[imagesource: Joe Skipper / Reuters]

Elon Musk and Twitter have always been a sketchy combination.

It would take too long to list every mishap and ridiculous tweet, so we’ll summarise with a reminder that even Tesla took out a court order against him to stop him from talking about the company online.

Then a pandemic came along, and as usual, he had to throw in his two cents.

He started out by stating “the coronavirus panic is dumb”.

Some sound scientific insight, there.

He then moved on to suggest that chloroquine should be considered as a treatment, followed shortly by a tweet declaring that children were “essentially immune”.

There’s more, but let’s just say that he hasn’t been covering himself in glory.

His latest quip, however, caught the attention of a bioinformatics scientist who specialises in analysing complex data, Dr Emma Bell.

Here’s Elon’s tweet before we continue:

And Dr Bell’s response:

Rapid antigen tests trade sensitivity for speed. They return a result in <30 minutes, but can only detect COVID-19 when you’re absolutely riddled with it. What’s bogus is that Space Karen didn’t read up on the test before complaining to his millions of followers. pic.twitter.com/a1Snfpm03h

— Emma Bell PhD (@emmabell42) November 14, 2020

Owned.

Per MarketWatch, Dr Bell’s tweet, which has drawn upwards of 20 000 retweets, has afforded Musk a new name: Space Karen.

If you’re unfamiliar with the ‘Karen’, it typically refers to a white woman using her privilege to get her way. You’ll know you’re in the presence of a Karen when you hear the words “I’d like to speak to the manager”. Please see the ‘Karen’ memes for further info.

The man formerly known as Elon Musk has inspired his own set of memes:

Just saw that #SpaceKaren is trending and I’m delighted with why pic.twitter.com/NmfkglegtL

— Chris Partridge (@C_Partridge) November 16, 2020

We did it guys! #SpaceKaren pic.twitter.com/qj8Zsg5uPb

— MP Capital (@Marshmall0wpeep) November 16, 2020

Did someone say #SpaceKaren is trending? 🤔😂 pic.twitter.com/6FrmzUzN27

— The Meme-Industrial Complex (@MemeIndustrial) November 16, 2020

#SpaceKaren logo now available in two styles pic.twitter.com/yemMnn3tmX

— Pavel A. Samsonov (@PavelASamsonov) November 16, 2020

My Space Karen submission.#SpaceKaren #ElonMusk pic.twitter.com/ltriVI8fk1

— blink_FPS (@fps_blink) November 16, 2020

Head here for more.

Over the weekend, Space Karen was forced to stay home while SpaceX launched four astronauts to the International Space Station, marking the first fully operational crewed mission for SpaceX.

This follows on from a test mission in May that carried NASA astronauts Douglas Hurley and Robert Behnken, both test pilots, to the space station for a brief stay.

Why? Because, according to him, he “most likely had a moderate case of COVID-19”.

That aside, Space Karen is laughing all the way to the bank.

According to the BBC, he is now poised to become the world’s third-richest person.

Tesla’s share price surged about 14% in New York following the news it was being added to the index. Given Mr Musk’s 20% stake in Tesla his net worth rose to $117.5bn, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

His wealth has jumped $90bn this year as Tesla’s share price has continued to rise.

Well, you can’t be a Karen without privilege.

[source:marketwatch&bbc]