Paris Olympics - opening ceremony

In fairness to the creators, I think Catholic humanism has been so totally secularised in the minds of most French people that they would consider the Last Supper tableau a parody of a pinnacle of human achievemnt (the painting itself), not of one of the holiest events in Christian history.
(Thank goodness I caught and edited in time, wrong word makes original nonsensical!!)

With regards to "was it the last supper or not?" I think a lot of people across multiple threads are conflating two different moments.

If you look here there are two different pictures. One is when the sky is still dark blue and is sans Papa Smurf; in the ceremony it was just a very quick tableau. This is The Last Supper. Then the first part of the catwalk happened. The second picture is after it has gone totally dark and has a blue, naked man on a platter - which is The Feast of Dionysus - and then he started to sing.

It was two different moments in the ceremony, parodying two different paintings... Both using drag queens.

The organisers who came out and said it was The Feast of Dionysus and not The Last Supper were trying to gaslight the world. It was both.

Wardrobe malfunction or entirely deliberate? Who knows with men ...

As far as this goes, it would be interesting to know how far in advance they set the vision for these events. It may well be that when they came up with the ideas for this, they were right on trend.

Possibly a lesson that being on trend might not be the most important thing with this kind of event.

The degree of explanation is going to be dependent on the broadcaster though. My French relatives and American colleagues were mystified as there was no explanation. I think the same has happened with the 2024 ceremony, although at least the BBC tried.

But I remember full explanations in the commentary, setting the scene before the sequence happened.

Yes, the pointless queering, obviously.

But I was thinking about the other bits, which were beautifully done, and why they didn't land with people.

@Snowypeaks tbh, a lot of overseas viewers were equally mystified by the 2012 opening ceremony “what’s with all the dancing nurses? And why is Abraham Lincoln there he’s not even British?”

I think what tripped them up was the pushing of the woke agenda at a time when the tide is turning against wokeness.. Personally I am gleeful as it will wake the whole world up as to what is being pushed down our throats. The backlash is spectacular, it has backfired very badly for all involved. Hilarious that they have had to remove footage from their official site & issue an apology.

The world was not prepared to buy the tomfoolery they were trying to peddle 🤣

They were showing how French people had influenced arts, science etc around the world in ways that the rest of us may not be aware of. No issues with that. Valid choice.

What has tripped them up is being so stingy with information. Perhaps assuming that the rest of the world knows more than we do? The BBC commentators actually said that they had had very little information in advance. Serious error by the organisers. Without explanation, too many items seemed random.
I was irritated, first time around, and so not inclined to just go with it.

And I’m afraid you must have been imagining the “loads of British dance music” . I didn’t hear any and a quick look at the official playlist here doesn’t show any either: www.sortiraparis.com/en/news/olympic-games-paris-2024/articles/317447-paris-2024-olympics-the-playlist-broadcast-during-the-opening-ceremony

Not to be picky but the minions were created and voiced by a Frenchman and the films are animated by a Paris-based studio. Ditto the Assasin’s Creed stuff - Ubisoft is a French company.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/olympics/article-13677879/An-Olympic-balls-Eagle-eyed-viewers-spot-performers-TESTICLE-hanging-opening-ceremony-Paris-2024-dancer-suffers-x-rated-wardrobe-malfunction.html?ito=social-facebook_Australia&fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR2ERzpxztpgtQYvaK2cvZFbrGXUUnHcfhkD65E-qvpGLxNfTcx-Gt-2gSA_aem_8Gvw-yQtunJ8LCurT4_bIg

The child was right beside the barechested man in tights & knickers with a full face of make up who suffered the unfortunate "wardrobe malfunction"...
I hope safeguarding investigate why the child was placed in that environment. It was absolutely not an appointment place for a child to be.

The 'demonic' thing going round on twitter seems very american and reminds me of Harry Potter being rounded on for witchcraft. I didn't think it was "demonic" whatever that even means, it was sometimes naff, sometimes brilliant and sometimes just rather tedious.

The child is probably a 'drag kid' I'm afraid. Which means, yes, they are being inappropriately sexualised.

I presume the fat woman in blue with the headdress is supposed to be Ariadne with her constellation crown.
I mostly thought about the drag bit how naff the dancing had suddenly become compared to other sections.

Yeah, Foucault would have said much the same.

I don’t know if he meant it the way it sounds, perhaps not, but this in the screen shot is the designer who says they are so inclusive, speaking.

In France we are allowed to love who we want, how we want.

"Inclusive" - all drag includes is men who hate women. That's it. (How much of a thing are drag kings? How effective a parody of men are they?) They're the performers and the target audience, regardless of sexual orientation. Oh, and by including children in their performance I'd say there's another subset of men they're appealing to, no?

Personally thought it was the worst Olympic Opening Ceremony ever, not a surprise that it's been deleted from YouTube.

American and Canadian singers, Italian artists and paintings, Finnish dance music, Spanish and American sports stars etc. Not a lot of French stuff. And I doubt drag has much of a history in France (happy to stand corrected though).

Spent ages watching the flame go up the river with the Assassin's Creed character (who was never unmasked) and spent ages watching the flame go down the river with non-French sports stars.

In that Fox business link about a Misssissippi tech company pulling out its ads because of the drag Last Supper the designer says,

"Our idea was inclusion," Jolly said during an International Olympic Committee media briefing. "Naturally, when we want to include everyone and not exclude anyone, questions are raised.

It is so ridiculous. I note their version of the Last Supper excludes women and people with disabilities.

Also questions might have been raised because it was sex drag, woman parody being teamed with the Last Supper.

It’s not a time for divisive satire or alienating huge swathes of the worlds population.

As I keep saying where were all the woman transvestites dressed as males?? Why weren't they front & centre? The aim was to humiliate & demean women.

Grooming.

Because that's a large part of this movement, isn't it?

Yes the young child right in amongst the male transvestites.. Why are they trying to normalise this? And on the global stage?

The other glaring issue was the one child in among the allegedly not last supper. And the man with his bollock hanging out. But yeah, "copyright" is why the ICO tried to stop all the images on X. Like we didn't all see what we saw. It's risible.