--- title: "William Shatner Blasts “Supervillain” Elon Musk" description: "Ever wanted to hear William Shatner absolutely eviscerate fellow Canadian Elon Musk on The Daily Show? Well, now's your chance." date: "2022-08-17" modified: "2022-08-17" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/shatner-musk-daily-show" categories: - "Elon Musk" - "Future Society" - "The Industrialists" tags: - "blue origin" - "elon musk" - "rocket man" - "the digest" - "william shatner" --- # William Shatner Blasts “Supervillain” Elon Musk ![Ever wanted to hear William Shatner absolutely eviscerate fellow Canadian Elon Musk on The Daily Show? Well, now's your chance.]() *\Image: Roy Rochlin/Getty Images\* ## Got Him Ever wanted to hear William Shatner absolutely eviscerate [fellow Canadian]() Elon Musk? Well, now's your chance. In [a new segment]() for "The Daily Show," the Star Trek superstar and [early non-fungible token (NFT) adopter]() had some choice words for the Tesla and SpaceX CEO. "He's part Thomas Edison, part Iron Man, part annoying dude in the group chat, and he's anything but your standard CEO," Shatner said, at one point calling Musk a "supervillain." "Yes, he's the Technoking — as a joke," the 91-year-old actor continues after showing a clip of Musk saying he [legally changed his title]() to the made-up moniker. "And soon, we'll all be his serfs, but in a funny way." ## Rocket Men The "Daily Show" appearance is clearly at least somewhat jokey — at one point, Shatner pokes fun at host Trevor Noah when saying that Musk is "unlike other South African celebrities" in that "he didn’t make his childhood into a whole thing" — but it's curious that this specific Canadian celebrity has chosen to deride his countryman, given his past comments about Musk and his own ventures into spaceflight. Last fall, as you may recall, [Shatner became an IRL rocket man]() when he took a brief flight on one of [Jeff Bezos]()' Blue Origin rockets. Earlier in 2021, however, the "TJ Hooker" star actually complimented the SpaceX CEO in [a wide-ranging *Daily Beast* interview](). "Well, he’s a brave soul and he’s obviously a genius, and he’s admirable in the way some of those old titans were who founded the railroads and all those things," the famed nonagenarian told the *Beast*'s Marlow Stern. "I think that his idea of going to Mars in lieu of making the world green again is silly. Rather, he should, in my opinion, be devoting all those extraneous abilities to cleaning up the world." Maybe it was getting besos from Bezos in the interim that soured Shatner on Musk, but there's a lot of daylight between saying the Tesla billionaire is "obviously a genius" to calling him a "supervillain." But then again, this is show business, after all. **More on Musk:** *[Free Speech Warrior Elon Musk Writes Column For Chinese State Censor's Magazine ]()* ## 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]()