Twitter Employees Thought Elon Musk Was Going to Self-Harm After He Was Booed Offstage at Dave Chappelle Show

If there’s a single takeaway from Elon Musk’s disastrous takeover of Twitter, it’s that the South African snowflake would have an absolute meltdown if he ever did an open mic.

It’s been over one year since Musk, compelled by legal force, followed through with a $44 billion acquisition of Twitter. In that time, the social media company lost over half its value and 16% of its daily active user base as advertisers ran for the hills and conspiracy theorists, disinformation agents and racist, sexist and anti-Semitic hate mongers ran rampant with their newfound lack of accountability and moderation. In his new book, Breaking Twitter, acclaimed author Ben Mezrich argues that Musk’s mental health has seen a deterioration similar to his net worth since taking the reins of his favorite social media platform, arguing, “Not only did (Musk) destroy this sort of global town hall, but he destroyed himself in the process.”

Breaking Twitter details Musk’s downward spiral of erratic decision-making and alarming outbursts that coincide and correlate with the decline of Twitter’s financial health, a breakdown which Mezrich believes started after an incident from last December in which Musk, fresh off a round of layoffs at his newly acquired company, made a surprise appearance at a Dave Chappelle stand-up set at the Chase Center in San Francisco, just two miles from Twitter HQ. A sea of boos and jeers quickly derailed the cameo, escalating to the point where Chappelle and Musk awkwardly shuffled off-stage, and, in the aftermath, a despondent Musk locked himself inside his office at Twitter, causing concerned employees to consider calling in “a wellness check by the San Francisco police because they thought he was going to self-harm.” 

Maybe they were just saying boo-urns?

For reasons known only to Musk, the controversial CEO fashions himself as a bit of a comedy expert — he thinks he’s an everything expert, of course, but his comedy takes have a laughably authoritative tone. He’s praised Monty Python as his anti-wokestradamus for a certain spicy Life of Brian scene. When South Park: Joining The Panderverse mocked “woke Disney” (and the crybabies who spend all day complaining about it on Twitter), Musk cryptically responded, “The bellwether has sounded.” He spent an hour waxing philosophical about the state of comedy with right-wing satire site Babylon Bee, proclaiming that "the essence of comedy is to reveal the truth” while Twitter was actively assisting authoritarian governments across the globe in silencing the journalists and whistleblowers who hold them accountable.

However, for all his high-minded ideals about the state of comedy in today’s safe space hellscape of political correctness, Musk seemed to have forgotten the single most important aspect of comedy for a novice such as himself — bombing. Every great comedian, Chappelle included, has been booed offstage early in their career. Whether it’s over an off-color joke, a fumbled punchline, or possibly laying off half the audience just weeks before the set, the hecklers eventually come for everyone who steps up to the mic. Musk just happened to hear the boo birds sing during his first set.

It’s sad to hear that getting heckled had such a disastrous effect on Musk’s mental health. It’s alarming to know that the repercussions of his depressed state have such serious ramifications for the state of global discourse. Mezrich, whose past works covering behind-the-scenes drama at controversial companies inspired films like The Social Network and Dumb Money, argues that the Chappelle incident marked a startling change in Musk’s behavior, saying, “This had never happened to Elon Before. And this spiral started. … this is not the Elon of calculated (decisions) and building rocket ships, this became an Elon who was striking out angrily.”