Elon Musk dressed as this character! And we aren’t really surprised that he deleted this picture just minutes after posting, but the Internet remembers. The Internet never forgets!

Elon Musk - the Actual Super Villain

Most people consider Elon Musk a great visionary whose sole purpose is helping humanity to thrive, but there’s a thin line between a superhero and a supervillain, and sometimes it’s very easy to unknowingly cross it!

When Stephen Colbert asked Elon Musk on The Late Night Show whether he was a supervillain or a superhero, the entrepreneur shyly confessed that he was simply trying to do useful things. But then they started talking about colonizing Mars and Elon Musk revealed a quick way to ‘warm up’ the planet.

Because living under the domes would be too tiresome, they could try and warm up Mars to make it more habitable like Earth. How would they do that? Well, Elon Musk would simply nuke the planet’s poles with nuclear weapons, no biggie. And that’s exactly what a supervillain would do!

Musk’s Favourite Trophy is… a Sword!

If you visit the SpaceX headquarters, you’d be surprised (or not) to find out there’s a huge sword proudly displayed there, casually hanging near Elon Musk’s desk like it’s the most mundane thing in the world.

But it’s far from that! The sword is well made and has the balance of an actual weapon, with a beautiful sting-ray leather handle for a precise grip. Elon Musk got the sword as the Heinlein Prize Trust Award back in 2011 for his achievements in the space industry.

The sword’s name is Lady Vivamus, in honour of Glory Road, a novel by Robert Heinlein. The sword doesn’t simply hang on Elon Musk’s wall - he often takes it and does some sword exercises! Now that’s something you don’t get to see every day.

So Why Did Grimes and Elon Musk Really Break Up?

The world was blown away when Grimes, an eccentric musician with her own vivid style, and Elon Musk revealed they were dating each other. But everyone was even more surprised when just a few years later they announced their breakup!

It’s not unusual for couples to break up, but not when you’ve just had a child together, and then another one! So, what actually happened?

It turns out that Grimes and Musk had to end their relationship semi-officially due to schedule differences. Due to his work as Tesla CEO and SpaceX founder, Elon Musk spent most of his time in Texas or travelling all over the world, while Grimes was working in LA. Was that really the obstacle they couldn’t overcome? We don’t know, but that’s the official version given to the press.

Elon Musk’s Real Home

Elon Musk’s interactions with the netizens just keep on getting better and better. It seems Tesla’s CEO never says ‘no’ to a good conspiracy theory and that’s, well, almost every conspiracy theory that gets thrown at him.

One of the most popular ideas shared by the majority of Elon Musk fans and anti-fans is that the man is an alien from Mars, that’s why he’s so desperate to build a ship and get back to his home planet.

Well, the man does seem very passionate about ditching Earth for good and colonizing Mars in order for humanity to thrive throughout the Solar System, but maybe those are just pretty words for the investors. If he is, in fact, just an alien trying to get back home, we believe even more people would support him if they found out the truth!

Stephen King Saved Twitter

Things changed drastically when Elon Musk bought Twitter and became its CEO. Everyone was kind of expecting it, but still, we had no idea what changes would come after.

Recently, Elon Musk introduced the Blue Tick - a special badge for verified users who pay $8 per month for special benefits like the ability to edit posts and create longer videos. At first, though, Musk wanted the new #blueTick service to cost $20.

That’s when Stephen King, a true force to be reckoned with on Twitter, stepped in and said that if Musk did that, then he’d quit immediately. And you don’t want to mess with the King of Horror like that! Elon Musk went on bargaining with the writer and offered a price of $8. Thank you, Mr King!

Tesla Designed as the Perfect ‘Apocalypse’ Car

Back when humanity was seeing viral anti-utopias only in movies, Tesla CEO Elon Musk was already implementing some high-end filter technologies into his new cars. Did he know what was about to happen or was it just common sense for a genius like him?

Anyway, Tesla Model X is equipped with a bioweapon defence mode and it works wonders with all kinds of hazards, be it viruses or some dangerous weapons. 

