Elon Musk’s Bedside Table Tweet Opens the Meme Floodgates

A tweet by @murdertherapy featuring Pieter Claesz, “Vanitas Still Life” (1630) (all screenshots Rhea Nayyar/Hyperallergic)

On Monday, November 28, Elon Musk tweeted a photo captioned “My bedside table,” including four diet coke cans, a 3D-printed replica revolver from a video game, a wooden pistol box with the painting of “Washington Crossing the Delaware” (1851), and some other paraphernalia sitting on top of a soda-stained, Formica-tiled tabletop. Musk’s questionable curation of objects has sparked an influx of equally curated meme posts from Twitter users who have been clowning him for the last month after his acquisition of the website went south within days.

Tweet via @sachee

The most popular meme response so far subdues Musk’s Diet Coke motif in favor of four bottles of Pepto Bismol Ultra and a collection of wrapped Smarties candies, along with a sensual but powerful portrait of George Costanza from Seinfeld. I personally find this more relatable than Musk’s image with the bougie glass water bottle, so I guess I just don’t have that billionaire mindset. Oh well.

Tweet via @iamTannenbaum

There was an assortment of Garfield-related memes that were floating around independently and beneath various threads. Frankly, I think this picture is a flex as that’s a pretty extensive collection. No fake fans here …

Tweet via @ecto_fun

We always welcome a Twin Peaks reference around these parts, and this one really hit the nail on the head. I think there’s a parallel between the number of cigarette butts here and the number of ring-shaped soda stains on Musk’s table …

Tweet via @ternary_logic featuring Adriaen van Nieulandt, “Vanitas Still Life” (1636)

Art history Twitter also capitalized on this meme dump with some quintessential, revered still-life paintings and imagery. Vanitas still lives were waiting for this moment in web infamy.

Tweet via @HottyCouture featuring François Boucher, “Madame de Pompadour” (1756)

The Queen of Rococo absolutely bodied this meme … You want to talk about curation? Sheesh.

Tweet via @Ekanaut

Tea and cake, anyone? I’m not sure if I’m jealous that someone has this table, or if I’m jealous of the table itself … I think it’s both.

Tweet via @sheepstan_

This one has to be my favorite. Perhaps this is just some wholesome eye-bleach after scrolling past dozens upon dozens of tweets of sex toy memes under this tag that I’m sparing you from. I also just like the innocent jab that a literal sheep fan account makes at Elon Musk’s Twitter activity.