Elon Musk gag fires up sales
Tesla chief executive and inventor Elon Musk has tried his hand at building underground transportation, revolutionizing space technology and bringing electric vehicles to the masses.
So why fully unleash his inner adolescent and give flame-throwers a go?
The Boring Company — the same outlet Musk founded to disrupt traffic congestion with tunnelling — began selling flame-throwers on the weekend at $500 a pop.
“Guaranteed to liven up any party!” the company’s website mischievously proclaims. “World’s safest flame-thrower!”
When it comes to sales, however, the hand-held fire-breather is no joke. In a matter of days, according to Musk’s Twitter account, the Boring Company pulled in $5 million, selling 10,000 units.
If it feels like some sort of running gag, that’s because it started out as one, with Musk noting last year that the company would begin hawking flame-throwers once it had sold 50,000 hats.
Nearly two months later, a seemingly playful joke turned oddly real with Musk noting that a flame-thrower could come in handy.
He tweeted on Jan. 28: “When the zombie apocalypse happens, you’ll be glad you bought a flamethrower. Works against hordes of the undead or your money back!”
“Don’t do this,” Musk wrote on an Instagram video of him pretending to turn a flame-thrower on a camera person.
“Also, I want to be clear that a flame-thrower is a super terrible idea. Definitely don’t buy one. Unless you like fun.”
What does someone not dislodging enemy soldiers from spider holes in the Second World War’s Pacific theatre do with a flame-thrower in 2018?
Musk claims his flame-throwers — which appear to expel a glowing, metre-long stream of sizzling terror — are good for roasting nuts.
Despite being phased out by the Defence Department decades ago, flame-throwers are unregulated in almost every state.
As The Washington Post’s Jessica Contrera reported in 2015, flame-throwers face limited regulation because they aren’t considered a “firearm,” which — unlike a flame-thrower — is defined by its ability to expel a projectile using an explosive.