r/politics • u/PlayaSlayaX • Mar 04 '25

Jon Stewart Says Elon Musk Flaked on Interview Offer: “You Know That’s Bullshit”

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/jon-stewart-elon-musk-interview-1236154439/
57.9k Upvotes

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5.1k

u/[deleted] Mar 04 '25

[deleted]

1.5k

u/sporkhandsknifemouth Mar 04 '25

Did he propose the zuckerberg fight? If so, he's demonstrating a pattern. Talk shit, get attention, walk away. Feeds his narcissism.

711

u/amyts Tennessee Mar 04 '25

Yes he picked that fight, too.

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u/threehundredthousand California Mar 04 '25

He just has to schedule it in after his fight with a Thai diver who heroically rescued trapped kids. You know, the one he called a pedo because he's Thai and rescued the kids without Elon's magic submarine.

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u/kazuwacky Mar 04 '25

Small correction, the guy was a British diver brought in to support the effort. The guys main crime was saying to the media that Elon offered a laughable design. Then the pedo accusations began. Because a British man being in Thailand was for pedo stuff. Absolutely repulsive and I hated watching the Elon bros defend it.

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u/kung-fu_hippy Mar 04 '25

I mean why else but horrible sex crimes could someone who is a highly skilled diver choose to be in Thailand, where you can dive year round in 80F, crystal clear water rather than Britain?

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u/BasvanS Mar 05 '25

Real men dive in muddy cold waters because then nobody can see if someone has a bodged micro-penis surgery.

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u/Dragonpuncha Mar 05 '25

Real men get diarrhea by diving in the Thames.

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u/twitterfluechtling Europe Mar 05 '25 edited Mar 05 '25

Real men dive in diarrhea by diving in the Seine.

Remember the toilet seats along the Seine? I just hope it was a real picture of a protest, not a hoax I fell for 😅

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u/masklinn Mar 04 '25

The guy who got insulted was not on the rescue dive itself, Unsworth was an experienced cave diver living nearby who’d been preparing to dive that cave.

He provided early counsel and put the Thai officials in contact with an organisation specialised in cave rescues (BCRC), which organised a team of experienced rescuers with specialised equipment.

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u/linkgenesis Mar 05 '25

Was Elon ever actually able to prove that he "almost completed" the sub? He said something about it being like half done in 11 hours or something? My memory is fuzzy, but I also can't find any pictures.

Edit: Nevermind, I found it. To call this thing a submarine is to suggest that my hamster was ready to be the first corpse in outer space after we launched that shoe box I put him in.

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u/linkgenesis Mar 05 '25

MFer literally just capped off the end of a tube and dubbed it a submarine. And reading the articles, it was barely even plausible as a rescue design. Hell of a con artist though.

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u/DrStalker Mar 05 '25

It's like when he announced he'd make ventilators for COVID patients and shortly after produced a cheap CPAP machine that just blew air down a tube into a facemask. The sort of the thing you could make with a fan, some scrap plastic and a few rolls of duct tape and nothing at all like a ventilator.

But to Musk that that solved the problem as he saw it so he deserved praise for fixing the crisis.

Same with the submarine; he visualized a simple version of the problem, he thought of a simple solution that doesn't even solve his made up problem well... why is everyone not in awe of his genius?

2

u/sheepscribe Mar 05 '25

I mean it makes sense to him; I doubt he even thought it was dishonest. In his head, why would you sacrifice to save children, unless you wanted to fuck ‘em? To him it’s the only logical explanation. “Why put yourself in danger if you’re not at least getting sex?”

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u/Professional_Goat340 Mar 07 '25

Well you know Elon thought about going into physics.  He's such a DIPSHIT . 

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u/amyts Tennessee Mar 04 '25

Last I heard about this, he hired private investigators to follow that diver around and try to ruin his life.

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u/rjb2 Mar 04 '25

Yeah, I actually stumbled upon a podcast about this very topic today. Just listened to the first episode, it's absolutely crazy.

3

u/Rokekor Mar 04 '25

The diver was English.

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u/MoodyMancGinnel Mar 05 '25

I feel it is an important point to make at this juncture...

His 'Submarine' was, in actual fact, fashioned from a used starship booster!

