In the latest entry in the "I forced a bot to watch" meme, comedian Keaton Patti has unveiled the first page of an A.I.-generated Superman screenplay featuring a new character, Journalismman. With nearly a century of comic books, TV shows, and movies starring the Man of Steel, Superman has been parodied countless times over the decades. And thanks to his squeaky clean image and propensity for wearing external red underwear, the character is particularly ripe for ridicule.
Artificial intelligence, as imagined by countless movies, TV shows, and novels, remains firmly in the realm of science fiction. While primitive artificial intelligence and machine learning software does exist, these programs are nowhere near as advanced as HAL or Skynet, thankfully. However, these programs have resulted in some amusing creations. When scientists (or bored software engineers) feed an AI program great works of literature, screenplays, or social media posts, the AI bot can generate a unique piece of content based on those inputs. The results are often hilarious, terrifying, or a bit of both.
This week, Patti posted the first page of an AI-generated Superman screenplay on his Twitter page. Patti's credits include Marvel, Comedy Central, The New Yorker, The Onion, and McSweeneys. His original Superman adventure features Clark Kent, Lex Luthor, and a brand new Superman alter ego, Journalismman! As with most AI-generated scripts, the screenplay is hilariously nonsensical. When Lex Luthor appears on the scene wearing a suit made of kryptonite, Superman tells him, "Kryptonite is my kryptonite! Please wear different clothing today." For more original, computer-written dialogue, Patti's Superman AI screenplay is worth reading in full. Plus, as Patti pointed out on Twitter, Clark Kent rebranding as Journalismman wouldn't be the weirdest event in Superman's long comics history. That prize goes to "The Bride of Jungle Jimmy".
This isn't the first time Patti has "forced a bot to watch" thousands of hours of a pop culture franchise like Superman. Particularly astute readers may wonder whether there are thousands of hours of Superman movies in existence (there are not). Of course, because the internet is always hungry for more content, Patti's AI-generated scripts often end up getting covered by incredulous websites, this one included.
For Twitter users, the "I forced a bot to watch" meme still hasn't gotten old. In just a few hours, Patti's original tweet had earned more than 850 retweets. The bit may not be especially fresh anymore, but neither is the character Journalismman. A Twitter profile with the handle @JournalismMan dates back to June 2012. Still, considering how dark the modern-day DC Extended Universe has become since the 2013 Man of Steel saw Clark Kent literally snap the neck of General Zod, DC and Warner Brothers could use some help with comedic relief. Perhaps future entries in the DC universe would be improved if studio heads forced Patti to watch thousands of hours of DCEU films and generate some original Superman screenplays.
Source: Keaton Patti