Muskposting

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Published September 7, 2026

Muskposting, also known as Elon Tusk, is a joke format that mangles Elon Musk's name into variants like Elongated Muskrat, Ol' Musky, and Elon Musket, often paired with photoshops built out of his own face. A dormant 2014 tweet from @jdcrowley provided the seed, and by early 2019 it exploded across Reddit meme boards. Musk himself briefly renamed his Twitter handle to 'Elon Tusk' during the peak.

elon musk memescelebrity nickname memesphotoshop memespun memesdelayed virality memes

Overview

The Muskposting format runs on two tracks that often overlap. The pun track reworks Musk's name into rodent, firearm, or slang shapes such as Elongated Muskrat, Elon Musket, and Ol' Musky3. The visual track builds an ordinary object, a musket, an elephant, a snake, entirely out of tiled or morphed photos of Musk's face, usually delivered under the 'What are you laughing at? / My brain:' snowclone5.

The tone stays affectionate rather than hostile. Muskposting reads as a fandom in-joke about Musk's very online public character2, which is why Musk himself played along at the peak and tweeted one from the main account1. The 'Elon Tusk' branch added an elephant emoji and gave the visual track its most durable single image4.

Origin & Background

Platform
Twitter / Reddit (viral spread)
Creator
@jdcrowley
Date
2014

The earliest known post is a July 11, 2014 tweet from @jdcrowley7 joking that Musk's full name was 'Elongated Muskrat.' It sat quiet for years, pulling only about 45 likes and 10 retweets across the next several years before the bit got a second life3. A parallel variant, 'Ol' Musky,' traces to a June 23, 2017 fake magazine cover from The Onion under the headline 'Literally No One Calls Me That Or Has Ever Called Me That: Our Interview With Ol' Musky,' which locked in the affectionate, mock-folksy tone the format later ran with.

How It Spread

The Elongated Muskrat bit went viral on February 6, 2018 when @Mr_Kapowski8 posted a similar tweet that pulled roughly 44,200 likes and 11,500 retweets inside ten days, spilling the joke onto Reddit. A week later, on February 13, 2018, Redditor finn_macca posted a fabricated Musk tweet claiming his full name was 'Elongated Musket Gun,' which spawned the 'Elon Musket' image macros built from tiled Musk-face muskets5.

The visual side detonated in January 2019 across r/memes6 and r/dankmemes with the 'What are you laughing at? / My brain:' snowclone. Redditor CannedWolfMeat's version crossed 66,900 upvotes in two days5. Musk tweeted a version from his own account on February 25, 2019, drawing about 50,000 retweets and 398,000 likes over the next four days1.

Two days later, on February 27, 2019, Musk briefly renamed his Twitter handle to 'Elon Tusk 🐘' and then 'Elon Tusk,' nodding to a February 20 post from Redditor reapingsulls123 that had floated the elephant variant5. Musk reprised the bit in a cameo on Rick and Morty season four, episode three, 'One Crew Over the Crewcoo's Morty,' which aired November 24, 2019, where his character was credited as 'Elon Tusk'4.

How to Use This Meme

The pun template is open ended: pick a Musk-adjacent word, rodent, weapon, elephant, and swap it into his name while keeping the vowel rhythm of 'Elon Musk.' The visual template typically pairs a photoshopped object, rebuilt from many copies of Musk's face, with the 'What are you laughing at? / My brain:' two-panel setup, and the joke usually lands harder when the object is as banal as possible5.

Frequently Asked Questions

Muskposting

2014image macroclassic

Published September 7, 2026

Muskposting, also known as Elon Tusk, is a joke format that mangles Elon Musk's name into variants like Elongated Muskrat, Ol' Musky, and Elon Musket, often paired with photoshops built out of his own face. A dormant 2014 tweet from @jdcrowley provided the seed, and by early 2019 it exploded across Reddit meme boards. Musk himself briefly renamed his Twitter handle to 'Elon Tusk' during the peak.

elon musk memes celebrity nickname memes photoshop memes pun memes delayed virality memes

Overview

The Muskposting format runs on two tracks that often overlap. The pun track reworks Musk's name into rodent, firearm, or slang shapes such as Elongated Muskrat, Elon Musket, and Ol' Musky3. The visual track builds an ordinary object, a musket, an elephant, a snake, entirely out of tiled or morphed photos of Musk's face, usually delivered under the 'What are you laughing at? / My brain:' snowclone5.

The tone stays affectionate rather than hostile. Muskposting reads as a fandom in-joke about Musk's very online public character2, which is why Musk himself played along at the peak and tweeted one from the main account1. The 'Elon Tusk' branch added an elephant emoji and gave the visual track its most durable single image4.

Origin & Background

Platform
Twitter / Reddit (viral spread)
Creator
@jdcrowley
Date
2014

The earliest known post is a July 11, 2014 tweet from @jdcrowley7 joking that Musk's full name was 'Elongated Muskrat.' It sat quiet for years, pulling only about 45 likes and 10 retweets across the next several years before the bit got a second life3. A parallel variant, 'Ol' Musky,' traces to a June 23, 2017 fake magazine cover from The Onion under the headline 'Literally No One Calls Me That Or Has Ever Called Me That: Our Interview With Ol' Musky,' which locked in the affectionate, mock-folksy tone the format later ran with.

How It Spread

The Elongated Muskrat bit went viral on February 6, 2018 when @Mr_Kapowski8 posted a similar tweet that pulled roughly 44,200 likes and 11,500 retweets inside ten days, spilling the joke onto Reddit. A week later, on February 13, 2018, Redditor finn_macca posted a fabricated Musk tweet claiming his full name was 'Elongated Musket Gun,' which spawned the 'Elon Musket' image macros built from tiled Musk-face muskets5.

The visual side detonated in January 2019 across r/memes6 and r/dankmemes with the 'What are you laughing at? / My brain:' snowclone. Redditor CannedWolfMeat's version crossed 66,900 upvotes in two days5. Musk tweeted a version from his own account on February 25, 2019, drawing about 50,000 retweets and 398,000 likes over the next four days1.

Two days later, on February 27, 2019, Musk briefly renamed his Twitter handle to 'Elon Tusk 🐘' and then 'Elon Tusk,' nodding to a February 20 post from Redditor reapingsulls123 that had floated the elephant variant5. Musk reprised the bit in a cameo on Rick and Morty season four, episode three, 'One Crew Over the Crewcoo's Morty,' which aired November 24, 2019, where his character was credited as 'Elon Tusk'4.

How to Use This Meme

The pun template is open ended: pick a Musk-adjacent word, rodent, weapon, elephant, and swap it into his name while keeping the vowel rhythm of 'Elon Musk.' The visual template typically pairs a photoshopped object, rebuilt from many copies of Musk's face, with the 'What are you laughing at? / My brain:' two-panel setup, and the joke usually lands harder when the object is as banal as possible5.

Frequently Asked Questions