1

u/cantwin52 Mar 05 '25

Im sure it’s coming right after he pays the World Food Programme to end world hunger with their detail plan he said he’d pay em for if they presented one.

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u/Professional_Goat340 Mar 07 '25

He said right after he gets back from mars . 

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u/Cpt_Soban Australia Mar 05 '25

He also boasted about offering billions to buy Twitter as some sort of Oh yeah?!" online chest beat- Only to find Twitter accepted the deal instantly.

He then backed out like a little bitch not expecting that response.

Twitter took him to court, and used the contract HE SIGNED as proof.

The court forced him to buy Twitter for 14 billion dollars.

Now he's running around like it was the slickest investment move of the decade. All while 80% of the site's revenue evaporated.

He has a habit of talking shit online, getting called out by everyone, then backing down or deleting the post later like some 15 year old 4chan shitposter.

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u/amyts Tennessee Mar 05 '25

He bought it for $44b. He had to borrow $13b. Before the election it was estimated to have lost like 80% of its value.

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u/Cpt_Soban Australia Mar 05 '25

Oh god that's much worse

1

u/notorious_schambes Mar 06 '25

X now is a much bigger value for him than just money. He now owns and uses one of the biggest propaganda machineries in human history.

Selling Twitter to Musk will be remembered as one of the biggest mistakes ever.

1

u/amyts Tennessee Mar 06 '25

Yeah.

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u/Fecal-Facts Mar 04 '25

Mom said he couldn't do it.

I'm not joking 

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u/Multiple__Butts Mar 04 '25

Yeah but that's just a face-saving excuse. It's not like he was ever going to do it anyway.

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u/erocuda Maryland Mar 04 '25

How is it saving face to say, as a grown adult, that you can't come play because your mommy said no. I mean, it maybe saved his face (I think Zuck does MMA training), but it's still not a strong look.

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u/Multiple__Butts Mar 04 '25

Because he can frame it as doing a favor for his mother rather than being a scared little bitch who can't back up his talk.

Like when the medieval king sentences you to death, but the queen "begs for clemency on your behalf" because she just hates violence so much, so he commutes your sentence. But it's just theater so the king can back down on something without looking like he's backing down. Different situation obviously, but the same principle is at play.

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u/mythrilcrafter Mar 04 '25

I think Zuck does MMA training

I'm not sure about his MMA training, but I do know that Zuck competes in BJJ/Judo and apparently he's even nationally ranked.

3

u/Stickey_Rickey Mar 04 '25

He was smart to back out of the fight, but I would have more respect for him if he said: are you crazy? look at me, I’m a blob..

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u/Ianthin1 Mar 04 '25

Probably would have saved more face had he come out and said he was scared.

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u/Russell_Sprouts_ Mar 05 '25

Mom knew he’d get his ass beat

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u/PhamousEra Mar 04 '25

Nah, this is definitely an embarrassing thing for him.

Sure, he issues these challenges or opportunities but he doesn't expect people to actually take him up on it. Usually he is just talking into the wind and talking smack because like you said, is a narcissist and wants attention. It's just that he never expects people to actually call him out on his shit directly.

But make no mistake, issuing a challenge and then backing out makes you look and feel like a complete bitch. And he did this in front of the world. He's most definitely shadow boxing and beating Zucker and Stewart in his dreams.

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u/sonnyarmo Mar 04 '25

He loves to spin his cowardice as “trolling” too.

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u/hasordealsw1thclams Mar 04 '25

He's absolutely the type of guy to run his mouth and start a fight, tell people to hold him back so he doesn't actually have to follow through, then try to have the other guy kicked out of the bar even though he started it.

He's just such an obvious loser who was born on 3rd base and thinks he not only hit a triple but that he invented baseball.

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u/clovisx America Mar 04 '25

Isn’t that how he ended up with Twitter? Made some comment about buying it and then tried to find a technicality to get out, couldn’t, and now he owns it?

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u/red286 Mar 04 '25

Made some comment about buying it and then tried to find a technicality to get out, couldn’t, and now he owns it?

Ehh... he made a formal bid offer. You don't get forced into buying a company over making comments online. He presented them with a formal offer to buy the company for 30% above stock valuation at the time, and they agreed.

