Elon Musk and Ryan Reynolds take deepfake in stride in funny Twitter reactions

Deepfake technology has proven to be a hot topic within the industry, with numerous controversies surrounding its ethical uses. Keanu Reeves may think it’s “scary”, but sometimes it can reaffirm that Ryan Reynolds is always game for a joke and even suggest that Elon Musk might be human after all.

This week, Twitter user @meetRealKevin posted a video that claimed, however humorously, to be a new ad featuring Ryan Reynolds plugging Elon Musk’s Tesla cars. Other than interior footage of a self-driving car, viewers see a rather stiff Reynolds asking, “How much do you think it would cost to own a car that’s this fucking awesome?!”, followed shortly by, “Whose balls do I have to fondle to get a Tesla instead of a shit Corolla?”

And since Elon Musk isn’t one to hold back, he replied to the tweet with a scathing…

Wait, what? Elon Musk took the vulgar Tesla ad with a deepfake Ryan Reynolds in stride? OK, but let’s see how it would sit with Reynolds if it was on the other foot. Soon after, production company/ad agency Maximum Effort (which Reynolds co-founded) posted an even more dubious video with a phony Elon Musk shilling Aviation Gin (which Reynolds has a stake in). Reynolds’ response?

Oh come on!

Obviously neither Elon Musk nor Ryan Reynolds thinks these videos are real, but it is sort of fun to imagine that Musk doesn’t get the joke while Reynolds is fully into it and mocking the billionaire. The Deadpool actor has previously been critical of Twitter, telling The Associated Press, “Twitter is, was, and will always be a dumpster fire. And I like dumpster fires because something’s wrong with me.” And so it’s just that: Ryan Reynolds going dumpster fire diving.

Last year, an extremely convincing deepfake video re-cast Wolverine with Henry Cavill, ditching Reynolds’ pseudo-rival Hugh Jackman. All that was missing was an accompanying tweet that read, “Nice.” But that can be done with a little manipulation of its own…

The strange Elon Musk/Ryan Reynolds story is some light, harmless usage of deepfake technology, but many see it being used for more harm than good. What do you think? Give us your thoughts below!