The Onion has targeted billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk with a string of articles ruthlessly mocking his failed attempt to, uh, buy out their company.
Earlier this week, the Tesla and Space-X founder was revealed to have poached some former Onion writers and staffers for his own new media project, after unsuccessfully attempting to purchase the satirical media enterprise outright in 2014.
Musk then took to Twitter to mention his upcoming “intergalactic media empire”, revealing he’s named the nebulous project Thud!.
That’s the name of my new intergalactic media empire, exclamation point optional
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 14, 2018
In a statement to CNBC, Musk jokingly said “It’s pretty obvious that comedy is the next frontier after electric vehicles, space exploration and brain-computer interfaces. Don’t know how anyone’s not seeing this.”
In return, The Onion itself hit back with several conspicuously-timed articles.
A piece entitled Elon Musk Embarrassed After Realizing He Proposing Idea For Thing That Already Exists targets the bloke’s recent plans to invent something very similar to the humble public bus.
“At press time, a sheepish Musk told reporters that he was going ahead with his idea anyway, no matter how many people would perceive it as an obvious imitation of the real thing,” the article states.
Clickhole, The Onion’s parody of modern online content creators, has also taken a swing.
In fake op-ed I Did Everything I Could To Buy ClickHole, But Their Editorial Integrity Won Out Over My Billion-Dollar Offers, And I Respect Them Even More For That, an imaginary Musk said “I stood there, not in anger at ClickHole’s dismissal of my offers, but rather in awe of their unyielding allegiance to promulgating shareable articles in the face of great fortune.”
An Onion piece entitled ‘The Onion’ Hires Several Pastry Chefs Away From Entenmann’s To Form New Bakery directly targeted Musk’s aggressive acquisition strategy, and even echoed his own words on the subject.
The Onion said “It’s fairly obvious that bakery is the next frontier after domination of online news and tailored social media content.
“Frankly, we don’t know how anyone’s not seeing this.”
Perhaps most telling is an article from February, far before reports of Musk’s poaching went public: Elon Musk Offering $1.2 Billion In Grants To Any Project That Promises To Make Him Feel Complete.
The piece joked Musk “would consider funding any initiative, in any industry, at any scale that might begin to close the ever-widening chasm at the core of his being.”
In a bold development, Musk even responded to one of The Onion’s recent efforts on Twitter, saying he still admired their efforts despite their refusal to sell out.
Your cruel taunts cut me deep. Deep. But, I love you too.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 15, 2018
Just quietly, that may have set the bloke up for even more content to come.
