Elon Musk Challenges Russian President Vladimir Putin To Single Combat, Launching A Bevy Of Memes On Social Media

Elon Musk, the very-online billionaire and CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, issued a tweet early this morning challenging Russian President Vladimir Putin to single combat, with the prize being Ukraine. The words “Vladimir Putin” and “Ukraine” were both written in Cyrillic letters.

Elon Musk’s "reply guys" seized on the opportunity to speculate about what the fight might look like through humorous interpretations and photoshops on Twitter.

Do something fast @danawhite pic.twitter.com/DmKCo9DVbg

— BabyDoge (@BabyDogeCoin) March 14, 2022

Let the fight begin…….! pic.twitter.com/l2NqVBuB1e

— Krishna (@Atheist_Krishna) March 14, 2022

Vladimir Putin is famous for his love of the martial art Judo but is significantly older than Musk and also shorter. Given these facts, debate raged online over which man would win the proposed "mono a mono" fight.

The fight would be over in 10 seconds. It would just depend on how much damage Elon would want to do how fast. Nothing else.Elon is also 19 years younger. pic.twitter.com/8xjrpu19cP

— Jurij (@jurijfedorov) March 14, 2022

pic.twitter.com/h5vIabu17O

— Fintwit (@fintwit_news) March 14, 2022

Musk was also mocked by some for challenging Putin, and for his Twitter presence in general. This is nothing new, as the billionaire (in his time on the platform) has inspired both reverence and revulsion. Some argued that his comments showed ignorance of the real situation in Ukraine and represented an attempt to cash in on the ongoing war.

Musk’s Twitter profile and personal fame is the most visible marketing tool of his companies Tesla and SpaceX, as documented in articles from around the business press. Some have attributed the relative success of his companies and personal brand to his canny use of the platform to generate publicity.

Elon has no authority regarding the legal status of statehood & sovereignty of Ukraine. People are suffering, innocents are being killed, cities are being bombed, women and children are dying: Elon pushes publicity stunt. Shame on you.https://t.co/djJZ2Sy0mm

— Anonymous (@YourAnonNews) March 14, 2022

I am absolutely serious

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 14, 2022

what if i told you elon musk is a dumb guy? he's a dumb guy who lucked into a ton of money and people treat him like he's some kind of sage. but he is fundamentally a very stupid guy.

— Oliver Willis (@owillis) March 14, 2022

Elon before logging on Twitter today: pic.twitter.com/bJ99h4OuYR

— greg (@greg16676935420) March 14, 2022

On a similar note, some took the chance to criticize Musk’s fans for their comments and their support of the billionaire, which is another common trend whenever his tweets go viral.

reading the replies to elon musk tweets will kill your brain cells much faster than alcohol

— Shibetoshi Nakamoto (@BillyM2k) March 14, 2022

The only person sadder that Elon Musk is his fucking reply guys pic.twitter.com/oqWxosXm0r

— Amos (@AmosReborn) March 14, 2022

Several of Musk’s other Monday tweets also raised eyebrows around the web after he posted the recently trending I Support The Current Thing meme format.

pic.twitter.com/CfoJ3qdCRJ

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 14, 2022

There is a beauty to the biological substrate

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 14, 2022

I guess the sincere Ukraine position got scanned as cringe so Musk had to reverse-virtue-signal with the NPC meme to recover his based cred.

— David Weigel (@daveweigel) March 14, 2022

This latest series of Elon Musk tweets also comes amid rumors of a split with his partner Grimes, who is now reportedly dating well-known whistleblower Chelsea Manning. As always, Musk's real state of mind remains a mystery, but that has never stopped the internet from speculating.