The Musk Who Fell to Earth

Elon Musk lands with his Dragon 2 spacecraft into the Simpsons' backyard. Musk explains that he is visiting Springfield for inspiration. To this, Homer asks Musk to come with him to the power plant. The next day, Musk discovers that Homer has new ideas for inventions, and so meets Mr. Burns and convinces him to install a magnetohydrodynamic generator for the plant. Burns wants to hire Musk, but he refuses, saying that he does not care about the money.

Musk and Burns explain to the town that the plant has come up with plans for the city's electrical needs, including self-driving cars. However, Smithers is suspicious about Musk's intentions. Bart and Lisa sneak into the family's car and disable the auto-drive mode using Musk's master password, and go for a joyride. They end up at the plant, where Musk also explains that the town is losing roughly $50 million a quarter, much to Burns' horror. Musk explains to Burns that his true intention was to save the Earth. Angered at Musk's actions, Burns announces to his employees that there will be massive layoffs, and plots to kill Musk. Homer is also horrified because Musk caused Lenny, Carl and many other power plant employees to be fired, but Marge advises him to end his friendship with Musk gently.

The next day, while Musk is discussing his ideas for inventions with Homer, Burns attempts to assassinate him. Though the bullet accidentally aims in Homer's way, Musk saves him. Homer gratefully thanks him, but he admits to Musk that he needs to end their friendship. The Simpsons say goodbye to Musk as he boards his rocket to space, musing that he will miss Homer's last thoughts to him. To make up for Homer's and Lisa's sadness at his departure, he gives the family a futuristic birdhouse (similar to the birdhouse from the start of the episode).

The episode was written by Neil Campbell, a freelance writer.[1] 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.[2] The closing theme is David Bowie's "Starman", later associated with Musk's Falcon Heavy launch in 2018.

The episode received an audience of 3.29 million, making it the most watched show on Fox that night.[3] 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."[4]

In 2022, The Guardian said the episode was "perhaps the most fawning" of Musk's celebrity media cameos.[5]

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.[6][7]

• "The Musk Who Fell to Earth" at IMDb
• "The Musk Who Fell to Earth" at theSimpsons.com