It can be really hard to tell what’s satire and what isn’t in these irony-driven days. Remember how Sony executives didn’t realize that the hype on social media behind critical and commercial dud Morbius wasn’t real? They put a bad movie back into theaters, only for it to flop even harder. Similarly, it’s so hard to tell if Cybertruck owners are all doing some sort of high-brow, super meta satire, of if they've bitten off more than they can chew and they're all trying to save face. A man standing and subsequently breaking the windshield of his Cybertruck at a Tesla meetup feels like satire, but it isn’t.
Originally posted on TikTok by user Tesla Owner Silicon Valley and then reposted by a few unrelated users X (nee Twitter), the video shows a man walking up the front of a Cybertruck done up in grey digital camouflage. The video starts out with the man claiming when you’re at a meet with other Teslas and driving the “best truck ever,” then you’re obligated to get on the top of the truck and walk overtop of it because “it is built to last.” With the comedic timing only matched by the golden era of Saturday Night Live, the windshield makes a not-so-subtle crunch just as the man announces his 240-pound weight.
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The Cybertruck Is Durable
The Cybertruck's semi-structural stainless steel alloy and hardened glass certainly are more rigid than many cars on the road. However, they do have their limits.
Initially, despite the video’s title “Tesla Windshield Cracks” it wasn't entirely clear if the windshield actually cracks in the video. The author quickly walks off the back of the truck, then pivots to praising the truck again.
The next video on the owner's page shows a broken Tesla windshield. The creator says he’s making “lemons out of lemonade,” by continuing to shatter the Cybertruck’s windshield with a cinder block. If you look closely, there’s a big shatter spiderweb on the driver’s side of the windshield exactly where he stepped in the video prior, in addition to of the numerous cracks and chips created by throwing a cinder block onto the truck's windshield.
The TikTok comments are pretty predictable. They’re all having a field day laughing at the owner’s folly. Some are unsure if the page is satirical or not, while others say that the video is the pinnacle of the sunk cost fallacy.
I don’t want to make anyone feel bad or stupid for the things they want to do with their truck. Hell, it’s their truck, they’re the ones who paid for it. If they want to blow the thing up with a claymore mine a day or two after they’ve bought it, then whatever that’s their business.
I just question: What the hell are we even doing here? The Cybertruck has quickly become a meme truck, where its polarizing styling and the actions of clueless and cringy owners have overtaken the gravitas of its kind of cool technological advancements. How many content creators have ended up with egg on their faces when they try to mimic Elon Musk’s not-so-scientific durability tests? We’ve seen trucks pelted with bullets and ruined while people have mangled their fingers in the Cybertruck’s sharp-edged doors.
When these things happen, some folks will claim “satire” or that they were just doing it for the clicks. At least in the video, the author tacitly admits that maybe walking over the cybertruck wasn’t so great of an idea. Either way, it won’t be a pretty repair.
We've reached out to the Tesla Owners Silicon Valley account, but it hasn't responded yet. Please ya'll, can we just drive the truck like a normal person? I think we've all seen enough Cybertruck carnage.
Contact the author: kevin.williams@insideevs.com.