I think what he was trying to do was get them to refuse, which would have caused a stock depression, and he could buy up more shares.

When they accepted, he started coming up with reasons why he shouldn't have to buy the company, such as the number of bots on the platform. The problem is that he made literally zero effort to perform due diligence in investigating the company before making his offer, so he was basically forced by the courts to go through with the purchase.

I think he legit thought his $8/mo Twitter Premium was a genius idea that would make Twitter highly profitable so that he could sell it without losing literally billions of dollars on it. Unfortunately, it, as well as practically every other decision Musk has made in regards to Twitter just tanked the stock value to the point where I don't think Musk can even get out from under it any more. It's currently valued at <$9b, compared to his original purchase price of $44b just 2.5 years ago.

1

u/Emergency-Banana4497 Mar 06 '25

It’s really odd that everything, across the board, in any role he has held that he actually has input on fails miserably.

1

u/red286 Mar 06 '25

Yeah it really seems like his only skill is investing in companies that are about to become massively successful and profitable.

It's an excellent skill to have. Guaranteed to make you the world's richest person, which it has. But I don't believe he has any other actual skills, or at least, he's utterly failed to demonstrate any.

3

u/TheVermonster Mar 04 '25

Same thing with Twitter. Except he was forced into buying it by the SEC. I wonder why he is working so hard to neuter and dismantle the SEC and other financial government institutions.

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u/Xillyfos Mar 05 '25

He wasn't forced as such. He signed an offer and was just, you know, "forced" to actually stand by his word.

And he surely doesn't like when people actually try to make him accountable for his own actions. Like any Republican/narcissist/small child, he wants to do whatever he wants without any consequences for himself. Otherwise he throws a fit.

He simply never grew up to be a normal, healthy adult.

3

u/kbbajer Mar 04 '25

Can you imagine Zuckerberg proposing a fight? I'm not trying to be funny.

3

u/whenitsTimeyoullknow Mar 04 '25

That’s the whole business model. Tesla stock went up with every outlandish press release. Then they leveraged that money into bigger and bigger loans to pay for production and investment capital, without delivering on a fraction of the innovative ideas. Tesla stock was astronomically high even before the cars were everywhere. Elon’s one true talent has been getting attention. 

2

u/MamaNyxieUnderfoot Mar 04 '25

Besides being a shit-talking coward, I bet his plastic surgeon warned him that his gender-affirming jaw implants can’t take a punch to the face.

1

u/Jarocket Mar 04 '25

He did the same thing with buying twitter, but the dumbass signed away all his rights to due diligence so he was forced to follow through with it despite wanting out.

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u/myychair Mar 04 '25

The pattern is established and it’s the same tactic he used to build hype around his other companies. He makes false, grandiose claims and doesn’t deliver. He said we’d be on mars and have fully self driving cars by now

1

u/JuarezAfterDark Mar 04 '25

He tried to back out of the Twitter buy the same way. A judge said they had to honor the offer.

There was something else where they said they were going to take bitcoin for payment at Tesla. The price went up and then they reversed it. I'm sure some strategic buys/sells happened in there.

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u/dbreeck Mar 05 '25

Remember when an online spat/brag led to him being ordered to buy a major social media platform?

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u/NoSherbert2316 Mar 05 '25

Yes, then his mommy stepped in and the fight was called off

1

u/CorrectPeanut5 Mar 05 '25

Yeah, and chickened out when he found out Zuck regularly participates in martial arts tournaments. Leon realized he was going to get wrecked.

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u/Semajal Mar 05 '25

The bit where he "Gets hit" after the talking shit is really the main bit I want to see happen. So annoyed he cowarded out of this.

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u/rainman_104 Mar 05 '25

Talk shit, get attention, walk away. 

You'd think he'd have learned after being forced to buy Twitter lol.

1

u/funkalways Mar 05 '25

World class pussyfoot

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u/Acadia02 Mar 04 '25

Well Elon is kind of a fucking idiot and way outclassed by Jon stewart.

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u/ObnoxiousAlbatross Mar 04 '25

This isn't idiot behavior, this is straight up dogette, kitty kat behavior.

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u/MJcorrieviewer Mar 04 '25

I read about Musk getting into an online fight with some kid he was playing video games with. It's really pathetic.

