Colman Domingo on Jimmy Kimmel Live earlier this week ABC
Colman Domingo has taken a few moments to address Elon Musk‘s recent claims that his AI company Grok will have generated its own feature-length version of The Odyssey by the end of the year.
The Oscar nominee has recently been filling in for comedian Jimmy Kimmel on his US talk show, and during a broadcast earlier this week, he took a moment to respond to Musk’s recent claim that “before this year ends, Grok Imagine will make a full-length movie of The Odyssey that is historically accurate and true to the art of Homer”.
“We could have yet another Odyssey movie on the way,” the Four Seasons star told viewers during his comedy monologue.
“Now, Elon Musk is planning to create what he calls a ‘historically accurate’ version of The Odyssey using his Grok AI. And by ‘historically accurate’ he means ‘whiter than Christmas at Cracker Barrel’.
“Of course, this is all because Elon and his Musketeers are upset over the diverse casting of The Odyssey. And I don’t want to get technical here, but you can’t make a historically accurate version of something that is totally made-the-****-up.”
Elon Musk via Associated Press
Taking a pop at US president Donald Trump, Domingo continued: “I mean, The Odyssey is fiction, you know? Like The Hunger Games. Or the president’s cognitive exams!”
“Come on, doesn’t Elon Musk have better things to do?” he concluded. “Wasn’t this ***** supposed to be on Mars by now?
“But maybe we should show a little compassion for Elon. This is a tough time for him. Helen Of Troy is a beautiful Black woman. And this week, Jimmy Kimmel is a beautiful Black man.”
Prior to this week, Musk had already been among the most vocal critics of Christopher Nolan‘s new adaptation of The Odyssey, stretching as far back as when it was first reported that Lupita Nyong’o and Elliot Page had been cast in it as Helen Of Troy and Sinon, respectively.
Musk’s digs at the film have included branding Nolan an “anti-White racist”, accusing him of “desecrating Homer” and suggesting that the director’s decision to include a diverse cast in his latest film was about winning “awards” after Oscars organisers introduced new measures with regards to movies it nominates (this third point is despite Nolan’s last film Oppenheimer having already won Best Picture and Best Director at the Academy Awards, and Variety’s research indicating that no film nominated for Best Picture in the Oscars’ history would no longer be eligible for the title under the new guidelines).
Forbes has also reported that Musk has boosted posts on the social media site he owns, X, which criticise Nolan, while including misinformation in some of his own messages.
His latest comments about Grok generating its own Odyssey have already been picked apart on social media, including from those pointing out the contradiction of creating a “historically accurate” version of a mythical story.
