Althouse: The Olympics opening ceremony is...

August 5, 2016

The Olympics opening ceremony is...

... terrible.

36 comments:

Chuck said...: I know that whenever I think of the Olympics, the first thing I think of is "global climate change." They should have gone full-crazy, and had Al Gore as the flag-bearer for Belize.; 8/5/16, 8:39 PM
Paddy O said...: Worse than the London Olympics celebration of Mordor?; 8/5/16, 8:41 PM
Sebastian said...: Worse than the London NHS propaganda? Worse than the CCP propaganda in Beijing? Only caught Gisele walking (striding? strutting?): pretty impressive.; 8/5/16, 8:54 PM
FWBuff said...: I was watching a global warming documentary tonight, and an Opening Ceremony broke out!; 8/5/16, 9:29 PM
David said...: I tuned in for a while as the athletes were entering. I love that part, even though the production values were poor and they did not seem to be about to identify anyone by name. The announcer was reading from a script, nothing more.

That said, it's always great to see so many beautiful smiling young athletes of all colors, shapes and sizes.

I know some of the fat officials from the various countries need to march too but more limits on that would be good.; 8/5/16, 9:36 PM
traditionalguy said...: Twenty years ago Atlanta put on a much better one.; 8/5/16, 9:36 PM
Big Mike said...: I can just imagine what Tom & Lorenzo will have to say about the U.S. Team uniforms.; 8/5/16, 9:50 PM
David Begley said...: Make Greece the permanent home for the Summer Games. Pay Disney to do the Opening and Closing Ceremonies.; 8/5/16, 9:52 PM
TWW said...: I knew it was bad when the Greece contingent came out without spray paint cans.; 8/5/16, 10:14 PM
rcocean said...: The NBC coverage is always poor. I see 100 year old Bob Costas is still anchoring and giving us his "pearls of wisdom".

Now there's some kind of green dance thing going on. Its about indeginous peoples in Brazil. As if I care.

Where's Carmen Miranda when you need her?; 8/5/16, 10:23 PM
rcocean said...: Time for another commercial aimed at women. And time for me to change the channel.; 8/5/16, 10:24 PM
Anonymous said...: The worst of it is that it's Rio, so we won't have the satisfaction of watching 'em freeze in the dark.; 8/5/16, 10:42 PM
Karen of Texas said...: Watched two documentaries : 1972 Munich Games and how the Germans botched the rescue of the 11 Israeli team members. Very sad. And 1936 Berlin Games where the yokel boys from University of Washington kicked Hitler's "superior" Nazi Germans butts in 8 oar rowing. Very inspiring.

Let's hope we have none of the former and lots of the latter at this games.; 8/5/16, 10:56 PM
Original Mike said...: The sound is very muted. There's little crowd noise, it feels like no one's there.; 8/5/16, 11:06 PM
Gretchen said...: That was the very worst thing I have ever seen.

Starting with the national anthem of Brazil sounds like it should be sung by PeeWee Herman, people in silver spacesuits using those mylar heat blankets you bring in a survival kit (probably would come in handy if you were in Rio) to make poorly executed designs, followed by that horrible steampunk Hunger Games inspired section with creaky rusty mechanical insects and a backdrop that looked like a lab culture of the sewage infested water, Giselle's awkward catwalk, the horrific Soul train 1980s-inspired neon pink and green graphics with the hip hop dancers, that obnoxious inset of the SJW lady who interjected the whole horrible thing with admonitions, Brazil's Tina Turner, who just sat in a chair, the two elderly hip hop singers who didn't even sing the Macarena. t-mobile employees making a wall of white storage boxes. Then the rainbow colored ending. The stage looked like the unicorn from the Squatty potty commercial did his business on it. To top it off the country that is vermin and sewage infested ended this "entertainment" with a lecture about the environment.; 8/5/16, 11:08 PM
Birches said...: Yeah it's pretty bad. I feel like even the anchors are bored.; 8/5/16, 11:11 PM
Popville said...: Where was the Samba. Other than once tiny reference to Jobim, tho more on the super model strut. Sigh...; 8/5/16, 11:20 PM
readering said...: No budget thanks to economic-political disaster since games awarded. Not bad with what they had, thanks to compter technology. I suppose when they are held in LA in '24 we'll all watch on VR equipment.; 8/5/16, 11:20 PM
Original Mike said...: OK, the Olympic cauldron is pretty cool.; 8/5/16, 11:28 PM
Bad Lieutenant said...: What they should do is have the competition be virtual. Why kill all those trees and ozones flying everybody to wherever when they can all just run in their own stadiums? For the infrequent competitions where two people have to be together, like wrestling, those few events can all be held in one place, which can be a much smaller, more economical affair, and can either be slung about the globe or headquartered in Greece.

