Elon Musk clearly fashions himself a comedian of some sort. He’s likely the richest person in the world to suffer from the Poster’s Disease, where he simply cannot stop posting on social media. Cheesy memes, bad jokes, weird stuff, problematic posts, he does it all.
So it’s no surprise that his apparent favorite comedian is Twitter comedians’ favorite comedian: Nathan Fielder.
A little detail about Fielder stuck out from a long profile of Musk’s social life that was published in The New York Times on Tuesday. Basically, the piece noted that Musk is kind of obsessed with trying to hang out with Fielder, as well as the other guys behind Rick and Morty. Fielder’s television shows, Nathan for You and The Rehearsal, blur the line between reality and scripted, churning out weird, ultra-cringe scenarios. Musk apparently loves it.
The story read, in part:
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.
Mr. Musk — a huge fan — invited Mr. Fielder to lunch at SpaceX in 2016.
But it didn’t stop there. According to the Times, Musk invited Fielder to parties « for years afterward » to, in some part, « strain to make the deadpan Canadian laugh. » The Times noted he « set up a similar meet-and-greet with Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland, the creators of the animated comedy series Rick and Morty, » a fact that was more widely known, especially since Musk voiced a character in the show.
The whole article form the Times is fascinating and worth a read, but Musk’s affinity for Fielder tracks, at least somewhat. Fielder is beloved online, especially within shitposting circles, and Musk is very online. Though, he’s seemingly only tweeted about the comedian one time to recommend the show Nathan for You.
Sure, Fielder might use his shows to send up capitalism, but the billionaire Tesla chief doesn’t seem to mind. The uber-rich have long used their power and money to get close to artists. Hell, the head of Goldman Sachs has DJ’ed at Lollapalooza. It makes sense that Musk, a guy who thinks of himself as a comedy person, would angle his way toward Fielder, even if it’s sort of weird and awkward to do.
Fielder, or at least his persona, uses awkwardness as fuel. He eats it up and turns it into comedy. So what I’m saying is, we can only imagine how funny those interactions between the comedian and Musk really were.