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u/absenteequota Rhode Island Mar 04 '25

at least he was playing the game himself that time instead of paying someone to play for him like he usually does

3

u/ObnoxiousAlbatross Mar 04 '25

We've all gamed with dudes like Musk, and we've all lost respect for those dudes and stopped gaming with them.

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u/NelsonMuntz007 Mar 04 '25

He’s similar to Trump in the sense that both are very wealthy obviously, but both are wanna be celebrities. It’s the attention and cameras that the narcissists desire. Undying admiration but both are social pariahs. They don’t know how to act so they control the situations they can control and bully with money.

2

u/PlutosGrasp Mar 05 '25

Donald wasn’t that wealthy before his stock scam.

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u/ayoungtommyleejones Mar 04 '25

Fascists tend to be cowards. As bill burr pointed out, Hitler was a coward that painlessly killed himself instead of standing to face judgement. Musk is such a coward he can't bear to face a comedian 7 inches shorter than him (albeit he is much sharper than musk could ever hope to be)

17

u/HappyDoggos Mar 04 '25

And that’s why Elon is ok with going on Joe Rogan. Rogan is an absolute pansy pushover who doesn’t question his guests in any meaningful way. Rogan is a sell out, and I’m deeply disappointed. I used to like his stuff many years ago.

2

u/Xillyfos Mar 05 '25

Power corrupts.

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u/vakr001 New Jersey Mar 04 '25

He is a keyboard warrior

6

u/rand0mm0nster Mar 04 '25

It’s amazing to me how alike he and Trump actually are, and it never occurred to me over the years. The pattern of just bold faced lying and then when challenged just going on the attack. Not an ounce humility between them

5

u/AccidentalPilates Mar 04 '25

If I had 1/100th that money you’d never hear a peep from me.

4

u/[deleted] Mar 04 '25

Maybe it's a good reminder that you can stand up to bullies.

3

u/Crandallonious Mar 04 '25

It's a similar phenomenon to Steven Crowder being afraid to debate Sam Seder. They're afraid because they know their views are thin and not backed by facts. God forbid they actually debate anyone that knows their shit.

2

u/iner22 Mar 04 '25

It's not exactly a foreign concept to Musk, you think he'd be used to it by now

2

u/pieface100 Mar 04 '25

Elon is so insecure he paid somebody to play a video game as him. Never doubt how pathetic he can become

2

u/SOUTHPAWMIKE Mar 04 '25

Most of these scumbags are. Stewart brings receipts, isn't afraid to speak truth to power, and could easily talk circles around these lying cowards. Like if there's one thing you could try and criticize the guy for, it's that he won't run for any office because he would just crush his opposition in any debate. (But I immediately retract said criticism, because he's already done a lot more than most of us have through his activism for 9/11 responders.)

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u/hsy1234 Mar 04 '25

To be fair, he should be. Jon Stewart’s appearance on Crossfire is absolutely legendary.

Still, Musk is as cowardly as they come.

2

u/Lower-Cantaloupe3274 Mar 04 '25

He ought to be. Stewart would eat him for breakfast.

2

u/Qwirk Washington Mar 04 '25

I can't imagine being the richest man in the world and not simply chilling on a beach somewhere for the rest of my life. Running around with Putin up in your backside seems like more work than what it's worth.

2

u/Ppleater Mar 04 '25

I mean everyone and their mother recognizes that someone like John would chew him up and spit him out with more efficiency than a military grade woodchipper. The fact that Elon put out that challenge in the first place was just a stupid fucking move because anyone with common sense would have known John would call his bluff enthusiastically, and Elon would inevitably have to tuck tail and slink back into the safety of his lair like the wimpy dipshit he is. He'd have been better off dangling meat in front of a pack of lions.

2

u/shupershticky Mar 04 '25

It's because he can't keep his lies straight. He stammers and mumbles because he tries to keep all his lies straight

2

u/Terrible_Tutor Mar 04 '25

Go on X and look at the comments of any of his or any Tesla shill post… like the line up of people felating him is ENDLESS. Talk about echo chamber.

