Comedy Is Now Legal on Twitter

About

Comedy Is Now Legal on Twitter is a notorious tweet posted by Twitter / X CEO Elon Musk soon after his acquisition of the website in late 2022. While he did not explain the exact meaning behind it, many perceived that the tweet was meant to signify Musk's goal of allowing more freedom of speech on Twitter under his leadership. Going into 2023, the catchphrase was repeatedly used by critics to mock Musk and his decisions, such as Twitter's Rebrand to X, often surfacing in discourse in which people felt he was hindering free speech on Twitter / X, such as censoring or deleting satirical posts meant to criticize him and his associates.

Origin

On October 28th, 2022, Elon Musk posted the "Comedy is now legal on Twitter" statement to X,^[1] offering no further follow-up posts or explanations though many assumed it was in reference to his numerous statements about promoting free speech on his newly acquired website.^[8] The post received roughly 2.2 million likes in one year (shown below).

Spread

Soon after its upload, the tweet inspired various reactions and memes. For instance, on October 28th, 2022, X^[2] user @jaubreyYT quoted Elon Musk with a POV image of a gun pointed at him, writing, "Does that mean I can post this," gaining over 98,700 likes in one year (shown below, left). Similarly, X^[3] user @weirddalle quoted Musk with a meme writing, "Finally," gaining over 7,200 likes in a year (shown below, right).

In early November 2022, accounts that were banned by Musk used his statement to satirize his claim and emphasize his apparent lack of actual free speech beliefs. Most notably, comedian Kathy Griffin was suspended around this time because she changed her name to Elon Musk following the Twitter Blue Verified Impersonations trend. On November 7th, 2022, X^[4] user @YourAnonCentral posted a screenshot of Griffin's banned account, gaining roughly 3,700 likes in 11 months (shown below, left).

On November 5th, X^[5] user @Leo_Puglisi6 tweeted a photo of another Musk impersonator with the username @chaser, gaining roughly 2,300 likes in 11 months (shown below, right).

Going into early 2023, viral satirical usage of "Comedy Is Now Legal on Twitter" persisted on the platform. For instance, on February 24th, 2023, X^[6] user @SaeedDiCaprio tweeted a photo of a community note with the catchphrase, gaining roughly 15,200 likes in eight months (shown below, left).

In October 2023, usage of the phrase peaked once again following JUNlPER's Twitter Ban, evident in another tweet posted by X^[7] user @SaeedDiCaprio on October 6th, gaining roughly 51,500 likes in less than a day (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References