Space Karen

English

Etymology

Coined with reference to Musk's company SpaceX and the pejorative sense of Karen (“a person exhibiting an exaggerated sense of entitlement”).

Proper noun

Space Karen

1. (derogatory) A nickname for South African-born tech entrepreneur Elon Musk.

   Synonyms: Elmo, Elno, Elongated Muskrat, Phony Stark

   • 2022 November 11, Chris Trottier (@atomicpoet@mastodon.social), Mastodon‎^[1]:

     By the way, journalists shouldn't use Twitter DMs either. They're not safe. Especially with Space Karen in charge.

   • [2022 November 18, Anthony Cuthbertson, “Elon Musk ‘space karen’ insult projected onto deserted Twitter HQ”, in The Independent, London:

     A stream of insults aimed at new Twitter boss Elon Musk has been projected onto the company’s San Francisco headquarters after workers were locked out of their offices. Insults included “supreme parasite”, “mediocre manchild”, “worthless billionaire” and “space karen”, according to footage posted online.]

   • 2022 December 16, MrMajestikness (@MrMajestikness@mastodon.social), Mastodon‎^[2]:

     Watching Space Karen burn Twitter down is actually quite funny 😂

   • 2023 February 1, Jason Allen (@JAllen@mstdn.social), Mastodon‎^[3]:

     it’s one of the key reasons I left the night Space Karen took over.

   • 2023 December 2, The Chris Wallace Show, spoken by Kara Swisher, via CNN:

     WALLACE: Kara, your boy, Elon Musk, made a lot of news,
     SWISHER: Not my boy.
     WALLACE: Hit me with your best shot.
     SWISHER: Well, I’m trying to think of something that. So that Space Karen doesn’t sue me. So, let me say he’s troubled.

   • [2024 June, Jon Honeyball, “Nailing down which device had gone rogue was the sort of wasted morning that consumes many coffee beans”, in PC Pro, page 113:

     Over on the ever-lovely PC Pro podcast […] we refer to him as “Space Karen”. But despite what you might think of Mr Musk, it’s clear that he has assembled teams of extremely capable engineers in the various companies that he runs.]

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:Space Karen.