How Tim Heidecker trolled Elon Musk with a tweet

It’s almost impossible that you’re first learning this from this article, but here goes: Elon Musk, the richest person in the world, recently bought the social media website Twitter. Since the purchase, Musk has been quick to announce sweeping changes to the platform. Among the upcoming changes will be alterations to how Twitter moderates content.

Seemingly as a way to promote this upcoming lowered moderation on Twitter, Musk tweeted out that comedy would be returning to the platform.

Tim Heidecker is half of the famous comedy duo Tim and Eric, and is also a large part of the extended comedy universe of On Cinema, at The Cinema. He is known for making deliberately absurd statements as part of his humor – statements which have been picked up as real in the past.

A few days after Musk gained control of Twitter, Heidecker wrote a series of tweets claiming that Donald Trump had died “in a sad and sick way (not as a dog, but this reporting could change soon).” While Trump was clearly caught directly in the crossfire of the tweet, it was clear that the main point was to make fun of Musk.

The tweet was quickly given a tag clarifying that “Tim Heidecker is a comedian, not a reporter. This is satire.”

Heidecker also joked that, “many are using #TrumpIsDead spread the word. Many are sad by the news.” In the next few days, #TrumpIsDead trended at number one on Twitter as people joined in. Neither Musk nor Trump responded. Soon, news articles began to circulate to discuss the story and Heidecker tweeted a follow-up further demonstrating what he was making fun of.

While some have called this a direct test for Musk’s new content moderation system, it doesn’t appear that the transition to a new system has even occurred yet. It seems more like Heidecker did this to mock the idea that Musk has now come in to save comedy online.

Whether or not you like either Musk’s decisions or Heidecker’s pointed criticism, it is clear that this is a discussion that will not be over any time soon. Musk has declared himself on the side of comedy, and it remains to be seen if comedians agree with him. Some people who appear to support Musk’s attempt to lower moderation on Twitter, have said that Heidecker should himself be removed from the platform for his statements. It’s hard to see where the line in the sand should be with satire, and it’s a debate that’s going to the Supreme Court right now. But if you want to side with comedy, be prepared for some jokes that you don’t like to be out there.