About

My Tesla Robot Staring refers to an exploitable reaction and caption meme featuring an image from the 2004 science fiction movie I, Robot, specifically using a still of the character Sonny. The meme is typically used to joke about how a Tesla Optimus robot might react to difficult, unnecessary or uncomfortable tasks people would assign to it. Some notable meme examples include, "My Tesla Robot when I ask it to make me a seafood boil at 3am," and, "My Tesla robot after I tell him to take my drugs thru security for me." The meme gained traction after an updated model of the Tesla Bot debuted in October 2024.

Origin

On October 10th, 2024, Tesla unveiled its new Optimus robot at the "We, Robot" event, with robots demonstrating how they can complete household tasks, run errands and even bartend.^[1]

Also in October 2024, a scene from the 2004 movie I, Robot in which the robot Sonny says, "No," became a notable meme on TikTok, as seen in an October 1st, 2024, TikTok^[2] by user @kayleevibesx that gathered over 4 million views in two weeks.

The earliest known use of the I, Robot scene as an exploitable meme made in reference to Tesla's Optimus Robot is an October 15th, 2024, post by X / Twitter user @Drebae_^[3] that read, "My Tesla Robot when I ask it to make me a seafood boil at 3am," gathering over 300,000 likes in two days.

Spread

More jokes about people vowing to put the Tesla Robot in uncomfortable situations continued to crop up in October 2024, as seen in an October 15th, 2024, post by X user @Hoodville_^[4] that read, "My Tesla robot when I ask it to hold my switch after we get pulled over," gathering over 87,000 likes in two days.

Memes about the Tesla Robot spread to TikTok as well during the same timeframe, with TikToker^[5] @moonwater35 posting a video on October 15th joking about making her robot do her hair. The post gathered over 600,000 plays and 150,000 likes in two days.

Also on October 15th, TikToker^[6] @joe.matthew.m posted a video that read, "The face my $30,000 Tesla Robot makes when I start my first command with, 'If you get caught just blow yourself up bro.'" The post gathered over 400,000 plays and 44,000 likes in two days.

On October 16th, 2024, X^[7] user @kofromatatf posted an edit of the robot from I, Robot waiting in line and looking angry. The caption on the post read, "My Tesla Robot mad at me b/c I made it camp out overnight for the new Air Jordan 43." The post gathered over 33,000 likes in a day.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References