Jimmy Kimmel torched Elon Musk after the Tesla CEO had a meltdown over Christopher Nolan casting Lupita Nyong’o as Helen of Troy in “The Odyssey.”
The comedian weighed in on Musk’s outrage during Tuesday’s monologue for “Jimmy Kimmel Live!,” where he suggested Musk “stay in [his] lane” after bemoaning the fact that Helen of Troy was being played by a Black woman.
“Elon Musk is now attacking Christopher Nolan, the film director, for the way he cast the movie ‘The Odyssey,’” Kimmel said. “He’s upset because Christopher Nolan hired Lupita Nyong’o to play a character he believes should be played by a white woman.”
Kimmel then read out Musk’s X post, in which he claimed Nolan “desecrated the Odyssey so that he would be eligible for an Academy Award.” As the late night host highlighted, Musk then followed this up with the following rant: “Who specifically is the a–hole who added DEI lies to Academy Awards eligibility instead of it just being about making the best movie?”
“That’s a good question. While we’re at it, who specifically is the a–hole who thought this was a cool design for a truck?” Kimmel hit back. “I mean, stay in your lane.”
As Kimmel went on, he noted that Musk wasn’t alone in his stance, as it had become “a thing now.”
“Rob Finnerty from Newsmax — this guy’s a beauty — he was so upset he devoted a whole segment to it,” Kimmel said before playing footage of Finnerty’s broadcast, in which he confidently declared “Helen of Troy was not Black.”
“Well, here’s something that might surprise you, Rob. Helen of Troy was also not real,” Kimmel ripped. “‘The Odyssey’ is a mythical poem. There was no Helen of Troy. She was mythical, like Santa Claus or election fraud … It doesn’t matter what color a myth is.”
He continued: “And if you really want to get into it, Helen of Troy was half bird. Helen was the daughter of Zeus — and these, Rob, are not photographs, these are drawings — who disguised himself as a swan so he could mate with a human woman who then laid an egg and out hatched Helen of Troy, who, again, was not a real person. This is not history. This is made up. She was pretend. So it makes no difference to anyone but crazy angry people what color she was.”
Before moving on, Kimmel joked that people should really be “mad at the loser they cast to play Odysseus,” referencing his decades-long “feud” with Matt Damon.
Watch Kimmel’s full monologue above.
“Jimmy Kimmel Live!” airs weeknights at 11:35 p.m. ET on ABC.
