--- title: Stephen Colbert Tackles Elon Musk Spacex Falcon Heavy Launch description: That’s what Musk gets for launching "a giant phallus cranking rock ’n’ roll, releasing a red convertible into the dark void" per Colbert canonical: https://time.com/5135473/stephen-colbert-on-spacex-elon-musk/ author: Melissa Locker article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-02-07T16:34:44.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:50:23.440Z og:title: Stephen Colbert Gives Elon Musk 'Most Midlife Crisis' Award og:description: Colbert changed the "super villain" title after Musk launched a car in space og:url: https://time.com/5135473/stephen-colbert-on-spacex-elon-musk/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt52f60903ab86d78c/6988fae6bc6cfc3c563e4e70/colbert-on-elon-musk-space-x.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Colbert-on-elon-musk-space-x og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Stephen Colbert Gives Elon Musk 'Most Midlife Crisis' Award twitter:description: Colbert changed the "super villain" title after Musk launched a car in space twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt52f60903ab86d78c/6988fae6bc6cfc3c563e4e70/colbert-on-elon-musk-space-x.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Stephen Colbert Teased Elon Musk for 'Midlife Crisis' in His Gleeful SpaceX Monologue by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Feb 7, 2018 4:34 PM UTC  by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Feb 7, 2018 4:34 PM UTC Back in 2015, Stephen Colbert dubbed [Elon Musk](http://time.com/5136400/spacex-elon-musk-tesla-space/?xid=homepage) a potential “[super villain](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gV6hP9wpMW8),” but on Tuesday night’s episode of _The Late Show,_ he gave the SpaceX CEO a new title—winner of “Most Midlife Crisis.” Musk earned the …award? in the wake of SpaceX’s successful launch of its [Falcon Heavy rocket](http://time.com/5137135/falcon-heavy-core-landing-spacex/?xid=homepage), the world’s most powerful rocket, boosted by two Falcon 9 rockets, all of which thrilled Colbert. “Here’s the kicker — this is the really exciting part — [the launch](http://time.com/5136743/falcon-heavy-launch-video-spacex/?xid=homepage) was to show not only that the Falcon was reusable but the Falcon Heavy can carry a large payload,” Colbert explained on the _Late Show_. “So to test it, Elon Musk sent up his own Tesla convertible with a dummy astronaut at the wheel, blasting David Bowie’s ‘Life on Mars.’ That’s right, this is absolutely true: A giant phallus cranking rock ’n’ roll, releasing a red convertible into the dark void — and the award for Most Midlife Crisis goes to Elon Musk.” However, Colbert wasn’t done teasing Musk. Turns out that before tucking his car into the Falcon Heavy rocket, Musk put the words “Don’t Panic” on the Tesla’s screen. “Which as we all know is a reference to _Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy_,” said Colbert. “We get it, Musk, you’re King Nerd. I relinquish my crown.” Watch the full video above. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5135473/stephen-colbert-on-spacex-elon-musk/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5135473/stephen-colbert-on-spacex-elon-musk/"},"headline":"Stephen Colbert Teased Elon Musk for 'Midlife Crisis' in His Gleeful SpaceX Monologue","datePublished":"2018-02-07T16:34:44.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:50:23.440Z","description":"That's what Musk gets for launching own Tesla convertible into space on a rocket","url":"https://time.com/5135473/stephen-colbert-on-spacex-elon-musk/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Space","stephen colbert","Elon Musk","SpaceX","Late Night Television"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt52f60903ab86d78c/6988fae6bc6cfc3c563e4e70/colbert-on-elon-musk-space-x.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Melissa Locker","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt52f60903ab86d78c/6988fae6bc6cfc3c563e4e70/colbert-on-elon-musk-space-x.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Colbert-on-elon-musk-space-x","caption":"","creditText":"","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5135473/stephen-colbert-on-spacex-elon-musk/","name":"Stephen Colbert Teased Elon Musk for 'Midlife Crisis' in His Gleeful SpaceX Monologue"}}]}] ```