In 2010, a Japanese Sakura woman posted a photo of her well-maintained Shiba Inu in a digital journal. The dog Kabos shot the owner in a wide gaze of his eyes. This shot the image of a cartoon that quickly jumped from Tumblr to Twitter, Facebook and other internet.
The legend of memes has been born. Someone on Reddit called the dog “Doge.” Another minted cryptocurrency under the name Doge.
Now, 15 years from now, amid the rapid chor of internet culture, Doge is considered to be very old. But try to tell Elon Musk, who adopted the name of his efforts to “doge” – more officially, government efficiency.
It is one of dozens of old internet ephemera burned into his everyday vocabulary. Musk's short scroll through X-feed reveals the aging memes and the zoo of Lingo. They are:
Frequent references to “420,” the slang term for smoking marijuana, half a century ago, is said to have begun in high schools in Northern California. (After smoking, which looked like a dull live performance on Joe Rogan's podcast, Musk easily changed his Twitter bio to “420”)
It regularly includes the number “69,” a slang term for sexual activity that has existed at least by Kama Sutra. (Mr. Musk, 53, quickly points out that his birthday will fall 69 days after April 20th.)
Calls something that he supports “epics” or “base.” These are adjectives that are popular among frequent users of Reddit and are popularized by fans of Joss Whedon, director who created the “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” television series in the late 1990s and directed two of the Avengers films. (Musk says he's predicting a “magnificent” 2026 to chatbots, Grok and recently Tesla investors and wants to create “base” artificial intelligence for Tesla investors.)
Musk's slang may seem inexplicable to those who are not ingrained in online culture. But for his fans, Musk's outdated sensibility is a kind of internet comfort food, nodding to the shared, tormented worldview.
Musk's posts are filled with the language of war and conquest portrayed in video games. That loaded language is Musk's rallying cry for gamers and others from the highly online world – if they have a common political ideology, look at someone who shares his skepticism of authority and the belief that America has “wake too much.” For them, Musk is Musk's online update about Doge being far more honest than what he reads in press releases, press conferences and, worst of all, in mainstream media. (This is a strategy that reminds me of Donald Trump's use of Twitter to show credibility during his initial management.)
“We live in a nerd revenge,” said Hasan Piker, a popular, politically progressive online personality who is not a fan of Musk, in an interview. “This is a real, real revenge for the nerd.”
Musk did not respond to a request for comment.
All photos of Musk wielding a chainsaw while wearing sunglasses indoors (another meme) represent the victory of the nerd culture he has long identified. On Wednesday, he attended the first meeting of President Trump's new cabinet and wore a T-shirt that said “technical support.”
His fans speak to him in his language. They send suggestions on how Doge can fix the government by dismantling its entire section. (Wojak is a bold character drawn on the message board 4chan and is a perennial favorite.)
Musk has surpassed over 200 million X-followers to help make decisions on online voting. And he listens. The conversation becomes a feedback loop for insider jokes from a billionaire who once hosted “Saturday Night Live” and takes pride in his sense of humor. (Mr. Musk sometimes overestimates his popularity in the comedy world. He was booed after he joined comedian Dave Chapelle on the San Francisco stage.)
“Everyone can find their own community, even in a community frozen in 2010,” said Brian Feldman, an internet culture writer who has been running for a long time in Musk's exploit, in an interview.
But for those who are ingrained in modern internet culture, Musk's communication style is far from trending. That's true when even current terms such as “no cap” (translation: no lie) and “low key fell” (decaying popularity and relevance) already indicate age. Like recent questions about Musk's claims about his excellent video game skills, they see a crack in his Supernard façade.
“More than people want to admit, they are often trapped in the internet they encounter first,” Feldman said.
Last week, Musk appeared at a conservative political conference wearing dark sunglasses, a big gold chain and a t-shirt that said he was working on “side quests” rather than “procrastination” (common practices of vast role-playing games). He played a quote from the Hindu Bible Bhagavad Gita, who said that Robert Oppenheimer had passed through his mind when he tested the first atomic bomb. Now I'm going to die. Destroyers of the world.
“I'm becoming a meme,” Musk told the almost muted crowd. “Living like a dream, living memes. It's pretty much what's going on.”
