42 Fandom, Dank Memes and Elon Musk: A Study of Cultural Power
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“ELON, I THANK (Sic) you for taking humanity to another level and I hope that you will take us further,” (Tesla) “was the only thing that was giving me hope, you know, to keep going”. “Everything I’ve learned about Elon Musk has been against my will”. “I’m the Elon Musk of bad ideas.” These are just a small handful of quotes and comments that were found during the research phase of this essay. These comments are notable due to their affective intensity which seems to evidence a pair of particularly strong fan bases that surround Elon Musk. The first of these fanbases appears to be an unusually fervent fandom that evidentially possesses an admiration for Musk that borders on genuine, messianic levels of reverence similar to that of a particularly prolific cultural icon (Kim, 2022) or a greatly influential politician. This can be seen with the personal use of Musk’s first name referring to him as one would a close friend “Damn! I never realised how huge of a man Elon was” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oO8w6XcXJUs).
Therefore, The public image of Elon Musk that is reinforced throughout pop culture attracts significant traction among pre-established fandoms to generate interest and discourse alongside equally dedicated anti-fandoms to maintain a form of influence in pop culture that rewards him power and influence through his relevance.
Those who are opposed to Musk and his practices possess a remarkably high concentration of vitriol that certainly exceeds virtually all other examples of celebrity hatred demonstrated on the internet. How exactly Musk can inspire such an unusually strong virtual following and reactions across the spectrum of the internet is a case that remains both an interesting and highly perplexing subject of debate for social scholars and analytical netizens alike.
The result of this highly emotive discourse provides a constant source of audience attention and more influence on culture for Musk. Although the majority of Musk’s international influence comes from the scope and power of his businesses, Musk’s influence among the general population stems from his online presence. It can be argued that this is due to Musk’s significant online presence within internet culture and his continued efforts to appeal not just to those people and businesses that can directly impact his finances, such as investors and world governments, but also to mainstream audiences and consumers who possess a form of collective influence on popular online discourse that far exceeds anything a single person or entity could typically achieve. An example of Elon Musk’s influence online and in the wider world can be found in this article by the magazine SlashGear where Max Miller writes: “To his critics, he’s a dangerous egotist playing Pied Piper to a gullible and increasingly insular cadre of investors and Twitter Blue subscribers” (Miller, 2023). Celebrities are playing a bigger role in internet culture than ever before, and it is for this reason that research into the groups they affect most is valuable and relevant in modern audience studies.
‘Fandom’ can be defined as an extension and result of a subculture-related participatory culture that can be considered a highly collective group of individuals who all possess at least a rough sense of unity and camaraderie over a common interest that they share and mutually engage in to the degree that it forms a key aspect of an individual’s identity. The first known subculture that could be defined as a modern fandom was around the character of Sherlock Holmes (Anon, 2009). Fandoms and anti-fandoms can form over a massive selection of topics. Some key examples of these topics include celebrities, politicians, and franchises. Fandoms exist everywhere on the internet, but they are particularly evident on websites like Reddit and Twitter where users can join communities related to their interests.
A ‘Fan’ (short for ‘fanatic’) is a person who considers themselves to be a part of a fandom and engages with it by proliferating the fandom’s interest and by producing fan content. This is shown by the quote: “Fans dedicated, and creating fan text (i.e Text production made by fans about their object of fandom) is one way of showing dedication and passion to the fan base” (Smutradontri & Gadavanij, 2016). Conversely, ‘anti-fandom’ is a fandom that is formed from a group’s passionate dislike of a subject. It can be further defined as a subgroup surrounding the things that “we love to hate” (Click, 2019). Subsequently, ‘anti-fans’ are members of anti-fandoms who have come together over their shared dislike or hatred of the subject.
Elon Musk (born 1971) has been a highly prolific figure in online culture for well over a decade. Musk is primarily known for being the CEO of several companies concerned with the development and commercialisation of new technologies with examples like Tesla, SpaceX and the social media platform, X (Twitter). In addition, Musk has garnered a reputation for his outspoken views, many of which can be considered to be damaging to his reputation. Vox’s Whizzy Kim, a reporter specialising in “how the world’s wealthiest people wield influence” describes much of his recent comments as being “detrimental to his image” (Kim, 2022).
