About

"I Am Become Meme" is a quote spoken by Elon Musk during the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on February 20th, 2025. The statement is a reference to J. Robert Oppenheimer's memorable quote, "Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds." Musk's quote went viral on social media shortly after Musk said it, with many finding it cringeworthy. Musk's decision to go on stage in sunglasses, supposedly a reference to his D.O.G.E. AI avatar, also became the subject of discourse online, with some spreading unfounded rumors that he was high on drugs during the speech and covering his eyes.

Origin

On February 20th, 2025, Elon Musk spoke at CPAC 2025, largely about D.O.G.E.. At the start of his appearance, Musk walked onto the stage in sunglasses and was handed a chainsaw, which he posed with before sitting down. About 01:30 into his appearance, Musk said, "I am become meme. Yeah. Pretty much. I'm just living the meme. There's living the dream and there's living the meme, that's pretty much what's happening, you know. DOGE started out as a meme. Think about it. And now, it's real. Isn't that crazy? But it's cool."

The speech was streamed on the NewsNation YouTube^[1] channel, garnering over 43,000 views in about a day.

Some people online observed that a year earlier, on February 19th, 2024, X^[2] user @AdrianDittmann also posted, "I am become meme." Adrian Dittmann has been theorized by many as being Elon Musk's alt or sock puppet account.

Spread

On February 20th, 2025, X^[3] user @Acyn shared the clip of Musk saying the line, garnering over 5,600 likes and 2,600 reposts in a day.

That day, X^[4] user @brndxix quoted the post, writing, "genuine frown on my face man," garnering over 84,000 likes in a day. Minutes later, the video was posted to the subreddit /r/WeirdGOP,^[5] garnering over 150 upvotes in a day.

Minutes later, X^[6] user @MargBarAmerica quoted the video, writing, "[fucked up on so many drugs that you can’t show even your eyes to the public while baby momma #3 is begging you online to save your sick child] I am become meme🤣," garnering over 132,000 likes in a day.

The post implied Musk was allegedly on drugs during the appearance and alludes to recent posts by his ex-wife Grimes publically asking him to respond to her about an important medical need regarding their child.^[7]

Also on February 20th, 2025, X^[8] user @BigMeanInternet posted, "You have to be so unloved to get to this point without someone making you get help," garnering over 7,500 likes in a day.

Alex Hirsch, the creator of Gravity Falls, commented on X,^[9] "This guy is so fucking embarrassing. I thought if we ever got overthrown by a tech overlord they’d at least be suave or cool or self aware instead of the most insecure tryhard midlife crisis dork sweating through his hair-plugs begging people to like him," garnering over 53,000 likes in a day.

Later that night, Elon Musk posted, "I am become meme" on X^[10] in response to a post about Musk recreating his "DOGE A.I. avatar" in real life at CPAC, garnering over 122,000 likes in a day.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References