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- Elon Musk said in a Monday night tweet that he recently recorded a video that will go up on the YouTube channel for PewDiePie, the most popular video creator on the platform.
- Musk first floated the idea of making an appearance on PewDiePie’s "Meme Review" video series, where the creator reviews popular memes, back in January.
- Unless this is all an elaborate troll, it sounds like Musk finally found time to host the show — with some help from "Rick and Morty" co-creator Justin Roiland.
- PewDiePie currently holds the title as the most subscribed-to channel on YouTube, but his throne has been threatened in the last few months by Bollywood production company T-Series.
We may soon see a collaboration between two of the biggest troll-loving personalities on the internet: Tesla CEO Elon Musk and YouTuber PewDiePie.
Musk, whose previous tweets have landed him in major legal trouble and also at the top of Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey’s favorite list of tweeters, said on Monday night that he had just recorded a segment for "Meme Review," a recurring video series that PewDiePie hosts on YouTube.
This isn’t the first time Musk and PewDiePie have interacted on Twitter. Musk first floated the idea of hosting PewDiePie’s meme-focused show in a January tweet.
PewDiePie himself responded and invited Musk to host an episode of Meme Review. At the time, however, it was tough to gauge whether Musk would actually make an appearance as guest host or whether it would turn out to be an elaborate troll, or something he’d like to do but his busy schedule wouldn’t allow. A video from early February didn’t seem to give fans much hope, as PewDiePie said they would have to wait until "the next millennia" for Musk to make an appearance.
In a series of back-and-forth messages, Musk offered up an excuse a few weeks later as to why he wasn’t able to host (he was recently in Norway), and PewDiePie seemed to understand, but it sounded like the saga might be over.
But Musk was back with an update a week later, saying in a tweet Monday that he recorded the show with "Rick and Morty" co-creator Justin Roiland. Business Insider has reached out to PewDiePie in an effort to confirm that Musk and Roiland will host an upcoming episode of Meme review, but have yet to hear back.
PewDiePie is fighting to keep his crown as the most popular YouTuber in the world
Between Musk’s Twitter following and PewDiePie’s YouTube subscribers, the two have a combined 110 million fans. While both have grown their audiences and fanbases considerably through their use of social media, it’s also landed them both in serious trouble before too.
Musk is known for an active presence on Twitter, where he’s revealed breaking news about his companies, clashed with high-profile figures, and sent out "false and misleading statements" that landed him in major trouble with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
Meanwhile, PewDiePie runs the most popular YouTube channel in the world, with more than 86 million subscribers. PewDiePie, whose real name is Felix Kjellberg, has a history of making offensive remarks in his videos. His actions led to YouTube cancelling a season of his original series set to air on YouTube Premium.
Yet PewDiePie has seen his subscriber base spike by 700% over the last few months. The massive influx in subscribers can be attributed to PewDiePie’s bid to maintain his role as YouTube’s most-subscribed-to channel, a title he’s been in jeopardy of losing to Bollywood music channel T-Series.
Read more: Despite predictions and controversy, PewDiePie has yet to lose his spot as YouTube’s ‘biggest star’
Since the race between the two popular channels ensued, PewDiePie has found help from fans and fellow YouTubers that want the star to keep his crown. A hacker altered a page on The Wall Street Journal’s website to say the paper was supporting PewDiePie and people should subscribe. Hundreds of thousands of printers globally printed messages in support of him. As many as 5,000 smart TVs and Chromecast devices were hacked and showed messages encouraging people to subscribe to PewDiePie.
A YouTuber with millions of subscribers himself has also been heavily promoting PewDiePie. Jimmy Donaldson, better known as Mr Beast, purchased radio ads and billboards promoting PewDiePie, and even appeared in a stunt supporting the YouTuber at this year’s Super Bowl.
On Twitter, Donaldson has also interacted with Musk, and tried to further the idea of having him on PewDiePie’s channel. He said that in return for Musk appearing on PewDiePie’s video, he would pay him $5 and also buy a Tesla.
As of Tuesday afternoon, PewDiePie held the lead above T-Series by around 15,000 subscribers, according to Social Blade.
With such a small gap, Musk may have filmed his episode of Meme Review just in time.
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See Also:
- Tesla employees fear for their jobs more than workers at any other major tech firm
- Jack Dorsey says Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is ‘mastering’ Twitter, but Elon Musk is his favourite tweeter
- A 13-year-old girl reportedly makes over $1,000 a day creating ASMR videos as YouTube works to keep its child stars safe
SEE ALSO: Despite predictions and controversy, PewDiePie has yet to lose his spot as YouTube’s ‘biggest star’
Source: Business Insider – pleskin@businessinsider.com (Paige Leskin)