Centibillionaire Jeff Bezos made history today with his Blue Origin rocket launch—the first all-civilian trip to space. The tycoon of, well, pretty much every industry can now add 'commercial astronaut' to his resume. As Bezos looked down on us plebs from the edge of space, the reaction on the ground was not exactly celebratory. Critics of the Amazon founder took the opportunity to write off Bezos' space endeavor as an irresponsible use of the wealth he's extracted from underpaid laborers and unpaid income tax. On top of the usual criticism of Amazon's employment practices and the fact that Bezos got even richer through the pandemic while millions literally died, the notorious magnate has been under fire since ProPublica released an exposé on how the world's wealthiest avoid paying their fair share of taxes. Even if you're a big proponent of commercial space travel, you have to admit it's hard to make people care about billionaires in space when there are millions of ordinary people still breaking their backs every day to make ends meet.
Within minutes of the launch, Twitter was comparing Blue Origin to Dr. Evil's penis-shaped rocket in Austin Powers. Others likened Bezos' phallic spacecraft to Flesh Gordon's cartoonish ship. Even former presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard chimed in with some spicy comments, urging the new astronaut to 'do the world a favor' and 'stay up there.' There were, of course, plenty of billionaire bootlickers defending Bezos' honor in the replies, but we're not including that side of the story in this collection of roasts because they're just not as funny. What's the harm in punching up, anyway? Here's some of the spicy things people were saying before and after the launch.
billionaire
It's the end of an era for big business and the memes that love to satirize it. It was confirmed yesterday that Jeff Bezos would step down as Amazon CEO this July, with an expectation he would focus on his other projects.
As famous for his tax-dodging as he is his online empire, his unavoidable presence in the lives of almost everyone in Western society has made him a very memeable man. In fact, even his appearance has been compared to that of the actual Meme Man. Combining a mysterious high profile with a penchant for headline-making unethical business practices, his impact has left plenty of room for dystopian punchlines.
Jeff Bezos occupies a peculiar place in the hierarchy of memeable billionaires. He's not desperate to be cool in a way that draws attention to Elon Musk, and he's too proud for the nerdy false modesty of someone like Bill Gates. Although he's pretty good at giving off sinister robot vibes, nobody does that better than the Zuck himself. Unlike his peers, the focus is less on his public persona and more about the cold hard cash.
As a result, the content in his orbit often focus on the corporation as opposed to the individual, such as its working conditions or anti-union stance. However, there has been a longstanding side hustle in memes about the man, too. You don't get to be that rich without letting the rest of us have a virtual tomato throwing contest, those are the rules.
In the midst of the 2020 presidential elections, there's been a plethora of jokes and memes made about cringey billionaire Michael Bloomberg and his Meme 2020 campaign.
Let's face it, this country is effed in pretty much any potential outcome of the election, so let's just say f*ck it and laugh over some memes about people who are too rich for planet earth.
If you haven't noticed, we're living in some sort of dystopian hell reality right now. People are literally dying of a pandemic, the country is collapsing, and practically everyone is out of work. No one knows what the hell is going to come of any of this so we're all just doing our best to survive. In the mean time, have some memes that poke fun at our corporate overlords!
Let's face it, we're living in a dystopian hellhole right now, because who the hell knows when we'll be out of lockdown. Admittedly, these boring dystopian posts probably won't make you feel any better or distract you from the horrid reality, but they will make you laugh, and that's something, right?
God, it must be really nice to be rich - the freedom to buy what you want when you want it. However, we have to say that making fun of the rich and famous is also pretty great. If you're feelin' a little down about your own bank statement right now, then click here to scroll through some possibly more relatable poor-people tidbits!
Elon, it's time to stop.
Our favorite cringey billionaire is back in action on the music scene with the drop of his new song on Soundcloud titled, "Don't Doubt ur Vibe." We have to say that while it isn't necessarily "RIP Harambe" levels of cringe, it still sort of...misses the mark.
Our theory is that Elon is either incredibly out of touch with the youth, or he does these strange things to troll us. Or maybe he just doesn't give a flying f*ck, because when you have billions of dollars, who really cares?
Anyway, please "enjoy" listening to Lil Elon's new song and scroll through the reaction memes and tweets below. Sorry ahead of time.
Elon Musk is without a doubt the internet's most beloved billionaire. He might be cringey as hell (anyone remember the Harambe song he produced not that long ago?), but we're glad to have the entertainment at our disposal. Scroll down and be sure to check out some more Musky memes here and over at eBaum's World!
Elon Musk just donated $1 million worth of trees to YouTuber MrBeast's fundraiser, which aims to raise $20 million toward climate change efforts. The campaign, called #TeamTrees, is a partnership with the Arbor Day Foundation. Musk, who renamed himself "Treelon" on Twitter, currently holds the record for biggest donation, followed by the likes of MrBeast, Jeffree Star, and...the entire nation of Ukraine.
Dank memers on Reddit have been going crazy meme-ing their favorite billionaire for his (supposed) charitable efforts. Below are some of our favorite examples!
As Americans, we're all probably pretty familiar with the "garage" success story in which successful billionaires started out working in humble conditions, such as in a basement or garage until they made it big. This Twitteruser brought up an interesting different viewpoint!
This thread is pretty eye-opening, but we certainly don't want to dominate the discussion here - what do you all think? Are billionaires like Jeff Bezos and Steve Jobs self-made? Or did they receive a little more help than the rest of us along the way?
