X

Elon Musk trolls 'virgin' Fortnite players, game fights back

The billionaire businessman and the hit game had a brief but entertaining Twitter fight.

Gael Cooper
CNET editor Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, a journalist and pop-culture junkie, is co-author of "Whatever Happened to Pudding Pops? The Lost Toys, Tastes and Trends of the '70s and '80s," as well as "The Totally Sweet '90s." She's been a journalist since 1989, working at Mpls.St.Paul Magazine, Twin Cities Sidewalk, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and NBC News Digital. She's Gen X in birthdate, word and deed. If Marathon candy bars ever come back, she'll be first in line.
Expertise Breaking news, entertainment, lifestyle, travel, food, shopping and deals, product reviews, money and finance, video games, pets, history, books, technology history, generational studies. Credentials
  • Co-author of two Gen X pop-culture encyclopedia for Penguin Books. Won "Headline Writer of the Year"​ award for 2017, 2014 and 2013 from the American Copy Editors Society. Won first place in headline writing from the 2013 Society for Features Journalism.
Gael Cooper
2 min read

2018 just keeps getting weirder. Tesla and SpaceX boss Elon Musk and the online video game Fortnite had a little battle of their own on Twitter on Friday.

Musk started the jabbing by tweeting out what MarketWatch.com said appeared to be an edited screenshot of one of that site's stories, with the headline, "Elon Musk buys Fortnite and deletes it," and a supposed Musk quote reading, "I had to save these kids from eternal virginity."

Cracked Musk in his tweet, "Had to (be) done ur welcome."

But Fortnite's official Twitter account found a way to hit back at the billionaire businessman, grabbing a story saying it would take SpaceX a decade to build a base on Mars. 

"A whole decade, @elonmusk? Just build, LOL!" the accompanying tweet read.

Musk had a response to that, too, pointing out that the real world takes more time than the world of Fortnite. "Reality is hard," he wrote.

One Fortnite player wrote to Musk, "Excuse me Mr.Musk but I think it's important to me that I actually lost my virginity after playing Fortnite. just sayin." 

To which Musk responded, "Online doesn't count."

The battle of the two titan Twitter accounts drew some bemused reactions from those observing the snark. "Please don't try and be Wendy's," said one Twitter user, referring to the fast-food chain's irreverent Twitter account.

Culture: Your hub for everything from film and television to music, comics, toys and sports.

NASA turns 60: The space agency has taken humanity farther than anyone else, and it has plans to go further.