In a teaser for an upcoming 60 Minutes segment, Elon Musk told veteran CBS journalist Leslie Stahl: Weed? Who? Never heard of him.
Stahl, in probing Musk about his many foibles in the past year—which include accusing a rescue diver of being a pedophile, vacating his post as chairman of Tesla, and being accused of union-busting—asked bluntly, “what about the pot?”
“I do not smoke pot. As anybody who watched that podcast could tell, I have no idea how to smoke pot, or anything,” Musk told Stahl, referring to his guest appearance on episode 1169 of the Joe Rogan Experience, “I don’t know how to smoke anything, honestly.”
Is it possible the guy who is currently being investigated by NASA for smoking pot publicly, and who tweeted the only known weed joke to generate a fraud charge... knows absolutely nothing about weed?
Musk denied being baked at the time of the infamous “funding secured” tweet to the New York Times, saying “Weed is not helpful for productivity. There’s a reason for the word ‘stoned.’ You just sit there like a stone on weed.” You know, the way someone who has absolutely never been high would describe it.
In rewatching the footage of the podcast, Musk seems largely confused by the concept, asking Rogan “So is that a joint? Or is it a cigar?” When Rogan explains it’s a combination of marijuana and tobacco (Elon, if you’re reading, we call that a “spliff”), he responds, “I think I tried one once” before proceeding to take one hit without inhaling.
I’m not especially interested in passing judgement on anyone’s drug habits or lack thereof, Musk included. But I believe him that he truly is clueless when it comes to smoking pot—which makes it that much sadder he lost $20 million and the chairmanship of his electric car company over it.
The full interview will air on Sunday to the over-65 demographic, where he probably won’t say anything else interesting but countless grandkids across the nation will be forced to explain over the holidays who “Elam Monk” is.