The @X handle on Twitter is so valuable that Elon Musk just took it
Say what you will about Elon Musk, but the guy is true to noxious brand
Aux News Elon Musk
Ah, Elon Musk, the patron saint of being unfunny online and letting everyone know about it. After spending the last 10 months turning Twitter into a deteriorating wasteland of Cheech & Chong cannabis ads, Musk recently achieved his lifelong dream of owning a company called X. Not that he did too much work for the rebrand. The son of an Emerald Mine owner got the X logo from one of his fans. Actually, neither had to work too hard. The now-infamous “𝕏” that’s slowly and awkwardly replacing the globally recognized Twitter logo comes from a publicly available font that costs about $30. 𝕏 may be “the future state of unlimited interactivity – centered in audio, video, messaging, payments/banking,” but it’s also a lazy rebrand from a desperate man hemorrhaging money after being forced into buying a website because a joke went too far.
However, despite spending $30 on the company’s logo, Musk still had one more change to make. The company’s X handle, which until yesterday was “@Twitter,” needed an update.
Enter Gene X. Hwang, the former holder of @x, who unceremoniously had his name stolen by the owner of a car company where the steering wheel falls off when you drive. Speaking to Mashable, Hwang says he “got an email basically saying they are taking it.” At one point, Mashable notes, Twitter reportedly considered creating a service that would allow users to big on rare or unused handles. That wasn’t the case here. True to his brand of not paying people, Musk offered Hwang nothing for his handle besides “some merch” for one of the most radioactive brands on Earth and a meeting with “management if I like.”
Hwang has been tweeting from @X for 16 years. In 2018, he told the tabloid The Sun that he received offers ranging from $10,000 to $40,000 for the handle but “didn’t entertain any of them seriously.” Let it be known that if you turn down $40,000 for a Twitter name, a billionaire could just take it one day. Still, Hwang has a better attitude about all this than we do. Tweeting Xeeting from his brand-new, not cumbersome at all handle of @x12345678998765, Hwang posted, “Alls well that ends well,” a post now overrun with people asking how much he was paid for the handle.
45 Comments
He’s just trying to make ZZ Top great again!
I was thinking more:Or:
Ha yeah that DMX song has been rattling around my brain since the change too.
Except here X going to take it from you.
Republican Musk rules over a roaring dumpster fire just like the Republican Party! 👍
I love how Musk continues to rattle writers and the commentariat on this site. lol
Elon kind of reminds me of early seasons Michael Scott, a man so oblivious and obtuse that he took great pride in being “the king of forwards”.
Michael Scott was likeable, though. And he actually loved his employees.
I feel like people forget that Michael Scott could be a huge dick, especially in those early seasons when they were still trying to stay faithful to the UK version. Even if the audience knew he was coming from a place of love, I don’t think that would be much comfort to the employees that actually had to put with his antics.
He’s more like Michael Scott any time he interacts with Toby.
Uh, no he wasn’t and no he didn’t, not in the early seasons.
I would say not in season 1, though. He was pretty unlikeable in season 1. I think they got some feedback about it because he mellowed out more as the show went on.
“Why Won’t People Love Me?” Asks Deeply Unpleasant Man“I now own the thing they like – surely they have to like me now.”
Yep I would be traveling the world constantly and eating all the amazing food the planet has to offer.
But I wasn’t raised as a spoiled brat who can’t see past his own nose.
Elon Musk, internet colonialist.
Elon Musk, internet colon.
Nothing semi about it.
Matt, if you keep this up, we might be forced to admit that the A.V. Club still has one decent snarker.
I don’t know, it might need a handicap because musk is too easy a target.
Perhaps, but “the patron saint of being unfunny online and letting everyone know about it” is directly on target. And for the first line it’s perfect to target the one thing that really bothers Musk in this entire world, which is that he simply isn’t funny.
I’ll allow it!
… only if O’Neal comes back.
I said “decent,” not “legendary!”
Twitter reportedly considered creating a service that would allow users to big on rare or unused handles.Allows users to what now?
It’s a perfectly cromulent verb.
It’s scrumtrulescent.
IT SAID THE SERVICE WOULD ALLOW USERS TO BIG OR RARE ON UNUSED HANDLES
BIGGERRARON RARER
Give new meaning to the phrase, “I can’t believe I was outbig by that guy!”
I must be having a very dense day, because I had to read that sentence like five times before it occurred to me that “big” should be “bid.” My brain just glitched five times straight.
Same.
I got a “Big Handle” alert for this?
Don’t kink shame.
I think it’s supposed to be “bid”.
Greedy alpha male freak troll!
Musk is the saddest person around with this pathetic bullshit, but also? Fuck Gene X Hwang.Turned down 20K to pretend he’s cool Mister X and ended up with nothing? That’s EXACTLY why you don’t look a gift horse in the mouth.
X ‘gon take it from you
Tweeting Xeeting from his brand-new, not cumbersome at all handle I believe the correct term is “Xcreting.” As in “Musk took to X to Xcrete all over the internet.”
I love the Azealia Banks shade on Musk, effing loser: https://www.dazeddigital.com/music/article/46106/1/brief-history-of-azealia-banks-savage-elon-musk-burns-grimes-96-corolla-motorman
Never forget this is all because his wife left him for another woman.
‘big = bid’ I assume.I might be forever in greys now but I’m still a pedantic jerk sometimes.
“Xeeting”LOL Please no.
Am I the only one who read this and thought ‘Wow, this is exactly like the parable the prophet Nathan told King David about the rich man taking the poor man’s sheep’? Yes? okay.