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.
space
Money may not be able to buy you happiness, but it can get you a lot of flashy consumer goods. That's basically the same thing, right? The uber-rich can afford pretty much anything they desire, so when it gets revealed that don't always live in luxury, it can be a little disappointing. Sure, it may be down to personal choice, but if you want to make that kind of money in the first place it makes sense that you want the lifestyle to match.
The latest instance of this issue sparking debate has come from Richard Branson, who recently shared a photo of himself and Elon Musk in his kitchen before the flight of his Unity 22 spacecraft. The image was picked up by @preachyspice on Twitter, who was more focused on the background details than the trip he was about to make. According to her, it was his kitchen that needed all the attention, as she trashed his "googly eyed finishings". Numerous people agreed with her, although some also argued that his lack of concern for interior design was simply part of the formula for becoming financially successful.
Musk himself chipped in to say that Branson was only renting the property, and therefore the design choices were not his personal responsibility. Even then, you might think that he would choose a place with a little more panache. Then we could focus on the real problem: having to see Elon Musk's feet.
Clueless billionaires have been in the news a lot lately. While people are always talking about how they manage to avoid paying taxes, lately Jeff Bezos and Virgin's Richard Branson are receiving attention for their desire to explore space. Branson managed to beat Bezos to that goal just this Sunday, but both of these ridiculously rich guys are being accused of being both wasteful and selfish. One of the most popular arguments is that this money could have gone a long way to help people who are suffering on Earth.
In response to all the space travel criticism, Elon Musk decided to tweet a disjointed, nearly poem-like message.
those who attack space
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 13, 2021
maybe don't realize that
space represents hope
for so many people
The tweet was not well-received. People quickly jumped to drag Musk for the tweet, accusing him of being clueless and tone deaf. And, of course, accusing him of being a bad poet. Even Marianne Williamson chimed in, basically to tell Musk that his priorities were wrong. While we're not ones to join a hate parade, it definitely fun to watch Elon Musk sabotage himself on Twitter. And we're pretty damn sure this won't be the last time that happens.
Remember about a year ago when everything in the world seemed to be going wrong and we were too desensitized to care about news about aliens? Let's jog your memory. After a long history of denying the existence of UFOs, the Pentagon confirmed the authenticity of UFO footage captured by the Navy in 2015. And according to officials in a recent 60 Minutes special, these videos document only a fraction of the Navy's regular sightings of 'unidentified aerial phenomena.'
At one point, former director of the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program Lue Elizondo says, point-blank, 'What I'm telling you, it's real. The question is, what is it? What are its intentions? What are its capabilities?' [Cue The X-Files theme]
Unsurprisingly, Twitter has gone bonkers with the memes, jokes and hot takes in reaction to the 60 Minutes special. While many are rolling their eyes as they tweet 'I knew it,' others are newly skeptical of the existence of extraterrestrials by virtue of the fact that, well, you can't always trust the government. We can't wait to see the upcoming official UFO report—it's gonna be out of this world. Until then, keep scrolling to see what everyone's saying about these new developments.
We're only halfway through July and we feel confident saying that these astronauts & gun memes will be the meme of the month. It was making some serious strides on Reddit and Instagram when we covered the meme just two weeks ago. But now it's truly gotten out of control. The examples range from self-aware and meta to absolutely ridiculously dumb. The versatility makes for some seriously good scrolling, and that's exactly what we're here to provide you with today.
If you are at all invested in meme culture, you've probably see this meme:
The absurd idea that all of planet Earth is Ohio has been an overwhelmingly successful image macro, and, as we've learned in the last few weeks, has inspired many equally absurd variations. Some are more inventive than others, replacing "Ohio Earth" with references to games or anime instead of just another place. Our favorite? Easily the meme that suggests the world is just chicken tenders. We could go for some right now.
Y'all know how much we loved the "Ight Imma Head Out" meme featuring Spongebob. That's why we're fans of this new dank meme, known as "Adios Wormhole" which features a sad guy about to peace out through a wormhole. Scroll down for some of our favorite examples, and as always, check out Know Your Meme for even more!
It seems like just yesterday that the film Interstellar came out, but can you believe it was actually all the way back in 2014? Yeah, neither can we. If you were a fan of the film (or even if you weren't), we think you'll enjoy these memes, in which Matthew McConaughey's character Cooper says, "This little maneuver's gonna cost us 51 years."
Check out more from Know Your Meme!
Sometimes it feels a bit like beating a dead horse with all of this flat-earther trolling, but it's just too easy. Why are there so many people in this world who refuse to believe in science? We'll probably never fully know. So anyway, please enjoy these ridiculous flat-earther memes that favor science!
When you start thinking about your life in the grand scheme of things, nothing truly matters because we're all just tiny specks of dust existing on a stupid little rock that's floating in circles around a slightly bigger rock that happens to be on fire. Anyway, ignore that existential bit and enjoy some fascinating nerdy facts about space!
Well, it appears that we're living in the future now, as the first space crime ever may have just been committed.
Astronaut Anne McClain has found herself in hot water after being accused of identity theft from her estranged wife Summer Worden.
Sounds like a fairly regular crime until you learn that McClain had accessed Worden's bank account from outer space, making for an unprecedented case with unclear jurisdiction.
While the legal authorities try to sort that sh*t out, please enjoy the following Twitter reactions!
When Hugo-Award winning writer Mary Kowal penned a New York Times essay about gender bias in space, she did not expect a wealth of responses claiming that women we kept from space travel due to a lack of adequate bathroom technology. The concept that only women would face issues relieving themselves was so preposterous that Kowal took to Twitter in hopes of enlightening the masses with some serious space potty history.
In the thread, Kowal manages to destroy some seriously absurd bathroom-related gender bias and teach us a whole lot about the process of pooping and peeing in zero gravity. It's an informative yet wild and wildly funny ride, and really leaves us with the desire to observe a glove of purple piss floating out of a space toilet. If Kowal schooled you as hard as she did us, give her a follow on Twitter. She's got loads more wisdom to share.
