# Elon Musk And Grimes Couple Photo Parodies
Elon Musk And Grimes Couple Photo Parodies is a Twitter joke format from May 2018 where users paired the Tesla CEO and the electronic musician with lookalike fictional couples, usually a nerdy guy and a goth or alt woman, after the pair debuted their relationship at the Met Gala.
## Overview
Elon Musk And Grimes Couple Photo Parodies is a Twitter joke format built around a single red carpet photo of Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Canadian musician Claire Boucher, better known as Grimes, at the 2018 Met Gala on May 7th[1]. In the photo, Musk wears a plain white tuxedo while Grimes shows up in a black gothic robotic outfit, and the age and aesthetic gap between them became the whole joke[2].
The format is simple. Users post a picture of a fictional or real couple that mirrors the pairing of a soft, geeky, buttoned up guy with an edgy, dark, alternative woman, and caption it as if it were Musk and Grimes[2]. The most quoted example is Gideon Graves and Ramona Flowers from Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, played by Jason Schwartzman and Mary Elizabeth Winstead[3]. Comparisons ranged from live action films to Saturday morning cartoons, and the joke worked partly because the real photo already looked like fan art of a fictional couple[4].
## How It Spread
Shortly after, Twitter user @pajamashaw posted a shot of Jason Schwartzman and Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Gideon Graves and Ramona Flowers with the caption "Elon Musk and Grimes make their debut at the Met Gala"[4]. That tweet racked up more than 23,000 retweets and 95,000 likes in two days and pushed the Scott Pilgrim comparison to the front of the format[4]. Once the template was set, other users piled on through the evening of May 7th and into May 8th with cartoon pairings, throwback celebrity shots and animated stills, each captioned as if it were Musk and Grimes[3].
Mainstream coverage followed almost immediately. Mashable ran a roundup on May 8th calling the format a simple formula of geeky guy plus darkly dressed counterculture girl and singled out a Kim Possible entry alongside the Scott Pilgrim one[2]. Vice published its own writeup the same week, joking about couple nicknames like Grusk, Grelon and Mimes, and highlighting the same Gideon and Ramona pairing[3]. Inverse framed the meme as the internet's reaction to a bizarre cultural moment and collected fan tweets breaking down what a Musk and Grimes conversation might sound like[5]. Memebase also aggregated the images for its audience[4].
The joke burned hot for about a week and then cooled off as the couple themselves became regular tabloid fodder, but the original @pajamashaw Scott Pilgrim tweet is still shared whenever Musk and Grimes make news together, giving the format a long tail well past the 2018 Met Gala[3].
## How to Use
The template is a straight one to one swap. Users typically grab a photo of a fictional or real couple where one partner reads as a soft, nerdy or buttoned up man and the other reads as a dark, gothic or alternative woman, then post it with a caption naming the pair as Elon Musk and Grimes[2]. Scott Pilgrim vs. The World is the common go to source, but cartoons, older films and celebrity couple shots are all fair game as long as the visual contrast lands[3]. The caption often mimics red carpet reporting, for example "Elon Musk and Grimes at the Met Gala", which leans on the original 2018 photo for the joke[4].
## Frequently Asked Questions
### What is Elon Musk And Grimes Couple Photo Parodies?
A Twitter joke format from May 2018 that pairs lookalike fictional or real couples with the caption "Elon Musk and Grimes", riffing on their Met Gala debut photo[2].
### Where did Elon Musk And Grimes Couple Photo Parodies come from?
The format started on Twitter on the night of May 7th, 2018, after Musk and Grimes walked the Met Gala red carpet together[1].
### What does Elon Musk And Grimes Couple Photo Parodies mean?
The joke plays on the visual mismatch between Musk in a plain white tuxedo and Grimes in a black gothic outfit, treating them as an odd couple archetype[2].
### How do you use Elon Musk And Grimes Couple Photo Parodies?
Post an image of a nerdy guy and an alternative or goth woman, real or fictional, and caption it as if it were Musk and Grimes at the Met Gala[3].
### Is Elon Musk And Grimes Couple Photo Parodies still popular?
The main burst was in May 2018, but the original Scott Pilgrim tweet by @pajamashaw is still recirculated whenever the couple returns to the news[4].
### Who posted the first Elon Musk and Grimes parody?
Twitter user @freebasecatnip is credited with the first entry, using a Bruce Willis and Milla Jovovich still from The Fifth Element[4].
### What was the most quoted comparison?
Gideon Graves and Ramona Flowers from Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, posted by @pajamashaw, which pulled over 95,000 likes in two days[4].
### How did Elon Musk and Grimes actually meet?
Page Six reported they connected online over a joke about Roko's Basilisk, an AI thought experiment Grimes had already referenced with her 2015 Rococo Basilisk character[1].
### Which outlets covered the meme?
Mashable, Vice, Inverse and Memebase all ran writeups within days of the Met Gala[2][3][5].
### What nicknames did fans give the couple?
Vice floated Grusk, Grelon and Mimes as possible portmanteau names during the initial meme wave[3].
## References
1. [https://pagesix.com/2018/05/07/elon-musk-quietly-dating-musician-grimes/]()
2. [https://mashable.com/2018/05/08/elon-musk-and-grimes-lookalikes/]()
3. [https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/qvndvm/grimes-and-elon-musk-jarring-relationship-is-birthing-some-beautiful-dating-memes]()
4. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/elon-musk-and-grimes-couple-photo-parodies]()
5. [https://www.inverse.com/article/44654-elon-musk-dating-grimes-memes]()
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Source: https://meme.com/memes/elon-musk-and-grimes-couple-photo-parodies
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