Elon Musk called Michael O’Leary a ‘retarded twat’ and the Ryanair man’s A++ comeback was simply magnificent
This is surely the most entertaining Twitter spat since Piers Morgan and Dan Walker – you remember – used to take chunks out of it each other over breakfast TV.
It’s Elon Musk and Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary who have been going at it hammer and tongs of late after O’Leary declined to install Musk’s wifi enabling Starlink on his flights.
Don’t thank us, thank that big “IDIOT” @elonmusk 👀
Sale now on👇https://t.co/0c6IvsKyyB pic.twitter.com/JAxRNzaYTa
— Ryanair (@Ryanair) January 20, 2026
Musk didn’t take to that too kindly, throwing random (and offensive) insults at O’Leary …
The insufferable, special needs chimp currently running Ryan Air is an accountant. Has no idea how airplanes even fly.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 20, 2026
… and threatening to buy Ryanair for good measure.
How much would it cost to buy you?
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 19, 2026
Which prompted this A++ response from O’Leary and it was just magnificent.
Michael O’Leary – “Elon Musk called me a retarded twat.”
— MichaeloKeeffe (@MickOKeeffe) January 21, 2026
And a longer clip for context because it’s all gold, basically.
The delightful Michael O’Leary hands Elon Musk his arse on a plate over his “Idiot” and “Retarded Twat” comments and discusses Starlink on planes and the poll for Elon to buy Ryanair.
Isn’t Social Media fabulous. pic.twitter.com/aujAt0B6P5
— MrBounceBack.com (@Bounce_BackLoan) January 21, 2026
And an even longer clip (director’s cut)!
Ryanair CEO addresses his recent spat with Elon Musk in new press conference:
“The Starlink people believe that 90% of our passengers would happily pay for wifi access. Our experience is tells us less than 10% would pay; He (Elon) called me a r*tarted twat. He would have to join… pic.twitter.com/P8iYCWRApf
— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) January 21, 2026
Boom!
And here is just a little bit of love people had for that.
1.
The @ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary is hilarious, just like their twitter account stuffing Elon in a locker pic.twitter.com/vJZ9UGrpEs https://t.co/x8Us52zpyR
— Wu Tang is for the Children (@WUTangKids) January 21, 2026
2.
“… He would have to join the back of a very very queue of people that already think I’m a r*tarded twat, including my four teenage children.”
🤣🤣 this guy is a legend!
— AJ (@OGMarsLife) January 21, 2026
3.
This is how you handle Elon trolling lol
— Dirty Tesla (@DirtyTesLa) January 21, 2026
4.
the ‘join the queue’ line is elite. elon’s 90% estimate is peak ‘it works on my machine’ energy. ryanair passengers would rather sit in silence for 4 hours than pay for wifi
— nick (@thecsguy) January 21, 2026
5.
Say what you want about Michael O’Leary, but at least he’s a bit of craic. And a great Irish entrepreneur.
Musk, on the other hand, is a humourless, sinister influence on the world. https://t.co/PEO5R7rK4q
— Eoin Kelleher (@eoinyk) January 21, 2026
6.
Elon doesn’t know what teenage kids say because all of his kids quit talking to him once they hit their teens.
— Alladge Gervens (@janetjenkins52) January 21, 2026