According to Elon Musk, if there ever was an Apocalyptic scenario, all you needed to do was press the ‘bioweapon defence mode’ button and be all safe and sound. This gives us heavy James Bond vibes and also - how cool is that? Especially taking into consideration the year 2020 and what humanity has been through with Cоvid.

The Worst April Fool’s Day Prank Ever

By now you’ve probably noticed that Elon Musk has a bit of a mischievous personality, especially when it comes to social media. His humor seems to be as advanced as his technologies, but like with everything Elon Musk does, things sometimes go a little out of hand.

Tesla has seen its ups and downs as a company and pretending it went bankrupt, even as a joke, is probably not the wisest move in the world. But does Elon Musk care? Not at all.

His April Fool’s Day prank was kind of obvious, we must admit, but many people still bought it! And we imagine the investors weren’t too happy to see this in the Twitter feed, either. 

Making Fun of Himself

Elon Musk didn’t stop there and decided to include himself in the prank to make it even more believable. Well, why not? 

It sounds so superficial that we can’t imagine anyone actually buying the story of Tesla suddenly going bankrupt (especially on April Fool’s Day), but we have to give it to the man - Elon Musk did his best to make the most fun of it!

We especially love the ‘Teslaquilla’ bottles. That’s a very unique idea for a brand of tequila that could become very popular among Elon Musk fans or at least people who own a Tesla. True, there are not so many Tesla owners in the world right now, but that could change very soon when the cars become more affordable. 

People Should Make Kids to Save Earth (and, Mars, Too)

A demographic crisis seems the be the least of humanity’s worries these days (if anything, scientists talk more about overpopulation than the lack of people inhabiting Earth). Still, Elon Musk has his own opinion on the topic and it’s a bit different.

Musk believes that the population of Earth is in a dreadful state and more kids need to be born every day. Is that yet another conspiracy theory, Mr Musk, or are we really in trouble?

He jokingly added that the population of Mars is in even worse condition (because, well, it’s non-existent for now) that’s why everyone on Earth needs to double the efforts! Well, he’s setting a good example himself like the true man of action that he is.

Musk Called His Father ‘Evil’

Being born in the family of Errol and Maye Musk was no walk in the park. Elon Musk’s father was a brilliant engineer, who passed down most of his talent to his sons, but he was also an abusive figure and, according to Elon Musk, pure ‘evil’.

Allegedly, Errol Musk owned half of an emerald mine and was beyond rich, but his two boys didn’t see any of that wealth, struggling to earn money for their education and then later pay out the student loans. 

Musk got very sad and teary-eyed during a 2017-year interview with Rolling Stone, confessing that there wasn’t a hideous crime in the world that his father hasn’t committed or planned to commit. “Almоst evеry еvil thing yоu cоuld pоssibly think of, he has dоne,” Musk revealed to the magazine.

Elon Musk Was Probably Right About His Father

We aren’t here to judge anyone, but Errol Musk’s figure does seem quite controversial, to say the least. After all, he did kill three people who broke into his home. The case was ruled off as self-defence, but things like that make you wonder… just what kind of person is Errol Musk?

Not to mention the fact that Elon Musk has recently welcomed a baby sister into the world. Well, the whole thing has been kept a secret until Errol Musk made a public announcement through Daily Mail that he and his stepdaughter (yes, you read that right) made a baby together ‘in the heat of the moment’.

He married Jаna Bezuidenhout’s mother when the girl was just 3 years old and the marriage lasted for 18 years. Elоn and Jаna consider each other brother and sister! Naturally, the whole Musk family was taken aback when they received the news about the new family member.

Elon Musk is Bad Relationship Material

We can’t even imagine what it’s like to be as busy as Elon Musk with a constant hum of ideas running through his head, and try building a family at the same time. That must be quite a tough challenge!

