To say that Elon Musk is a bit of an odd-bird is quite the understatement. In recent years, the Tesla CEO and SpaceX founder has been more interested in celebrity, seemingly, than in his various business and investment dealings, a state off affairs detailed in a New York Times profile published on Tuesday.
Recommended VideosAnd in addition to the usual suspects — Musk has partied with the likes of Leonardo DiCaprio and Paris Hilton in the past — one excerpt of note involves the 51-year-old pursuing a friendship with comedian Nathan Fielder.
Musk and Fielder’s budding bromance first came to the attention of a rapt internet in early 2016, when Musk tweeted an image of his morning coffee in a “Dumb Starbucks” coffee mug. The mug was merch from a stunt gone viral from a season 2 episode of Fielder’s Comedy Central series Nathan For You, which aired for four seasons on the network from 2013 to 2018.
At the time, Musk wrote that his “coffee tastes unusually good this morning,” to which Fielder deadpanned in a quote-tweet: “Shoot me into space please.”
Shoot me into space please https://t.co/5PqRJs9UsN
— nathan fielder (@nathanfielder) February 18, 2016Apparently, Musk is not to be threatened with a good time, so just weeks later Fielder gave an update on Instagram from a parking spot that had evidently been marked with his name at the SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, California. It was widely assumed at the time that it was a stunt being filmed for the fourth season of Nathan For You, which had recently been renewed by Comedy Central.
“Bye,” Fielder simply captioned the image, though it’s unclear if Musk actually took him on a joyride.
At any rate, the Times profile pulled back the curtain, ever so slightly, on the pair’s friendship, and it seems about as cringe and one-sided as one might expect from the guy who is currently musing on whether or not to buy Twitter for $44 million.
“Mr. Musk has, in particular, pursued a friendship with one comedian whose public image revolves around the outrageous steps he takes to relate to other people: Nathan Fielder, who first became famous for his Comedy Central show Nathan For You, which turned a series of preposterous business ideas, including excrement-flavored frozen yogurt and athletic apparel dedicated to raising Holocaust awareness, into the definitive parody of modern American entrepreneurship.”
The piece goes on to note that Musk was a “huge fan” of Fielder’s, inviting him to lunch at SpaceX in 2016, adding: “For years afterward, the famous businessman invited the famous fake businessman to his parties and would strain to make the deadpan Canadian laugh.”
It’s unclear whether Musk and Fielder are still rubbing funny bones these days, or if their friendship, like countless others, fizzled out during the course of the pandemic. Or perhaps, even the enticement of a spaceship ride wasn’t enough to keep Fielder gritting his teeth through Musk’s jokes — unless he was just out of frame, laughing too.
In either case, Fielder couldn’t have been less amused than he was at the Mets game over the weekend, anyway.
Best part of the game so far @nathanfielder pic.twitter.com/2MAJjR2uro
— Brett Hanfling (@Brett_Hanfling) October 8, 2022Poor Nathan.
ncG1vNJzZmivlZy8tcDHoqqcp6aav6awjZympmeTmrmmrtGiq6Kdo2SyrbvNZqSuq5tis7O1xKebrKCZpXqvrdOhmKdllp6yrbDEq2SlmaWctW68wKurop2jZA%3D%3D