Elon Musk Life Hacks

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Elon Musk Life Hacks is a Russian-language image macro series that pairs photos of DIY contraptions and jury-rigged inventions with the caption 'How do you like this, Elon Musk?'1. The format started on Russian Twitter in late 2017 and went international in August 2018 after English-speaking users discovered it3.

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Overview

Elon Musk Life Hacks, also known by the Russian caption 'Как тебе такое, Илон Маск?' (translated from Russian, 'How do you like this, Elon Musk?'), is a series of image macros showing crude DIY contraptions from the post-Soviet world3. Typical entries include a lightbulb chained to a pipe with a bike lock so it cannot be stolen, a man wearing a toilet seat around his neck to hold a beer bottle, and a washing machine converted into a stove1.

The joke sets Elon Musk's high-profile ventures, Tesla, SpaceX and PayPal, against the shabby cleverness of everyday Russian tinkering3. Rather than mocking Musk directly, the meme frames these janky inventions as sarcastic 'answers' to his achievements, as if a guy fixing a zipper with a paper clip were competing with Falcon Heavy1.

How It Spread

The format exploded in Russian Twitter on February 6th, 2018, the day SpaceX launched Falcon Heavy and put a Tesla Roadster into orbit3. The contrast between the rocket launch and homemade lifehacks drove a wave of new posts, including a February 7th tweet by @fe_city_boy 7 showing a man with a DeLorean under the caption 'What do you think, Elon Musk?'4.

The meme crossed into English on August 20th, 2018, when Twitter user @andromedamn 6 posted a compilation with the explainer that 'russia has this meme where they @ elon musk in pictures of super stupid bootleggy lifehacky inventions'1. That thread pulled in more than 23,000 retweets and 73,000 likes within three days4.

Mashable covered the trend on August 22nd, 2018, highlighting examples such as a pothole filled with freshly mown grass and a broken zipper repaired with a paper clip1. Vice's Motherboard and the Russian meme site Memepedia also documented the format, translating captions like 'Hey Elon, envy the scientific achievements of our country!' for wider audiences3.

How to Use This Meme

The template typically pairs a photograph of an absurd, unsafe or improvised object, often from Russia or another post-Soviet country, with a rhetorical caption addressed to Elon Musk. Common variants include 'Как тебе такое, Илон Маск?', 'How do you like this, Elon Musk?' and 'What do you think, Elon Musk?'1. The caption is often tailored to the object, for example 'Do you feel threatened, Elon Musk?' over a door propped open with a plastic bag1.

Frequently Asked Questions

Elon Musk Life Hacks

2017image macroclassic

Elon Musk Life Hacks is a Russian-language image macro series that pairs photos of DIY contraptions and jury-rigged inventions with the caption 'How do you like this, Elon Musk?'1. The format started on Russian Twitter in late 2017 and went international in August 2018 after English-speaking users discovered it3.

elon musk memes catchphrase memes image macro memes snowclone memes european memes

Overview

Elon Musk Life Hacks, also known by the Russian caption 'Как тебе такое, Илон Маск?' (translated from Russian, 'How do you like this, Elon Musk?'), is a series of image macros showing crude DIY contraptions from the post-Soviet world3. Typical entries include a lightbulb chained to a pipe with a bike lock so it cannot be stolen, a man wearing a toilet seat around his neck to hold a beer bottle, and a washing machine converted into a stove1.

The joke sets Elon Musk's high-profile ventures, Tesla, SpaceX and PayPal, against the shabby cleverness of everyday Russian tinkering3. Rather than mocking Musk directly, the meme frames these janky inventions as sarcastic 'answers' to his achievements, as if a guy fixing a zipper with a paper clip were competing with Falcon Heavy1.

How It Spread

The format exploded in Russian Twitter on February 6th, 2018, the day SpaceX launched Falcon Heavy and put a Tesla Roadster into orbit3. The contrast between the rocket launch and homemade lifehacks drove a wave of new posts, including a February 7th tweet by @fe_city_boy 7 showing a man with a DeLorean under the caption 'What do you think, Elon Musk?'4.

The meme crossed into English on August 20th, 2018, when Twitter user @andromedamn 6 posted a compilation with the explainer that 'russia has this meme where they @ elon musk in pictures of super stupid bootleggy lifehacky inventions'1. That thread pulled in more than 23,000 retweets and 73,000 likes within three days4.

Mashable covered the trend on August 22nd, 2018, highlighting examples such as a pothole filled with freshly mown grass and a broken zipper repaired with a paper clip1. Vice's Motherboard and the Russian meme site Memepedia also documented the format, translating captions like 'Hey Elon, envy the scientific achievements of our country!' for wider audiences3.

How to Use This Meme

The template typically pairs a photograph of an absurd, unsafe or improvised object, often from Russia or another post-Soviet country, with a rhetorical caption addressed to Elon Musk. Common variants include 'Как тебе такое, Илон Маск?', 'How do you like this, Elon Musk?' and 'What do you think, Elon Musk?'1. The caption is often tailored to the object, for example 'Do you feel threatened, Elon Musk?' over a door propped open with a plastic bag1.

Frequently Asked Questions