Elon Musk has done a lot of weird stuff over the last few years.

From getting stoned during interviews to rambling on about aliens and cyborgs, he’s certainly never boring.

His weirdest moment, though, happened after a British diver helped rescue 13 people trapped in a cave in Thailand.

Let’s recap.

Fresh off a Twitter dispute over a farting unicorn, he called Vernon Unsworth a ‘pedo guy’.

Then, he apologised for being an idiot under threat of legal action, before he doubled down on his baseless accusations in emails in which he alleged that Unsworth had a ‘child-bride’.

He then admitted, in an interview with the New York Times, that some of his Twitter and other online tirades might have something to do with taking Ambien.

Red wine and drugs aside, Musk found himself in the middle of a defamation case.

Here’s Mashable:

The new court documents shed new light on Musk’s attempts to go after Unsworth, including his reaction to BuzzFeed’s publication of emails Musk sent to Mac claiming Unsworth was a “child rapist” and married a “child bride.” (Musk punctuated the email by calling Mac a “f*cking asshole.”)

According to the documents, just a few days after Musk sent the email to Mac, Musk told his PR agent, “I didn’t expect BuzzFeed to publish an off the record email. My intent was to have them investigate and come to their own conclusions, not publish my email directly. Still, I’m a f*cking idiot.”

You know what they say – the first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem.

He continued, “I… responded in what I felt was off the record. In the past, BuzzFeed has respected emails prefaced with ‘off the record,’ but this time they did not. It was still one of the dumbest things I’ve ever done.”

Fortune reports that the new proceedings come as a response to Musk’s motion to dismiss the case.

The new court filing […] also describes the Tesla CEO’s allegations as baseless, and portrays him as erratic and vindictive.

“[These are] false, heinous accusations by Elon Musk, a thin-skinned billionaire who is obsessed with his public image and who has a history of vindictively and intentionally ignoring truth to maintain that PR-created image,” states the filing, which was first reported by Buzzfeed.

Musk’s attorney is playing hardball by slamming Unsworth’s motives.

“This case is nothing but a money-grab in which Unsworth has hired an agent and pursued profit, publicity and self-promotion at every turn. The truth of his motivations and actions will come out soon enough,” said Alex Spiro of Quinn Emanuel.

This is the same lawyer who approved Musk’s argument that ‘pedo guy’, the slur that started it all, is common South African slang.

It really isn’t that common – at least not in any of the circles I move in.

The moral of the story here is, once again, to put down the red wine and Ambien before ranting on Twitter.

Back to Mashable for a succinct summary of what’s going on:

It’s a completely batshit new chapter to what was already a completely batshit story and it shows no sign of slowing down, either, as the whole thing hurtles toward a potential trial.

As I said at the start, Elon might be a few Ambiens short of a full box, but he’s never boring.

[source:mashable&fortune]