화성 갈끄니까
TL;DR · Origin"We're goin' to Mars" (화성 갈끄니까) is not something Elon Musk ever said. It is the catchphrase of "Na Elon Musk," an alter ego created by Kim Kyung-wook of the Korean comedy tri…
Origin
"We're goin' to Mars" (화성 갈끄니까) is not something Elon Musk ever said. It is the catchphrase of "Na Elon Musk," an alter ego created by Kim Kyung-wook of the Korean comedy trio Namolla Family (Kim Kyung-wook, Kim Tae-hwan, Ko Chang-hwan). Kim performs the character wearing a deepfaked composite of Musk's face, drawling in slurred Korean: "Hello, I'm Elon Musk… we're goin' to Mars."
The defining video is "[4K][Killer Voice] Na Elon Musk's Killer Voice," published on the Namolla Family Hot Show YouTube channel on June 3, 2021. It parodies Killing Voice, the popular music format from Dingo Freestyle, with the character belting out invented hits titled "I Bought It," "Mars Monster," "DoGee," "I Lost Everything," "Shaken Out," and "The Moment I Bought Doge." As the titles make plain, every one of them is about a retail investor trapped in Tesla stock and Dogecoin.
The timing was exact. In the first half of 2021, a single Musk tweet could swing Dogecoin and Tesla, and "what did Musk say now" was daily news in Korea too. People sitting on losses needed somewhere to laugh instead of rage, and the character landed precisely in that gap.
Spread
The early spread did not favor the original. The version Kim first posted to Facebook was outrun by uncredited re-uploads, and the meme only settled into shape once the original was properly published on YouTube.
The decisive moment was the parody target responding. Dingo Freestyle's official account commented "we're goin'.. to Mars.." on the Killer Voice video, and Kim pinned it — the format's own producer effectively blessing the parody. From then on the line became an automatic reflex attached to anything Musk-related, and it now appears in the comments of genuine Musk interviews that have nothing to do with Namolla Family.
Usage
- A reflexive comment whenever Tesla, Dogecoin, or any Musk-adjacent asset comes up
- Declaring you are holding through losses rather than selling — instead of "diamond hands," "we're goin' to Mars"
- Mocking baselessly optimistic forecasts
- Joke replies to SpaceX launches and space news generally
The whole point is the delivery, so the deliberately misspelled Korean spelling is part of the meme; written correctly, it stops being one. What began as gallows humor from trapped investors now also stands in for unfounded optimism of any kind.
Sources
- Xportsnews, "Namolla Family's Kim Kyung-wook parodies Elon Musk on 'Killing Voice' — and Dingo replies" (June 4, 2021) — the June 3, 2021 upload, the deepfake persona, the track list, and Dingo Freestyle's comment
- Namuwiki, "Namolla Family" — the trio's members and how unauthorized re-uploads outpaced the original Facebook post early on
