Comedian Josh Johnson is taking on Elon Musk in his latest comedy stand-up special. Musk has been in the headlines a lot due to director Alex Gibney’s new documentary, simply titled “Musk.” The documentary premiered at the Venice and Toronto International Film Festivals. Musk has previously referred to the doc as a “hit piece,” prompting Gibney to fire back: “How would you know?”
Josh Johnson Jokes Elon Musk Is ‘Right’ To Be ‘Paranoid’
“It’s wild, too, because this guy Elon is like out of his mind,” Johnson told the sold-out crowd at the Vogue Theatre in Vancouver. “He’s also like the richest man in the world, but he’s also super paranoid.”
“He’s so paranoid,” he continued. “He thinks that everyone’s out to get him and that everybody hates him. And he’s not wrong, but it’s like coming from such a paranoid place. You know what I mean? He just happens to be right.”
“Like if Elon wasn’t doing what he was doing, you wouldn’t think about him, ‘cause he was already rich before,” he pointed out. “And he wasn’t as rich as he is now, and he wasn’t the richest man in the world.”
“But even when he was really, really rich, you didn’t really think about him until he started imposing himself on you, you know?” he asked. “And it’s easy enough to like switch this whole thing around.”
Johnson Tells Musk To ‘Stop Being Yourself’ So People Stop ‘Hating’ Him
“If he’s worried about like us hating him, then just stop being yourself,” he said, as if speaking directly to Musk. “Cause if you would stop being yourself, then we wouldn’t.”
“Like he’s positive that so many people, like, you know, are after him and everything, but he also then does things that bring more tension to himself,” Johnson pointed out. “And there are also things that would make someone want to take revenge on you.”
“It’s like just stop. If you would just stop, then you wouldn’t have to worry about any of this,” he continued. “I don’t get how his mind works ‘cause then he does more of the stuff. It’s worse now than it was before. And he was paranoid then.”
“But drugs also do that. So some of it is drugs, but some of it is just a general assessment of how people feel,” he added.
Elon Musk Has Previously Confessed To Ketamine Use
In a 2024 interview with Don Lemon, the Tesla CEO confessed that he took “a small amount” of prescribed ketamine to treat negative moods about once every two weeks, but that he had to cut down due to his heavy workload. “If you’ve used too much ketamine, you can’t really get work done, and I have a lot of work,” Musk said at the time.
Elsewhere in the stand-up comedy special, Johnson noted that “no one likes” Musk, but that he is constantly surrounded by people due to his immense wealth.
“Like he sees the world as this scary evil place where everyone’s always attacking you and everything. And that’s because no one likes him. And not no one,” he added quickly. “I shouldn’t say no one ‘cause there are some people who also like him, that kind of like him, but I can’t tell if they like him or they just want proximity to his money.”
“When you talk to people about him, there is just a general sort of exhaustion that people have around him and what he’s like,” Johnson added.
Josh Johnson Takes Aim At The ‘Musk’ Documentary
During his stand-up special, Johnson also addressed Alex Gibney’s “Musk” documentary that made the entrepreneur “furious.” Johnson felt that the documentary was “pretty comprehensive” and noted that the filmmakers “talked to a lot of people in Elon’s orbit and some people that knew him closely and everything and it doesn’t seem like anyone had anything good to say.”
“And this is kind of what gets to the heart of what I’m talking about,” he continued. “It’s one thing for you to gather just egregious, just disgusting amounts of wealth. It’s one thing to have influence and use that influence to protect your wealth.”
“That’s almost what we expect wealthy people to do half the time. It’s a very different thing to infuse yourself in the government and try to guide policy in a way that not just benefits you but actively harms so many people,” he added. “And even though his time in the government was short, he did a lot of damage in that time.”
Johnson Pokes Fun At The Alleged $40 Million Hush Money Bribe
Johnson also discussed how Musk “offered one of his baby mamas $40 million not to participate in the documentary, not to do the interview or anything.”
Former conservative influencer Ashley St. Claire, who gave birth to Musk’s son Romulus, claimed that Musk offered her a massive sum not to talk about him in the documentary.
“I was offered the opportunity not to speak for $40 million,” St. Clair told reporters at a news conference at the Venice Film Festival in September, as per PEOPLE magazine.
“Do you know how bad you have to be to offer somebody $40 million to just not talk about you at all, and they were like, ‘No, I’ve been waiting for this.’ Do you know how wild that is?” Johnson asked. “It says a lot that these people are the people that know Elon best. They don’t have anything nice to say.”
Watch the full stand-up special below.