Elon Musk took aim at Disney CEO Bob Iger in an apparent April Fool’s joke that, as it turns out, wasn’t all that original.
“I’m excited to join @Disney as Director of DEI,” Musk written theformerly Twitter.
“I look forward to working with Bob Iger and Kathleen Kennedy to make their content MORE woke! Even the linguini,” he added to the post which, at the time of writing, had accumulated over 110,000 views. likes.
Happy to join @Disney as director of the DEI.
I look forward to working with Bob Iger and Kathleen Kennedy to make their content MORE woke!
Even linguini.
– Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 1, 2024
The Tesla owner’s comment was posted in the early hours of April 1 in what appeared to be an attempt to be one of the first to make an April Fool’s joke on the internet.
However, Musk’s message appears to have been recycled from an article published just minutes earlier by a podcaster and author named Konstantin Kisin.
Seven minutes before Musk made the comment, at 12:37 p.m. PT, Kisin posted a nearly identical message.
“Effective today, I am resigning from TRIGGERnometry. The opportunity to join the BBC as Head of Diversity is one I simply could not turn down,” Kisin wrote.
Musk responded to Kisin’s joke with a single crying-laughing emoji before re-editing it to mention Iger, who he’s been fighting with since Disney pulled X’s ads.
The X boss trashed Iger in December 2023 after Disney pulled ads from the platform following Musk’s controversial decision to support an anti-Semitic message.
In a series of messages, Musk wrote that Iger should be “fired immediately” and that Walt Disney himself was “rolling over in his grave because of what Bob did to his company.”
Iger’s decision to remove the ads followed not only Musk’s actions, but also a report from the nonprofit Media Matters that showed their ads were placed alongside white supremacist and anti-Semitic content. Musk has since filed a defamation suit over the report.
Speaking at the New York Times DealBook Summit in November, a month before Musk attacked him, Iger politely discussed the fallout.
“We know that Elon is larger than life in many ways and that his name is closely linked to the companies he founded or owns, whether it’s Tesla, SpaceX or now X,” Iger said.
Although he added that he had respect for Musk, he continued: “Taking the position that he took quite publicly, we just felt that the association with that position and Elon Musk and wasn’t necessarily positive for us.”
More recently, Musk has supported others who have opposed Iger. In February, the billionaire announced that he would finance Gina Carano’s lawsuit against The Walt Disney Company and Lucasfilm.
The MMA fighter turned “Star Wars” actress, who was fired from the Disney+ series “The Mandalorian” in February 2021, filed a lawsuit against the California companies, alleging harassment and intimidation over the sharing of her conservative political beliefs about X and others. social media platforms.
Musk’s X Corporation pays for his lawsuit. The billionaire appeared to confirm his involvement in repost Carano’s ad on X and writing: “Please let us know if you would like to join the lawsuit against Disney.”
Disney executives face a pivotal week with investors voting Wednesday on a boardroom shakeup.
Last week, the company was accused by America First Legal (AFL) of misleading shareholders by promoting a “woke political and social agenda.”
“Disney has shown inexplicable disregard for its customers and shareholders, forcing radical sexist, anti-white and anti-police content on families while providing warnings about harmful content on non-controversial content,” the group said in a press release.
Disney did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
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