Plus each country can have its own ceremonies which will no doubt be much more appealing to the viewing audience in that country. Maybe Brazilians like this kind of crap and if they want it they should have it. Doesn't mean Americans or other people from real countries shouldn't have real halftime shows and get to swim in clean water.; 8/5/16, 11:40 PM
MayBee said...: I felt sorry for it.; 8/5/16, 11:44 PM
deepelemblues said...: I can't believe they still perpetuate this massive cultural appropriation. Are you an ancient Greek? No? Then how dare you hold "Olympic Games"! So wrong.; 8/5/16, 11:47 PM
Birches said...: Though no opening ceremony could ever be as bad as Yoko Ono in Italy. That was probably the worst.; 8/5/16, 11:47 PM
M Jordan said...: Yoko Ono was at the Italian Olympics opening? This is news to me.

What did she do, screech? Or quote her "Water" poem, the one I know verbatim: "W-a-t-e-r." John called it epic.; 8/6/16, 12:29 AM
Anonymous said...: Was it too many men in shorts Althouse?; 8/6/16, 1:50 AM
BudBrown said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 8/6/16, 3:11 AM
One Eye said...: Silver people on the shoreline let us be; 8/6/16, 4:50 AM
lgv said...: "Blogger M Jordan said...
Yoko Ono was at the Italian Olympics opening? This is news to me."

Yes she was. She was 72 at the time I believe. She was not at her peak performance level. Few noticed the difference.

I started looking for a recent Nicolas Cage single star rated movie on Netflix to improve the evening.; 8/6/16, 5:24 AM
damikesc said...: Did anybody expect otherwise?

In all of the discussions of pointless things, why does the Olympics get a pass? What a horribly useless event that does little to actually benefit anybody. I've seen suggestions to move it to a permanent location, and it makes a ton of sense. But it reduces the potential for corruption and graft for the IOC, so it's a non-starter.; 8/6/16, 7:25 AM
Charlie said...: "She was not at her peak performance level"

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahaha!; 8/6/16, 8:48 AM
MadisonMan said...: It's hard to beat, though, the emotion of the athletes as they walk in. That never gets old.; 8/6/16, 8:52 AM
mikee said...: Olympics? You mean the quadrennial testing ground for multinational biochemistry experimentation on human athletic performance?

Most of the Olympians have taken lotsa performance enhancing drugs, and also have taken extensive measures to avoid detection, and are professionals performing for money.

The IOC is as corrupt, maybe more corrupt, than FIFA. As is its gymnastics judging.

Brazil has as much reason to host an Olympics as any other poverty-riddled, crime-rampaging, sewage-flooding third world country on earth.

I'd rather watch a PeeWee League baseball game in Texas in August than those; 8/6/16, 9:56 AM
khesanh0802 said...: I will watch little of the games. If my girls from UConn (Stewie and Kia Nurse) face each other then I might tune in. Brazil has done itself no favors by drawing such attention to itself. So far my impressions are incompetence, graft, sewage everywhere and Zika.

I think the Olympic Committee (crooks all, I agree) are being completely irresponsible - if not worse- by allowing any competition to take place in the open sewer that is Guanabara Bay. This article should help us all commiserate with the athletes.; 8/6/16, 1:56 PM
Jaq said...: I don't know. I couldn't get through the commercials. Can't NBC come up with a little feminine pulchritude, to bad Holly Sonders left the NBC fold.; 8/6/16, 3:02 PM
Jaq said...: I heard Yoko do an interview once, and she was very charming, even endearing. She said, in so many words, it was all an act, or maybe a posture, I can never tell.; 8/6/16, 3:05 PM
Bill said...: I thought the klepsydra at the 2004 Athens Olympics was particularly beautiful.; 8/6/16, 7:36 PM