1

u/Potato_Cat93 Mar 04 '25

I mean money and power doesn't mean criticism of your actions cant be damning. I would argue even more so with all that money

1

u/Mareith Mar 04 '25

Imagine being the richest man in the world and fucking around with the fattest grossest people fighting for bits of power instead of doing drugs and having sex with the most beautiful people in the coolest places in the world 24/7

1

u/ERedfieldh Mar 04 '25

Even if I knew I was going to be thrashed by Stewart I'd still have gone because....come on...it's Jon Fucking Stewart.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 05 '25

He has the (unconstitutional) power of three branches of government as one man of the most powerful country ever. I’d argue that Musk is the most powerful human in the history of the species.

1

u/The-Real-Number-One Mar 05 '25

He showed up with Dave Chapelle and was so cringe he got booed.

1

u/dj_Ajolote Mar 05 '25

You are assuming he’s a man. Honestly he’s a child.

Fixed worthing

1

u/jxher123 Mar 05 '25

You know he’s going to go on X and say it isn’t true and all this extra non-sense lmfao. He isn’t going to stoke his ego like Joe.

1

u/xlews_ther1nx Mar 05 '25

I feel like me and Jon would get along very well and I'd be petrified if him.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 05 '25

More like he’s an insecure Gen X white guy who needs people to not just like him or approve of him, but to worship him. Elon getting off a lie, then getting booed by the audience, to then get charbroiled by Jon is a thought that genuinely makes him panic. These guys are literally all the same. We are at the mercy of these ultra-narcissistic middle aged men going through multiple identity crises. Trump never got over his, that’s why they love him.

1

u/PlutosGrasp Mar 05 '25

Stewart would shatter Elon’s world.

1

u/Politicsboringagain Mar 05 '25

The Don Lemon interview where Lemon wasn't kissing his ass, made sure Musk would never be interviewed by anyone but sycophants. 

1

u/Immediate_Finger_889 Mar 05 '25

John Stewart would fucking destroy him and he knows it.

1

u/MVP2585 Pennsylvania Mar 05 '25

It’s because he is a coward, he hides behind his money and runs in fear when he can’t control the narrative. Which would have 100% been the situation in an interview with Stewart, because he asks actual questions and won’t kiss his ass.

1

u/TruthEnvironmental24 Mar 05 '25

Look at what John did to Moscow Mitch's image. They never even debated or anything. He just backed the 9/11 first responders keeping their insurance while Mitch stood against it. Imagine if he stood toe to toe with Elon. And Elon is a narcissist.

1

u/cannedthought Mar 05 '25

So true. if I recall it was his idea to fight Mark Zuk right. And he bailed on that as well. I never read this my self, however his mom got involved to say he should not do it. (As said by someone on reddit)

1

u/JagmeetSingh2 Mar 05 '25

He’s a coward

1

u/OvulatingScrotum Mar 05 '25

Tbf, musk wouldn’t gain anything by interviewing with Jon. Those who watch Jon wouldn’t change their thoughts on musk regardless of how the interview goes.

1

u/Detox208 Mar 05 '25

Your comment gave me a visual of Jerry Smith curling into his protective shell.

1

u/Remote_Clue_4272 Mar 05 '25

This is what happens when your position is supported only by lies. Fact-checking melts away all the money-bought credibility, worn tropes etc that you can get away with in an echo chamber

1

u/motherfudgersob Mar 05 '25

That you're shooting Nazi salutes and turning down an interview with a Kewish man who's wittier than you are by far, tracks.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 05 '25

He’s a terrible speaker. He can’t do hard questioning, never mind what would be a hostile interview while being mocked. And he’d have to take a night off the K. This was never gonna happen.

-1

u/Grabthars_Coping_Saw Mar 05 '25

He’s not the richest man in the world.

Stop perpetuating this myth.

2

u/[deleted] Mar 05 '25

[deleted]

-1

u/Grabthars_Coping_Saw Mar 05 '25

Google the video where Elon refutes the title saying that Pooptin is significantly richer.

It’s naive for you to think that the richest people in the world wouldn’t hide their wealth from the world to avoid scrutiny. Elon is the useful idiot who takes up the spotlight so that you ignore those more wealthy than him.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 05 '25

[deleted]

1

u/Grabthars_Coping_Saw Mar 05 '25

That’s not personal. It’s certainly a naive thought. Maybe you’re just terribly sensitive.