What Is The 'Masterful Gambit, Sir' Meme Related To Elon Musk?

It's no secret that Tesla and Twitter owner Elon Musk is extremely popular with the people who like him and very, very unpopular with the people who don't. This has set up a very fun meme dynamic where the Musk haters can skewer his legion of stans whenever Musk or one of his businesses inevitably screws up in sometimes hilarious and dangerous ways, and as of April 2024, no meme encapsulates how Musk haters view Musk lovers than "Masterful gambit, sir."

What Is "Masterful Gambit, Sir?"

The phrase "Masterful Gambit, Sir" originated in a tweet by @EsqTim, who in July of 2022, lampooned Musk defenders by imagining them dutifully praising the entrepreneur after he has an, uh, accident with his car.

At this point, the sycophantic relationship between Musk fans online and the defender had long been established. The idea of a "Tesla Cult," aka fervent defenders of Elon's self-driving car company despite the reported flaws with the vehicles, had circulated for years.

Also by 2022, Musk also had a history of his innovations generating headlines for their perceived failures, and the rumors of his eventual purchase of Twitter had begun to circulate. Still, he maintained a fervent fandom online, and as he became more of a driver of discourse on the site, so did his fans.

Thus, the "Masterful gambit, sir" tweet earned a respectable amount of spread at the time it was posted, as in the eyes of many, it nailed the dynamic of Musk and his fandom at the time. It would only grow more apt over the following years.

How Has "Masterful Gambit, Sir" Spread?

As much of the world saw in real-time, Elon Musk didn't have the greatest 2023. This made the disconnect between Musk's numerous controversies and failures and his fans' ardent adoration all the more perplexing, which of course led to more opportunities for the "Masterful gambit, sir" meme to be employed.

For example, his erratic behavior towards Twitter and his apparent primary focus on his new app led Tesla stock to plummet. Hi removal of Twitter's old verification system led businesses to flee the app for the perceived brand risk, and in some cases, refuse to pay the exorbitant verification fee he wanted to charge.

To this day, any headline that mentions a failure or controversy surrounding Musk or his companies will likely be quote-tweeted at least once with the "Masterful gambit, sir" meme — and also by Musk stans defending him against any criticism.

---

For the full history of "Masterful gambit, sir," be sure to check out Know Your Meme's encyclopedia entry for more information.