Two different ways that Elon Musk and his fandom are able to proliferate throughout modern pop culture is through active interactions with people and fans who possess similar opinions on topics that he does. This is in addition to engagements with other high-profile celebrities, which frequently take the form of arguments. This often takes place on social media platforms such as Twitter (X), which Musk owns. These comments serve two distinct purposes in the cultivation of the Elon Musk fandom: The first is to project an image of Musk as a relatable figure who can be regarded as a member of, or even a leader of a digital ingroup in an environment where anonymity and depersonalisation are common. The wider this concept spreads, the more effective overall it becomes. Musk has even been alleged to have gone as far as to use the Twitter algorithm to prioritise his own tweets in users’ feeds in order to draw more attention to himself and artificially inflate his presence on his site, as well as putting himself at the top of Twitter’s recommended list for followers (Roth, 2023). This is evidenced by the quote: “Twitter is just showing everyone all of Elon Musk’s tweets now” (Roth, 2023). The second, more complex reason, is that Musk wishes to use these interactions with fellow celebrities in order to render himself and his perspectives superior to those that he is attacking, and subsequently look better in the eyes of his fans and fandom. This links to the area of study of celebrity fandom, specifically those concepts of celebrity activism, para-sociability and networked publics. Para sociability is a phenomenon in media studies where those who interact with people through the means of mass media, particularly celebrities online, tend to view these people as friends, despite greatly limited interactions with them. Para sociability is further defined as: “the illusion of a face-to-face relationship with the performer” (Horton and Wohl, 2016). Musk’s high level of interactivity is an example of para-sociability because he is putting out an image of himself that the people he interacts with find appealing and this leads them to think of Musk as a friend, even though after that discussion there is only the tiniest of chances that he will engage with them ever again. A good example of one of each type of online interaction would be an exchange between Musk and one “Prince Vogelfrei,” where Musk encourages the “prince” to use Twitter for the purposes of finding a date, stating simply that: “many have” (Musk, 2023). An example of a debate with a high-profile celebrity would be an argument between Musk and United States Representative, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, over Twitter’s controversial 8$ verification subscription price. By using these pseudo-intimate interactions, Musk can increase his influence in pop culture and among audiences by projecting an image of himself that appeals to his dedicated fanbase and followers, thus causing this influence to grow. One way that anti-fans seek to disrupt Musk’s narratives and dominance is through Culture Jamming. Culture Jamming is the practice of disrupting the “dominant discourses of mainstream cultural institutions” (Nomai, 2008). Culture Jamming often works by tapping into and disrupting the unconscious thoughts of consumers, often through the process of distorting familiar materials or content. An example of the Elon Musk anti-fandom using Culture Jamming to disrupt a pro-Musk narrative can be found in this meme, found on the r/okbuddyretard subreddit (https://www.reddit.com/r/okbuddyretard/comments/189yul7/holy_crap/). R/okbuddyretard is a meme subreddit where users post memes that are intentionally: ironic, dumb, out of date and in bad taste. The one part of the subreddit’s description that is meant to be taken seriously further describes it as “a satirical meme subreddit where we pretend to be 8 year olds who JUST gained internet access and made clueless memes in the early 2010s!”. The original meme shows Mickey Mouse with a head coloured to look similar to the rainbow flag complaining about free speech regarding discrimination against the LGBTQ+ community and what appears to be a heavily bearded and muscled rendition of Elon Musk. The depictions of Musk and Mickey, which were most likely AI-generated, were made as a reference to the popular ‘Chad vs Virgin’ meme where an entity is portrayed negatively as a virgin and another that they are in conflict with is shown positively as a “Chad.” Put simply, the original meme aims to criticise Disney over its recent pullout from Twitter’s advertising, and the meme does this through the creation of an ‘us vs them’ narrative grouping Musk and Disney into two different opposing forces. The culture jammed version of this meme replaces the text in the speech bubble with lyrics from the 2012 K-pop hit “Gangnam Style”. The resultant meme carries none of the meaning of the original but more importantly, it is now completely nonsensical and is unrecognisable from its original purpose to an outsider. This form of Culture Jamming can be considered ‘fantagonism’, which is a form of trolling. Fantagonism can be described as fan-driven antagonism (fan-tagonism!) towards other fandoms and fans. By using Culture Jamming in this way, the Elon Musk Anti-Fandom is able to display their contempt and antagonism towards the dominant discourse of the original meme. However, by making the meme in the first place, the Anti-fandom still contributes to the wider discourse surrounding Musk, providing him with the media attention and influence Musk desires.
Elon Musk is unusually given to making cameo appearances as himself in various examples of media that are relevant in pop culture. A reason for this is that he wants to make his image appealing to the fandoms of this media. Examples of this can be found in a wide variety of TV shows and Films such as Rick and Morty, Iron man 2 and even making multiple appearances on The Big Bang Theory. Musk makes these appearances because they show him in a positive light. The best of these examples would be Iron Man 2 where Musk is shown to be friends with protagonist Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr). “Elon, how’s it going? Those Merlin engines are fantastic.” “Thank you. Yeah, I’ve got an idea for an electric jet.” (Favreau, 2010) The effect of this sequence is to make the audience associate Musk with Stark by drawing comparisons between the two. The opposite of this is the phenomenon of fan casting. Fan casting is related to the concepts of fanfiction and headcanons because it involves a participatory audience producing their own fan content and inserting it into an established medium (Rollo-Koster, 2019). An example of Fan casting involving Musk would be a viral meme that emerged portraying Musk as a Tech-Priest from the science fiction franchise Warhammer 40k (https://www.reddit.com/r/Grimdank/comments/bmwrn5/proof_that_elon_is_just_a_techpriest_too_far/) and (https://creator.nightcafe.studio/creation/3NjcfZJFlT3KH86J88ur) .