And while Elon Musk can spend hours upon hours at the office, he’s not willing to make the same sacrifices for his family. His priorities are just different. He’s been married to Justine Wilson for 8 years (they have six kids together), then he went on marrying, divorcing, marrying, and finally divorcing his second wife, Tallulah Riley - all in the course of 6 years!

His short-lived relationship with Grimes has also sparked more than enough controversy as to the couple’s status as the two of them already became the parents of two kids. But the couple broke up after just a few years of dating each other!

This is How Elon Musk Wants to Save Humanity

We aren’t sure whether humanity needs saving or it just needs smarter and more conscious governments, but for Elon Musk the answer to all problems is always the same - let’s go to Mars!

And not simply for a visit, but for a full-on process of colonization with dome cities and later proper terraforming that would allow humanity to make Mars a second home. 

The plan is a ‘piece of cake’ - first send scouting missions, then land all the necessary equipment to create the first human base on Mars, then get some humans to Mars that will help build the base, then send them as many supplies as possible so they can grow into a proper Martian city.

Musk Used to be an Alien… Wait, What?

Elon Musk is no stranger to conspiracy theories - in fact, he enjoys them so much that he sometimes creates them himself! Either that, or he keeps on supporting the most ridiculous ones on social media, especially on Twitter, which is his favourite platform.

When a person so profoundly smart and successful keeps on talking about going to space and colonizing Mars (probably because the Earth is doomed either way), people either call him a genius, or a total weirdo. And then there are the ones who call him an alien!

Why else would someone want to go to space so desperately, right? Well, Elon acknowledged that such rumours existed, laughed about it, but told everyone that no, in fact, he wasn’t an alien. But can we really trust him on this?

Elon Musk Called Ford ‘a Morgue’

Like all parents, Elon Musk views his ‘baby’ - the Tesla company as the most unique and fun place to be, both as an engineer and a CEO. Still, it’s one thing to praise your own creation, and it’s a totally different thing to diss a rival company by calling it a ‘morgue’.

But that’s exactly what Elon Musk did! Well, he hasn’t left Tesla headquarters for 3 days in a row, sleeping right there on the floor, trying to get the company out of the ‘production hell’ that has lasted for almost a year, so we should probably cut the man some slack.

During an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Musk confessed that things were looking pretty good for Tesla, calling the ‘vibe’ and the ‘energy’ good, unlike in the Ford company. He then proceeded: ‘Go to Ford, it looks like a morgue.’ Needless to say, Elon Musk went viral once again the minute he uttered those words.

Ford Strikes Back

Naturally, Ford couldn’t stay still after Elon Musk called their whole production ‘a morgue’. Mark Truby, the Chief Communication Officer at Ford, quickly came up with a brilliant answer but created even more controversy for the company.

Obviously, Ford’s production is running more smoothly compared to that of Tesla (at least, at the time when these tweets were created), but netizens were quick to point out that, in fact, they shouldn’t be boasting those numbers because Ford’s cars run on gas and they only make it worse for humanity and planet Earth.

Well, it’s hard to beat that kind of argument! Many people seem to be on Tesla’s side simply because it’s a more eco-friendly type of car compared to the old-fashioned technologies used by most car-builders.

Elon Musk Almost Sold Tesla to Google

It’s hard to imagine that Elon Musk could do such a thing, but what most people don’t know is that the entrepreneur never thought that the company had a chance of becoming successful. Why did he take it under his wing, then?

Well, it was worth a try and Musk is one of those people who like to risk everything in an attempt to change the world at least a little bit. Still, it was the year 2013 and things weren’t going good for Tesla. Elon Musk actually approached Google’s CEO offering to sell the company for $11 billion!

Lucky for everyone, Tesla’s Model S started selling fast and the whole idea of selling the company was put to a halt. Right now Tesla is worth more than $100 billion!

Elon Musk Promised to Create an Apple and Android Phone Rival

It doesn’t seem that Tesla CEO is interested in small tech and gadgets like smartphones, his scale is much bigger than that. Still, Elon Musk promised that he, indeed, would come up with a phone that would become an Apple and Android rival.

