Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Facebook and Instagram parent company Meta, isn't exactly known for his sense of humor or social skills.
But for the July 4th holiday, Zuck decided to go full party animal in a way that left a lot of people online slack-jawed and scratching their heads.
Zuckerberg posted a video of himself wake surfing—in a tuxedo, with an American flag in one hand and some kind of canned booze in the other—like some kind of frat boy, and it was really something.
Along with the video, Zuckerberg added Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the U.S.A" and a caption that read "happy birthday, America!"
The video was so bizarre that many commenters assumed it must be a particularly adept AI rendering. But Zuckerberg confirmed in a reply to an Instagram commenter that it was in fact really him.
He wrote:
"Pure 8-month recovery surfing with a dry start right here"
The comment was likely a reference to the harrowing injury Zuckerberg sustained to his anterior cruciate ligament, or ACL, while training for an MMA fight in 2023.
The ACL is the main ligament that connects the thigh bone to the shin. A sprain and especially a tear to the ACL is a serious injury that requires an extensive recovery that can take months.
Zuckerberg was apparently eager to show that he's made a full recovery, and his surfing video definitely made an impression online—especially given his robotic, cold reputation.
Many also theorized that Zuckerberg's stunt was specifically targeted to get under Elon Musk's skin, since the two have been feuding for years over who's the best weird tech billionaire or whatever.
Whether intentional or not, it seems to have worked—Musk was anything but enthusiastic about the video on X.
"May he continue to have fun on his yachts," Musk sniped to another X user in response to Zuckerberg's video. "I prefer to work." Got him!
@sama/X
