People have just worked out why Elon Musk’s bizarre body language feels so familiar.
Not only do some of his online antics, political affiliations and business endeavours sometimes rub people up the wrong way, but his actual physicality often sets tongues wagging.
And this week, a batch of internet users have been closely watching footage of his recent public outings, and believe they've made an apt comparison between Musk's body language and something else entirely.
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Musk has been one of the most hotly-discussed celebrities this week following his role at Donald Trump's presidential inauguration on 20 January.
The 53-year-old Tesla CEO - who now works as Trump's new Department of Government Efficiency - was among those to give a speech at the celebratory rally in Washington, with one particular gesture being deemed rather controversial.
"I just want to say thank you for making it happen," he told Trump's supporters at one point, before slapping his chest with his right hand and thrusting it into the air, palm towards the ground.
Turning around to address those behind him, he repeated the action and added: "My heart goes out to you," in a move which some believed mirrored that of a Nazi salute.
Though Musk later denied this, branding the accusation as 'tired', this isn't the first time that his body language has baffled spectators.
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As we say, this week, a group of social media users have once again highlighted Musk's body language, believing that it is somewhat similar to a computer-generated character.
A meme has since gone viral with the caption: "People have noticed similarities in the way Elon Musk and Sims characters move and act," - showing the two erratically moving.
On the left-hand side, Musk can be seen on a red carpet in a clip from Trump's inauguration, at one point raising his arms to his side, hands pointed to the sky, bending his knees and looking up.
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On the right-hand side of the meme, a male Sims character can be seen moving in a similar fashion.
And the video has since gone viral, with social media users quick to share their thoughts.
"He replaced himself with a Tesla robot to see if anybody would notice," one viewer joked.
Another teased: "He’s not real, he’s a simulation."
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Someone else jibed: "He learned how to human from Sims."
Despite the light-hearted intentions of the meme, some fans of Musk have refused to see the humour and have defended his body language online by referring to his Asperger's.
"He’s just fooling around," one wrote.
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"Yall are f**ked up for making fun of someone on the spectrum," another added.
Appearing on Saturday Night Live as a host in 2021, Musk revealed that he had Asperger’s syndrome, joking he's at least the 'the first to admit it'.
The following year, while on stage at the TED2022 conference in Vancouver, Canada, he discussed his experience with the disorder, revealing that 'social cues were not intuitive' while growing up.
"I would just tend to take things very literally … but then that turned out to be wrong - [people were not] simply saying exactly what they mean, there's all sorts of other things that are meant, and [it] took me a while to figure that out," Musk said.
Topics: Celebrity, Donald Trump, Elon Musk
Rhianna Benson