--- title: "Elon Musk Cropped The Credit Out of Our Cartoon and Tweeted It Out" description: "Elon Musk sure has interesting ideas about intellectual property, as evidenced by his penchant for stealing memes — including, most recently, one of ours" date: "2022-09-27" modified: "2022-09-27" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/elon-musk-futurism-cartoon" categories: - "Elon Musk" - "Future Society" - "The Industrialists" tags: - "elon musk" - "futurism cartoons" - "memes" --- # Elon Musk Cropped The Credit Out of Our Cartoon and Tweeted It Out ![Elon Musk sure has interesting ideas about intellectual property, as evidenced by his penchant for stealing memes — including, most recently, one of ours]() *\Image: Angela Weiss via Getty / Futurism\* For a captain of industry, Elon Musk sure has interesting ideas about intellectual property. This week, the [world's richest man]() tweeted a black and white comic that depicted Nintendo's Mario and Peach characters sitting on the roof of a building discussing life. "Of course," the text reads, "there's no way to prove we're living in a simulation." It's a moderately funny joke — two videogame musing about whether they do in fact live in a virtual world — and it also riffs on Musk's [longstanding interest]() in the theory that we, like Mario and Peach in the comic, might live in a simulated universe. But the authorship of the comic raises issues far more banal. Musk has long been known to post memes without credit, and this was no exception. Except that this time, instead of [just calling him out](), Futurism was actually the victim of the heist. Yes, folks — the comic Musk tweeted out, gaining hundreds of thousands of engagements, was an illustration from our [now-defunct Futurism Cartoons](). In fact, on the top of [the original image]() are watermarks crediting Futurism and the authors of the comic, Luke Kingma and Lou Patrick Mackay. In the version Musk [posted on Sunday](), both credits were cropped out. https://twitter.com/futurism/status/1574802644127961092 https://twitter.com/Jon_Christian/status/1574803616526991362 This is far from the first time the SpaceX and Tesla CEO has stolen meme art from the little guys. Over the last year alone, Futurism has published at least two blogs [about memes]() [he seems to have lifted](). So prevalent is Musk's meme-stealing propensity that the [*New York Times* ran a whole exposé]() on it last year, questioning whether the [father of nine to ten children]() actually lives up to his "meme lord" representation. Musk's laissez faire attitude toward crediting others' work extends beyond memes as well. Back in 2018, it [emerged that Tesla]() had using an image by a smalltime artist to show off new tech in its vehicles without credit or compensation. Called out for the oversight, Musk was stridently unapologetic. "He can sue for money if he wants, but that’s kinda lame," he said in response. "If anything, this attention increased his mug sales." In a certain light, Musk's meme theft makes perfect sense. On a meta level, [rich people often steal]() even when they have no rational reason to do so. Musk has also dealt with the accusation of lifting much larger ideas as well, including [Tesla itself](). That said, it's particularly weird — and even a little sad — that the richest guy on the planet feels like he has to pilfer some of the lowest-hanging fruit of the meme world when he could hire the world's best content creators — or at very least, the prolific [alleged meme stealer FuckJerry]() — to make him the dankest memes the world has ever seen. **More Muskiness:** [*There's a Huge Problem With Elon Musk's Promise to Bring Starlink to Iran*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()