Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s attempt at a “dad joke” didn’t exactly hit comedy paydirt when delivered to a Saudi crowd in Riyadh on Tuesday, but his follow-up drew applause.
The essence of a dad joke is that it has a silly pun or something else that may bring a smile to your face, despite being kind of dorky.
Such was Musk’s joke during a sit-down at the U.S.-Saudi Investment Forum — headlined by President Donald Trump — when the topic of what ventures he could bring to the Middle Eastern kingdom came up.
They included robots for manufacturing and Tesla robotaxis, while Musk noted the country had already committed to bringing in Starlink for maritime and air use.
The entrepreneur then made a pitch to bring another one of his ventures to Saudi Arabia.
“I have a company called The Boring Company, which sounds kinda boring, but it literally bores tunnels,” he said. “To solve traffic, you really need to go 3D with roads.”
“And by using tunnels, you can essentially create like a wormhole, like a warp tunnel from one part of the city to another and alleviate traffic,” he continued.
Riyadh is a city of about 8 million people, so no doubt it has traffic issues.
At this point has Musk surpassed Edison as possibly America’s greatest inventor?
ياساتر طريق الملك فهد في 🇸🇦 الرياض له 3 ساعات واقف من شدة الزحمة.
جاني غثيان وانا مالي دخل.
الوضع يزداد سوء شهر بعد شهر.
اتوقع بالفعل بيضطرون يخلون بعض الدوامات عن بعد.
تخيلوا الاسعاف وش بيسوي او الدفاع المدني مع الوضع ذا؟ pic.twitter.com/hlpDl8Kl5H
— علّام (@azzayezz) March 14, 2024
“We’ve actually already done this, proof of concept, in Vegas,” Musk said. “So there are working tunnels in Las Vegas that you can use. It feels like teleporting from one part of Vegas to another.”
The Boring Company tunnels are in active use in Vegas. Try it if you’re in the town. It’s a futuristic experience.
Book Here -> https://t.co/ZCgH3WG9Fk pic.twitter.com/EvbAah0YPJ
— DogeDesigner (@cb_doge) May 24, 2024
“I always say that my joke is like tunnels are underappreciated,” he added.
Get it? They are appreciated when you’re “under” the ground and moving quickly from one place to another. So it’s kind of punny.
🚨 ELON: “I have a company called The Boring Company, which sounds boring, but it literally bore tunnels to solve traffic.
We’ve already done this proof of concept in Vegas. There are working tunnels, is like teleporting from one point to another. Tunnels are underappreciated.” pic.twitter.com/PdO0ig8oCZ
— DogeDesigner (@cb_doge) May 13, 2025
The interviewer laughed, but the crowd didn’t.
“Not always a hit,” Musk acknowledged, which drew laughs and applause from the audience.
Musk was one of several CEOs in Riyadh for the investment forum, CNBC reported.
🚨BREAKING: Elon Musk with President Trump and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman inside the Saudi Royal Court 🇺🇸 🇸🇦 pic.twitter.com/DNuuhpV0VJ
— DogeDesigner (@cb_doge) May 13, 2025
Others included Amazon CEO Andy Jassy, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Alphabet President Ruth Porat, IBM CEO Arvind Krishna, Palantir CEO Alex Karp, and Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon.
In addition to his business ventures, Musk has been heading Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency, but is expected to step down into more of a consultant capacity this month.
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