【Poor Things】

In space,Poor Things no one can hear you laugh.

Even so, SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk seems to have taken a moment away from his many, many well-documented and serious business ventures to focus on something a little lighter: comedy. So reports The Daily Beast, which today noted that the not-reclusive billionaire has been secretly hiring up staff from The Onion for an as-of-yet unknown project.

Yes, The Onion. As in the satirical publication/national treasure.

According to The Daily Beast, Musk snapped up managing editor Ben Berkley and former editor in chief Cole Bolton. They were later joined in LA by three now-former Onion writers and an unnamed editor.

“It’s pretty obvious that comedy is the next frontier after electric vehicles, space exploration, and brain-computer interfaces,” Musk told the publication. “Don’t know how anyone’s not seeing this.”

It is unclear if Musk plans to launch a satirical news site, or if he's just trying to train AI to make better jokes, but either way this is quite the surprise move — and that's saying a lot for a man who sold novelty flamethrowers.

But perhaps (just perhaps) we shouldn't be so shocked. Musk is known for his propensity to make seemingly rash decisions — Boring Company, anyone? — and practically effused for Rick and Mortyin a November Rolling Stoneinterview. His love of comedy plus his love of weird shit might be all the motivation an Ambien-popping entrepreneur needs to expand his empire in an atypical direction.

And hey, this could end up being a very good thing. Musk and his various companies have gone a long way toward driving the future of space travel and electric cars — a similar investment in satire might just stave off our collective exasperation in these troubled times.

It seems that, at least for Musk, comedy is the future. And what can we say? We completely agree.

UPDATE: March 14, 2018, 2:08 p.m. PDT Apparently, if Musk's Twitter account is to be believed, his new "media empire" will be called "Thud!"

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It is very unclear if Musk is just trolling everyone, however.