The Musk Who Fell to Earth
"The Musk Who Fell to Earth" is the twelfth episode of the twenty-sixth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons, and the 564th overall episode of the series. The episode was directed by Matthew Nastuk and written by Neil Campbell. It first aired on the Fox network in the United States on January 25, 2015.

Plot
The episode begins with Lisa tending to a birdhouse, which is shortly thereafter attacked by a bald eagle. While the family is admiring the eagle, it takes hold of Maggie and attempts to fly away before she is wrestled back by Homer, who has his hair stolen by the bird instead. The family then hatches a plan to capture the eagle so that they can eat it. Bart and Milhouse set up a trap using the boardgame Mousetrap, with the eagle taking the bait and entering the house to capture the mouse. Once inside, Homer and the bird wrestle again before Bart eventually smothers it and Homer with a plastic bag. Upon escaping the bag, Homer proceeds to beat the trapped bird before Lisa convinces him to instead nurse it to health and release it. After some time has passed, Homer releases the bird, but it is almost immediately incinerated by flames after take-off. Elon Musk lands with his Dragon 2 spacecraft into the Simpsons' backyard. Elon explains that he came to Springfield because he's looking for a source of inspiration. Homer insists that Elon comes to the power plant. The next day, Elon discovers that Homer is filled with new ideas for inventions, and so meets Mr. Burns and convinces him to build a magnet-to-hydrodynamic generator for the plant. Mr. Burns wants to hire Elon, but he refuses, saying that he doesn't care about the money.

Elon and Mr. Burns explain to the town that the plant has come up with plans for the city's electrical needs. However, Smithers is suspicious about Elon's intentions. Elon also reveals that he created self-driving cars. Bart and Lisa sneak into the family's car and disable the auto-drive mode (using Elon's master password, which is "MUSKRULEZ") and go for a joyride.

They end up at the plant, where Elon also explains that the town's losing roughly $50 million a quarter, much to Burns' horror. Elon explains that he wants to save the Earth. Burns explains that, thanks to Elon, the plant is facing massive layoffs, and then apologizes to Smithers. Mr. Burns soon plots to kill Elon.

The next day, Elon is hanging out with Homer when Mr. Burns attempts to assassinate Elon. However, the bullet goes towards Homer instead. Elon saves Homer, but Homer (under Marge's advice) explains that he and Elon can no longer be friends. Elon goes to his rocketship, and he leaves to go home, but not before coming back to the Simpson home, returning Lisa, who was hiding in his rocket. To make Lisa feel better, Elon gives the family a futuristic birdhouse. Elon then leaves and reminisces about his time with Homer. Watching a hologram of Homer's last idea, he laments that holograms somehow always miss the point, and sheds a tear as the episode ends.

Production
The episode was written by Neil Campbell, a freelance writer. It guest stars Elon Musk as himself. Executive producer Al Jean stated they tried to make the episode not a "kiss-ass" guest star turn, and the episode contains many jabs at Musk's perceived egotism. Musk was a fan of the series, having watched the show since attending university. He guest starred on the show because he and executive producer James L. Brooks had a meeting, after which Brooks was convinced he wanted a fictional version of Musk on the show. The closing theme is David Bowie's "Starman", later associated with Musk's Falcon Heavy launch in 2018.

Reception
The episode received an audience of 3.29 million, making it the most watched show on Fox that night. Dennis Perkins of The A.V. Club gave the episode a C, saying "‘The Musk Who Fell to Earth’ plays out more like a love letter to Musk than a proper Simpsons episode. It's like some Simpsons writers met Musk at a TED talk, got smitten when they found out Musk was a fan, and turned an episode of the show over to him. Which would be less of a problem if the episode were well-thought-out and funny, Musk were an engaging comic presence, or the Simpsons themselves weren't relegated to supporting status on their own show."

In 2022 The Guardian said the episode was "perhaps the most fawning" of Musk's celebrity media cameos.

In November 2022 Musk claimed in a tweet that the episode correctly predicted his acquisition of Twitter, due to a scene where Lisa Simpson feeds birds that are in a birdhouse in Simpson's backyard with a sign that reads "Home Tweet Home". Though in reality this scene wasn't a direct reference to Twitter and occurs before Musk appears in the episode. Though it was also noted by The Independent that the subplot of Mr. Burns laying off a portion of the Springfield Power Plant's staff due to Musk, is similar to Musk's real life mass Twitter layoffs that occurred soon after his acquisition of the platform.

References

External links 
 
 "The Musk Who Fell to Earth" at theSimpsons.com

2015 American television episodes
The Simpsons (season 26) episodes
Elon Musk