Is the viral video of Elon Musk firing Twitter employees on Joe Rogan's podcast real?

Elon Musk, the world's richest man, is well-acquainted with Joe Rogan, having been featured on his podcast the Joe Rogan Experience multiple times. A video of Musk appearing to fire Twitter's policy chief, Vijaya Gadde, has gone viral on Twitter. However, it is a fan-edited parody and is not real.

The video is a montage of multiple clips from Musk's three appearances on the JRE podcast, as well as Gadde's single appearance alongside former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and political commentator Tim Pool. While the video in question is fake, the actual sacking is real.

Musk recently bought the social media platform for approximately $44 billion. Immediately after the takeover was complete, Musk dismissed key figures from Twitter's upper hierarchy, including CEO Parag Agarwal. Musk also fired the company's policy chief, Vijaya Gadde.

In the parody video, Gadde says:

"I do think we've failed in a couple of ways and I want to admit that."

Musk responds:

"Failure comes with a big penalty. You're fired."

The faux exchange is met with clips of awkward silence from Rogan and Pool.

Check out the video below:

Watch Vijaya Gadde and Jack Dorsey's complete JRE episode:

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Joe Rogan talks about Elon Musk's Twitter takeover

In a recent JRE episode with comedian Bridget Phetasy, Joe Rogan addressed Elon Musk's Twitter takeover. He applauded Musk and then mentioned his antics with a sink:

"No, that's the best. How about when he walked into Twitter's headquarters with a sink and said, 'Let that sink in!' [laughs] Yes, that's him! He's funny."

Rogan was referring to Musk's attempt at recreating the popular Twitter joke, 'Let that sink in', which the SpaceX founder tweeted out his first day at Twitter headquarters by carrying a literal sink in.

Check out his viral tweet here:

Rogan also highlighted the changes that Musk plans to bring to the Twitter landscape:

"That's what Elon wants to bring back to Twitter, is reasonable exchange of ideas. He really thinks it's important, I think it's important too, but it's just rare that someone is that wealthy that they can do that. And also, he was very left-leaning for most of his life until really recently. The pandemic in particular, and the way people have enforced those ideologies regardless of whether or not the science supports it. I think we have a real problem with discourse on Twitter."

Watch Joe Rogan's complete comments on Musk's takeover on JRE #1890 on YouTube: