Elon Musk rages at ‘messed up’ liberal comedy show audience as they applaud ‘domestic terrorism’ at Tesla stores
Elon Musk has branded members of the live studio audience of The Daily Show “super messed up” following their reaction to the news reports that his Tesla showrooms were being targeted in violent attacks.
The satirical Comedy Central show, fronted by comic Jon Stewart, airs nightly in the USA and is no stranger to voicing anti-Republican opinions, regularly poking fun at President Donald Trump and Musk.
Earlier this week, Stewart’s co-star Jordan Klepper dedicated an entire 10-minute segment to the vandalism and arson attacks that have hit Tesla stores and showrooms across the US.
Police and government agencies have begun taking action against the growing threat of incidents, with the FBI’s counter-terrorism task force even investigating a blaze in Las Vegas as potential terrorism.
Musk has publicly responded to the attacks on his Tesla stores and showrooms, writing on social media site X, formerly known as Twitter, that the attacks are “terrorism” as a result of the “woke mind parasite and the humans it controls”.
Klepper addressed the backlash facing Musk and Republicans – a result of policy changes by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) – during a segment on the comedy show on Wednesday, where even he was taken aback by the glee of the audience.
During one moment of his piece to the camera, Klepper teed up: “Some people are not content to just scream about Elon in a high school gym, they’re taking to the streets… or the parking lots.”
A clip of a news report showing attacks in Las Vegas, Seattle, Kansas City, and Chicago then played on-screen, but the sound was drowned out as applause began to ripple from the Daily Show crowd.
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Despite being a vocal Musk critic, even comedian Klepper was taken aback by the reaction to the violent scenes, telling the audience: “Wow, you guys like petty acts of domestic terrorism, huh? Wow!”
He followed this up with a semi-serious point: “Let me just say, nobody should be breaking the laws and blowing up Teslas, especially because if you just wait a few minutes, they’ll probably do it themselves.”
A clip of The Daily Show audience’s worrying response to the violent scenes has since gone viral, with the left-leaning audience members who cheered the violence coming under particular scrutiny.
One account shared the clip with the caption: “The Daily Show’s audience applauds the domestic terror incidents against Tesla, disturbing even the liberal host…”
This caught the attention of Musk himself, who reposted the clip on X alongside the caption: “This is super messed up.”
Fellow X users were similarly disturbed by the reaction of the crowd, with many in response to Musk’s post describing the applause as “sick”, “pure evil”, and “hateful”.
Despite being visibly shocked by the crowd’s response, Klepper didn’t veer away from his anti-Musk rhetoric.
Klepper mocked Musk’s appearance on Fox News show Sean Hannity, in which the X owner admitted it was a surprise to see such a level of hate towards his car company from left-leaning opponents.
This is super messed up https://t.co/RVM8mNPuIE
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 20, 2025
The comic went on to rant: “I don’t think people are mad at you about the Teslas, Elon.
“If I were to hazard a guess, it would be because, in the past several weeks, you fired tens of thousands of federal workers, you made cuts to veterans’ care, life-saving foreign aid and food banks, you cancelled important medical research…
“Here’s another guess, maybe people are mad at you because you don’t seem to know what the f*** you’re doing!”
Klepper wrapped up his monologue by branding Musk the “troll king of the internet who can’t handle the real world”.