Elon Musk has made a controversial remark about actor Ben Stiller on X (formerly, Twitter), the social media platform the former owns. He used a crude slur in response to Stiller’s public support for the Democratic nominee Kamala Harris in the 2024 U.S. elections.
Elon Musk mocks Ben Stiller using Tropic Thunder reference
Musk reposted a viral post from former investment banker and author John LeFevre about Stiller on Wednesday, November 27, and wrote in the caption, “Damn he went full r*****,” adding two rolling-on-the-floor laughing emojis at the end.
In his post, LeFevre shared a screenshot of a Daily Mail report with the headline, “Ben Stiller says Woke America killed ‘edgier’ comedy” and a still from Stiller’s 2008 comedy Tropic Thunder. LeFevre captioned his post, “Says this…. Endorsed Harris….”
Musk seems to have paraphrased a dialogue from the same movie, in which Kirk Lazarus (Robert Downey Jr.) said something similar to Stiller’s Tugg about another character in the movie, farmer Simple Jack. In another post, Musk shared a clip of a related scene from the movie.
Stiller’s initial remark was also about Tropic Thunder, which, among other things, depicts Downey Jr. in blackface makeup. When asked during an interview with Collider if he could make the movie today, Stiller stated, “I doubt it. Obviously, in this environment, edgier comedy is just harder to do. Definitely not at the scale we made it at, too, in terms of the economics of the business.”
The Emmy winner later added, “The only reason we attempted it was I felt like the joke was very clear in terms of who that joke was on — actors trying to do anything to win awards. But now, in this environment, I don’t even know if I would have ventured to do it, to tell you the truth. I’m being honest.”
Notably, Stiller voiced his support for Harris in August 2024. “Just very excited about moving forward and all the energy and excitement that’s around this movement right now,” he said at the time. “That’s why I’m here, because it’s time for change, and it seems like it’s happening.”
Kamala Harris ended up losing to Donald Trump, who will be taking over presidential duties from Joe Biden in January 2025.