Elon Musk Starts Media Business, Possibly Named 'Thud!'

Elon Musk, who already operates businesses in the aerospace, automotive, renewable energy, neural implantation, and tunnel-digging industries, has apparently decided to try his hand at media with a website called Thud!

As reported earlier this week by the Daily Beast’s Maxwell Tani, Musk considered buying satirical news staple the Onion back in 2014, only to eventually nab a few of its former staffers in 2016. Once revealed, Onion property Clickhole was quick to lampoon the improbable poaching of humorist talent. (Disclosure: The Onion is owned by Univision, which also owns Gizmodo Media Group.)While Musk is known to sneak pop culture references into a number of his products: Tesla vehicles have featured Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and Space Balls-inspired Easter eggs, and the P.T. Barnum-esque Heavy Falcon launch was rife with nods to David Bowie. The name of this “new intergalactic media empire”—apparently, Thud!—reads as a shoutout to the Terry Pratchett Discworld novel of the same name. Reached for comment via Twitter DM, Musk claimed this was not the case, elaborating that “It’s the sound something thick and dull makes when it hits the ground.”

In all likeliness he’s fucking with us.

As to what Musk has planned to do with a gaggle of humor writers, the domain thud.com, and no public editorial plan or launch date, it remains a mystery.