Elon Musk has been mocked for his red carpet appearance at the annual Breakthrough Prize awards over the weekend.
The SpaceX founder, 52, was seen performing for the cameras while striking a series of awkward poses, from extending his arms up and out like a conductor to a strange, faux-tortured expression.
Between poses, Musk, who was joined at the event by the likes of Margot Robbie, Robert Downey Jr and Kim Kardashian, appeared amused by his own efforts, laughing to himself as he watched the group of photographers and reporters gathered in front of him.
Naturally, users who saw the 32-second clip on Musk’s X social media platform were quick to ridicule the billionaire after it was shared by The Hollywood Reporter.
Elon Musk, 52, gave it his all during his Breakthrough Prize red carpet appearance, but his efforts were mercilessly mocked by users on his X social media platform.
After spreading his arms as if he were a conductor, Musk transformed the pose into a strange, faux-tortured expression.
Then he adopted a posture of mock confusion, hunching his shoulders as if to shrug.
“The awkward laughter and frantically looking around for validation every time kills me,” one X commenter shuddered.
In the short video, Musk is also seen mocking the celebrities’ red carpet pose by looking over his shoulder and with his back turned at the cameras.
But not everyone was as impressed with his moves as it seemed.
“Awkward laughter and frantically looking around for validation every time kills me,” one wrote.
“It’s like watching Mitt Romney try foreplay,” a second imagined.
“Shameful,” a third scoffed.
“When you put your drawing on the fridge,” a fourth mocked, alongside a still photo of Musk looking extraordinarily pleased with himself.
“What a tool,” a fifth mocked.
“Why is he pretending to be a Sim?” the sixth person chimed in, noting that his movements seemed similar to the forced and unnatural maneuvers of the human-like Sims avatars in the video game series of the same name.
“He wants to be Tony Stark so badly,” noted a seventh of Musk’s apparent reverence toward comic book characters.
Upon seeing the 32-second clip of Musk posing, X users quickly ripped his efforts to shreds.
Still, some
‘Oh God, it hurts to see this. Why is he acting like a 10 year old who just discovered anime? he repeated an eighth.
“The richest man in the world can’t pose for a photograph,” sighed a ninth.
Still, some came to Musk’s defense.
‘That’s why we love this man. “He is extremely intelligent, but very humble and funny,” gushed a musk.
And someone else wisely argued that perhaps the peanut gallery should reserve its judgments about Musk’s actions, instead of trashing his superficial gestures.
In his words: ‘So many bad comments and why? Because of someone’s appearance? Being silly on the red carpet? Actually, that’s pretty endearing. Criticize people for their actions or words, but personal attacks tend to say more about those who participate in that way than about those attacked.’