This meme emerged in September of 2023 when it was revealed in Walter Isaacson’s biography of Musk that he had named one of his children “Techno Mechanicus” (Issacson, 2023). In 40K, tech priests are adepts of the Cult Mechanicus who dedicate their lives to the worship of the Omnissiah, the Machine God and “is generally responsible for maintaining all of the advanced technology of the Imperium” (Anon, n.d). This casting is not without a note of irony, as tech priests are not actually inventors or geniuses as their belief that innovation and invention are heresy and subsequent dedication to stealing and reproducing what ancient humans built thousands of years ago bears similarity to accusations that Musk only takes credit for what his engineers build. “CEO Elon Musk responded to longtime allegations that he “stole” Tesla from one of the company’s founders, Martin Eberhard” (Shwab, 2020). This practice of fan casting displays the 40K fandoms’ belief in a similarity between the ‘cool’ aesthetics of fictional entities and Musk. As a result of this, the fandoms’ appreciation for Musk and his influence over the fandom is displayed in full view.
The phenomenon of “hate watching” and how it indirectly awards Elon Musk’s influence can be used to partially explain the consistent media and internet attention that he receives. This hate watching appeals to Musk’s anti-fandom because he is an incendiary figure whose comments and actions are widely disseminated across the internet and other media due to his status as one of the major cultural figures of the early 21st century (Gregersen, 2023). It can be argued that the constant attention given to Musk through the obsessive “hate watching” of his activities is a direct manifestation of his anti-fandom and increases his popularity and adds fuel to the fire of his influence in mass culture. This phenomenon can be more simply summarised with the common expression, “There is no such thing as bad publicity.”
Hate watching is described by the cultural commentary website, Jezebel as “the act of watching a show that you claim to dislike with the sole purpose of mocking it” (Davies, 2013). In other words, hate watching is a process where someone intentionally consumes media they hold in total disdain because they extract a form of enjoyment from their dislike or even hatred of it. The phenomenon of hate watching does not limit itself to TV and movies. Jennifer Keishin Armstrong of the BBC writes: “This behaviour parallels haters in other genres as well” and “Hate-watchers exhibit the symptoms of fandom… …while still abhorring their targets on a rational level” (Keishin Armstrong, 222). Hate watching is tied to the concept of anti-fandom and because of this, is distinct from guilty pleasure viewing and ironic enjoyment due to the genuine lack of enjoyment experienced with the content itself, viewed as the creators intended it to be enjoyed. The enjoyment gleaned from hate watching is taken from the act of genuinely hating the content shown.
Hate watchers and anti-fans follow many of the same behaviours that are prescribed to genuine fans, “Hate-watchers exhibit the symptoms of fandom – watching every episode, micro-analysing it with other viewers – while still abhorring their targets on a rational level” (Keishin Armstrong, 2022). In a recent study by the business magazine, Forbes, it was found that 80% of all social and regular media stories from major publications were overall negative: “When compared to his 49 peers, Musk represented over 80% of all negative mentions, meaning out of every 100 negative media stories out there about a CEO on any given topic” (Biglione, 2023). Anti-Fan consumption of Elon Musk can be classified into several variants of Hate watching. The first is disappointed hate watching, the form of hate watching stemming from sheer disappointment at how poor the subject’s behaviour is. The second is visceral hate watching, which is the sense of enjoyment gained from attacking the material, in this case Musk’s activities and businesses. The third is hopeful hate watching (hope-watching). Hope watching is the most engaging hate watching lens with which to analyse Elon Musk as it is closer in concept to fandom than anti-Fandom. Hope watching is not the act of consuming media for the enjoyment of attacking it, but rather: “sticking with it out of the belief, founded or not, that there is a good show hiding inside the bad one” (Sepinwall, 2015).
In conclusion, the disproportionately high influence that Elon Musk has on popular and online cultures is not only the result of his position in international affairs, but also because of the appeal that he has to fandoms that are not specifically dedicated to him. Some fandoms are drawn to Musk because there are parallels between media texts and Musk’s behaviour and businesses, while the Musk Anti-Fandom is self-perpetuated as a result of the widespread nature and scale of his public image. Further fruitful areas of research for this topic could be: the specific characteristics that all fandoms that are attracted to Elon Musk share, and how the cultural perception of Musk has changed over time. Finally, how different types of fandoms such as civic and political fandoms react to internal fandom discourse about Musk.
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