'Iron Man,' to 'Simpsons': Eight of Elon Musk's best cameos
Elon Musk is beyond introduction. Enlisted as the 40th-richest person by Forbes, the 48-year-old sits atop a net worth of $22.3bn. He's the founder, CEO and lead designer of SpaceX, aimed at reducing space transportation costs to enable Mars colonization. He has also co-founded Tesla, an e-car manufacturer. No wonder entertainment industry is so interested in him. Here are some of his famous cameos.
Musk's most famous cameo was probably in Iron Man 2, which lasted 10secs, and had Tony Stark making a snide remark at his proposal, and walking away. Pepper Potts accompanies Stark at the dinner, and this was the conversation between Stark and Musk: Musk: Mr. Stark, I have an idea for an electric jet. Stark: You do? Then we'll make it work. That's it!
For the same film, the SpaceX factory was used as a location for Ivan Vanko/Whiplash's factory. In Iron Man, one can see a Tesla borrowed from Musk. The scene has Stark testing his suit, and an orange roadster can be spotted to his right.
In The Simpsons, Musk had one of the most funniest and wittiest appearances. He makes a guest appearance in The Musk Who Fell to Earth, in an episode that made fun of a lot of his ideas. The episode showed Musk discussing his ideas with Springfield residents, but when things don't pan out the way he had expected, he leaves by a spaceship. Cool!
Howard Wolowitz of The Big Bang Theory (TBBT) and his idol Musk two volunteer at a soup kitchen and serve the homeless Thanksgiving dinner. This happened in November 2015, in the episode titled The Platonic Permutation. The entrepreneur also appeared in Young Sheldon, in A Patch, a Modem, and a Zantac, where he manages to successfully create a landing rocket through reading Sheldon's notebook.
Musk participated in Wacky Races, where he was seen driving a Tesla. This happened in South Park Season 18 episode, Handicar. He was voiced by creator Matt Stone. However, in Members Only (Season 20), Musk voiced his character, where he was seen giving the tour at the SpaceX building. He also appeared in Not Funny and The End of Serialization as We Know It.
In 2015, an environmental documentary titled Racing Extinction featured Musk and a custom Tesla Model S. The car was designed to help project images of critically endangered species onto public buildings, including the Empire State Building and the Vatican. The film received one Academy Award nomination, for Best Original Song, one Emmy nomination, and was premiered at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival.
Musk meets Bryan Cranston of Breaking Bad fame at a party in a bar, have a talk and leaves the scene. Don't know if this ever happened in real life, but it sure did happen in the 2016 romantic comedy film Why Him? Bryan played Ned Flemming, whose daughter is in love with Laird Mayhew, an eccentric, foul-mouthed CEO of a video game company.
In the 2013 action exploitation film, Machete Kills, we see Musk absolutely in the end, bidding goodbye to Machete (Danny Trejo), who is about to board a SpaceX Falcon 9 v1.0 rocket to depart to Luther Voz's (Mel Gibson) Station in Earth's orbit. It is an appearance lasting few seconds probably, but when it is SpaceX, how can Musk be behind.
