Elon Musk Tried to Buy 'The Onion,' So Now It's Ruthlessly Trolling Him

Diego Donamaria/Getty Images
Diego Donamaria/Getty Images

Earlier this week, it was revealed that billionaire and possible super villain Elon Musk had the rich idea of buying satirical news source The Onion, which was possibly the most foolhardy thing a man of Musk's intellect could ever do.

Expanding his list of ventures from flamethrowers to the hardscrabble media business would be tantamount to lighting literal cash on fire, but The Onion has given Musk a different reason to regret knocking on its door: It's been trolling him relentlessly, in the way the venerable purveyor of fake news is known for skewering people who do dumb things. 

The Onion rebuffed Musk's advances, according to a report from The Daily Beast, but stuck to its journalistic form by covering the ordeal in its own pages. Onion sister-site Clickhole published a piece bylined by Musk, which is an expert takedown in its own right: 

But it was an article from The Onion that cut Elon the deepest (his words, not mine). 

Musk has been subjected to "cruel taunts," as he put it, but he was able to recruit a few of The Onion's writers for what The Daily Beast calls a "secret project."

Former Onion Editor in Chief Cole Bolton and Executive Editor Ben Berkley, who left the publication earlier this year, have been joined by three writers and another editor in Los Angeles to work with Musk on the shadowy project. Bolton and Berkley said in a statement: “We can confirm that we have learned nothing from prevailing trends in media and are launching a brand-new comedy project.”

It is possible, though, they've all been lured to Musk's empire just to write press releases for Space X.

Probably not, though.

[H/T Fast Company, Daily Beast]

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Sam Blum is a News Staff Writer for Thrillist. He's also a martial arts and music nerd who appreciates a fine sandwich and cute dogs. Find his clips in The Guardian, Rolling Stone, The A.V. Club and Esquire. He's on Twitter @Blumnessmonster.