What would inspire him to do such a thing? Well, apparently, chances are high that Apple and Android would ban the Twitter app from their stores, which would make it impossible to use the app on the scale it’s been done before.

Right now Elon Musk is the CEO of Twitter and he’d do anything for the app to succeed. He’s implementing some new content moderation policies and is coming up with his very own $8-pack with special features. Both Apple and Android might not like where this is going, so Twitter is still in the red zone. But on a brighter note, wouldn’t we all like to see what type of phone Elon Musk could come up with?

He Launched His Own Tesla to Space

It seems that there’s no such thing as ‘over the top’ when it comes to Elon Musk and the things he’s willing to do to create some hype. Well, when you’re a billionaire space enthusiast building rockets that actually go to space, we guess eccentricity comes with the whole package.

Back in 2018, when Falcon Heavy was launched into space as a test drive, it needed some dummy cargo, and Elon Musk offered his own cherry-red Tesla roadster to act as one. The car was ‘driven’ by a mannequin clad in a spacesuit named ‘Starman’.

According to Elon Musk, he wanted the dummy payload to be the silliest thing in the world, so when an alien civilization accidentally finds it, they will also have a good laugh. The car is now drifting in the open space and is still in one piece.

Elon Musk Casually Inspired Uber to do Better

When you’re living and breathing to create cutting-edge technology, other people start looking up to you one way or another. And it seems Elon Musk never ignores a good challenge, especially when he sees one on Twitter.

So who needs tunnels and that kind of transportation when you can just fly, right? Well, according to Elon Musk - no, and not only because Hyperloop is his cherished project (but maybe there’s a little bit of that, too).

We also think using huge noisy drones isn’t the best idea for an already noisy city - if anything, we should be building tech that produces less noise. Well, the people at Uber took what Musk said into consideration and redesigned their technology with smaller rotors and less environmental pollution.

Elon Musk and… Burning Man?

Looking at Elon Musk it’s hard to imagine that he’d suddenly drop everything and head out to a party in the middle of nowhere. But that’s exactly what Tesla CEO sometimes does!

Work hard and party even harder - this could easily become Elon Musk’s official motto because the man has been known to let off steam in the most peculiar ways. What does this have to do with Burning Man, you might ask? Well, everything!

It turns out Elon Musk isn’t just a fan of the festival - he’s an avid goer and has visited numerous Burning Man festivals! He’s been donating thousands of dollars to support the festival and, according to Musk:‘"If yоu haven’t been [to the Burning Man], yоu just dоn’t get it.” Apparently, no words can describe that experience!

The Weirdest Kids Names Ever

It’s not a secret Elon Musk has a very peculiar personality and a one-of-a-kind sense of humor, that’s why everyone kind of expected him to name his kids in a unique way. And oh boy, did he deliver!

First of all, we should mention that one of his kids from the first marriage is named Xavier. And if that name sounds slightly familiar - it’s probably because of those numerous X Men movies we’ve watched over the last few decades.

Yes, we’re talking about none other than Professor X from the X-Men Universe. Other kids of Elon Musk weren’t as lucky - he and Grimes named their baby boy X Æ A-Xii, while their daughter is named Exa Dark Sideræl. Being named after X-Men wasn’t so bad after all.

Musk’s Love/Hate Relationship with AI

Artificial Intelligence is upon us, whether we want it or not and Elon Musk knows this better than anyone else. Being a visionary who often glances into the future of cutting-edge technology, Elon Musk has talked about the dangers of AI numerous times.

In fact, he’s mentioned The Terminator and the scenario that is likely to take place if humanity isn’t cautious enough so many times, that it may seem he’s afraid of Artificial Intelligence! Does he know something we don’t?

When Musk saw the robot performing parkour he couldn’t help himself and made a comment in his usual style. Yes, wait for a few years and you’ll see how the whole world will be crawling with AI-powered bots!

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