By Hernán Panessi via El Planteo.
He's happy, he looks like he got it.
Homer Simpson receives a basket of food and, also, a nice welcome. After years of grumbling with Mr. Burns, Homer has changed jobs. His boss is the very nice Hank Scorpio ("The Simpsons," Season 8, Episode 2, 1996).
"I've never liked to see myself on top of other people. I'm just like you. Sure, I have better hours, I earn a lot more, I get more vacation time, but I'm not more than you," Scorpio tells Homer.
However, minutes later, Hank reveals himself as a psychopath who threatens the United Nations with a nuclear device, is determined to kill Mr. Bont - a hero who parodies James Bond, and faces an army carrying a flamethrower because of a "little problem with the government."
Oddly enough, Hank never stopped being nice to Homer. Thus, the question arises: Can people be relatable and, at the same time, a supervillain?
In the edges of the Internet, a conspiracy theory was soon woven: What if, in reality, Hank Scorpio is inspired by a real-life character?
The Simpsons Know The Truth
The predictive ability of Matt Groening's animated series is well known: from Donald Trump’s presidency, through the attack on the Twin Towers, the 2016 Rolling Stones tour and so many more events.
Therefore, Hank Scorpio's inspiration (appearing in the episode "You Only Move Twice" in the 8th season) in the billionaire Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin Galactic Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:SPCE) and owner of a fortune of more than $4.8 billion, could be just a mask, a feint, a bait, a hint to a bigger idea.
Could it be that Hank Scorpio is, in fact, another billionaire?
Instantly, the name of Elon Musk comes to mind.
Elon Musk is the CEO of Space X and Tesla Motors (NASDAQ:TSLA), chairman of SolarCity, and co-chairman of Open AI. Owner of a fortune amounting to $223 billion, Musk competes for the position of the richest man in the world with Jeff Bezos, the majority shareholder of Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN).
And every time he moves a piece, whether, to endorse a crypto meme (that rose 65% in a few hours) or invest in Bitcoin, he becomes news.
"The whole thing is like a billionaire's whim," said Marc Odo, client portfolio manager at Swan Global Investments, in an interview with Bloomberg.
One Thing And The Other
The world knew Musk as an avant-garde nerd who was making waves in Silicon Valley and amassed an enormous fortune after selling PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL), his first great invention, for $1.5 billion to eBay (NASDAQ:EBAY).
But he soon revealed himself as an eccentric visionary who designed technology for NASA, founded drilling companies (The Boring Company, the best and most honest name in the galaxy), promised trips to Mars because the Earth "is doomed," sent a vehicle into space while David Bowie's "Starman" was playing on a loop and even created a flamethrower that he put on sale for $500.
Musk stands as the person who dreams of changing the world through his space, automotive and technological projects.
Touted as a flesh-and-blood Tony Stark (an elegant billionaire who is also one of Marvel's Avengers), suddenly the world began to cook up the opposite idea.
Elon Musk, Hero Or Villain?
If anything can be said about Elon Musk, it's that he's not a smoke peddler. Almost all of his controversial inventions have been put into practice. Intransigent, impulsive, demanding and unquestionably brilliant. "The architect of tomorrow", was the headline of Rolling Stone magazine, in an interview that portrays him as somewhere between petulance and genius.
But what if the same guy who one day smoked a joint at Joe Rogan's podcast and aroused everyone's sympathy suddenly had a screw loose and decided to finish it all? He could.
Hence, the comparisons with Hank Scorpio, the villain of The Simpsons, a guy who could be a good boss and also the man who could end humanity.
In fact, in 2019, a Twitter user wrote about it and Elon Musk took charge: "OK, fine, I'm Hank Scorpio," he clarified.
Just because he has a flamethrower and I have a flamethrower doesn’t mean … um … ok fine I’m Hank Scorpio
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 27, 2019
Although his response was loaded with irony and cynicism, it build up the suspicions raised in social networks: at the end of this story, Elon Musk... will he be a hero or a villain?
