Stephen King's ongoing back-and-forth with Elon Musk took an unexpected turn that saw them competing to see who told the better jokes of the two on Thursday.
Author King is often critical of Musk, particularly following the billionaire businessman's 2022 acquisition of Twitter, which he has since renamed X. Musk is often known to publicly respond when the It writer mentions him and his platform.
This week, the two turned their exchange of words into an unofficial competition to deduce who was the funnier of the two when King posted a joke on his X account.
In the midst of posting jokes to his timeline, King wrote: "The Italian chef died. You could say he pasta-way. Can Elon tell jokes like that? I'm thinking no."
Further displaying his comedic prowess, King shared another post that read: "I dated an apostrophe in high school, but it was too possessive. Thank you, ladies and germs. Thank you very much."
Rising to the challenge less than an hour later, Musk responded with a joke.
"What do you call a Great Dane eating a small piece of ham in a little village?" the Tesla CEO asked. "Hamlet eating hamlet in a hamlet."
For good measure, Musk followed up with another joke in response to King.
Read the joke in question: "My roommate says I'm a delusional schizophrenic. Jokes on him, I don't have a roommate!"
While the two appeared to have a lighthearted exchange, one X user objected to King challenging Musk's wit, writing: "Unlike you, @elonmusk is actually funny Let that sink in."
When Musk first acquired X, he arrived at the San Francisco headquarters carrying a sink. He captioned a photo of the moment: "Entering Twitter HQ—let that sink in!"
"Oh, snap!" King responded to the X user's criticism.
On Wednesday, King got a response from Musk after the writer reiterated his opposition to Twitter being rebranded to X.
He wrote: "Twitter-Twitter-Twitter. Sorry, Elon. You bought it. You're stuck with it."
The post caught the attention of Musk, who responded: "It hurts our feelings when you deadname."
The term "deadname" is more commonly used to refer to the name a transgender person was given at birth but no longer wishes to go by.
Back in November 2022—weeks after Musk officially acquired X—King expressed his dissatisfaction with the direction the microblogging platform had taken.
"I think Elon Musk is a visionary," King wrote. "Almost single-handedly, he's changed the way Americans think about automobiles. I have a Tesla and love it. That said, he's been a terrible fit for Twitter. He appears to be making it up as he goes along."
"Suggestions are welcome Mr. [King]," Musk responded, using a crown emoji in place of King's last name.
Another user wrote in the thread that Musk should invite King to X's headquarters in San Francisco to "have a face-to-face conversation," a tweet to which Musk simply replied: "He is invited!"
Musk has commented on a number of King's X posts regarding himself and X as a whole. A few days after the CEO initially took over X, the author wrote: "I think I liked Twitter better in the pre-Musk days. Less controversy, more fun."
The business owner responded playfully with a ghost emoji. "I'm still a fan of you [to be honest]," Musk said in a follow-up post. King reportedly did not respond, and Musk later deleted the comment.
In November 2022, Musk reiterated his admiration for King, when he said in an X post that the renowned writer is "one of most creative people on Earth. While I may not agree with everything he says, I do actually want to hear it."
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