Even some of his most enthusiastic followers had x recoil. “Elon Musk fell from Low Key,” one user wrote.
Musk's online vocabulary is a reminder from 2010 when nerd culture prevailed. Reddit was my favourite meme factory, such as Lolcats and Icanhazcheeseseburger. Gamers gathered at web forums and online role-play games to hang out and fight through digital dungeons.
This was also the beginning of Musk's transformation from mere billionaire to internet celebrity. That year he appeared as himself in the second “Iron Man” film. His online fans ate it.
All of this coincided with the rise of Web 2.0, a more social version of the Internet. Twitter was a town square long before Musk bought it and changed its name. Facebook has moved beyond likes and status updates in “Groups.” This is a feature that allows people to form their own small communities. Chat Forum 4chan was full of angry online trolls who were anonymous and often caught up in vulgar behaviour.
Online groups have been around for years, but the new social networks have been woven more stringently, rewarding the actions Musk often demonstrated today. The right kind of posting may pick up steam and shoot on the internet.
Provocates have moved beyond small trolling to aggressive mass movements, such as Gamergate, a targeted harassment campaign against female game designers by video game players who claim to represent the lack of ethics of game journalism. It transformed into diversity, feminism, and social movements that fought against what gamers viewed as overly progressive values in the film, television, literature and video game industries.
Gamergate also shows that digital demonstrations can lead to real change, for better or worse.
Musk's tweet style has changed from an update to Anodyne Company to a more obvious trolling. In 2018, he tweeted that he secured an offer to acquire Tesla at a share price of $420. Once, when a competing car company tried to lower him by price, Musk said he would cut the cost of his Tesla Model X to $69,420.
“The gauntlet has been thrown away!” he declared on Twitter. “The prophecy is fulfilled.”
Unlike other high-tech billionaires, they lived a life far from the regular internet fork and seemed less online than they were enriched. And part of the online world has embraced him.
“I think a lot of people find him uncomfortable,” said Coldhealing, a pseudonymous cultural commentator who regularly tracks Musk and other social movements online. “But there are a lot of people who resonate with him. I think it's 10% of the population, but 10% of the influential.”
Musk's online life has become even more bolder after Covid Pandemic began in 2020. He attacked Tesla short sellers and California officials who didn't reopen Tesla's factories. In 2023, he even had a photo of himself driving to Zuckerberg's house, threatening to wrestle the CEO of Facebook. (At the time they were the pain of organizing a real combat match between them. It never happened.)
He posted himself playing other video games like Eldenling, The Road of Exile and Diablo IV. One of the wealthiest men in the world was to tell a gamer that he was one of them.
Mark Kern, former Blizzard video game executive, wrote in a post to X last week that people shouldn't ruin gamers. “We are fake by an infinite boss battle with impossible odds. We will not give up. We will not stop. We are the terminators of the culture war.”
“Yes,” Musk wrote.
Conservatives who don't spend much of their time online have embraced the image of Musk adopting chainsaws in what he considers as a bloated federal government.
“It's a testimony from people who don't know what he's saying, but still think he speaks this professional language,” said internet culture writer Feldman.
But Musk may be finding his online restrictions. It was difficult to shake off the stage appearance of some of his followers at last week's conservative political action conference. (Kabos wasn't alive to see the memes she inspired.
“Does anyone else feel the atmosphere on Tpot/Tech?” One X user wrote by referring to an online community called “This part of Twitter.” In other words, Musk was a bit in touch and was beginning to look more and less popular.
Despite this, Musk appears to have doubled. His posts on X have increased in recent weeks, in days of hundreds. And he is still verified by his fans.
On Thursday, Musk posted another meme on his X account. It was one of dozens of posts he made that morning. Among them is Mel Gibson's photo as Mad Max in “The Road Warrior,” an action thriller from the early 1980s about shotgun-hitting nomads navigating the apocalyptic world. In bold lettering, the meme states: “Women, it's time to start thinking about whether the man you're dating has the potential to be an apocalyptic warrior.” (Film buffs may find Max's wife and daughter killed by a gang of bikers in the first “Mad Max” movie.)
One follower responded, in a photo of a man wearing a Trojan helmet and body armor, holding an assault rifle in one hand and a spear in the other. That was one of over 7,000 replies.
“Yes,” the follower said.
