Olympic Opening Ceremony

[TheGreenKnight]

Watching the opening ceremony. AIBU in finding it boringly grim. Especially when compared to London 2012.

Who said that???

The whole thing opened with a Jamel debbouze sketch. Did you miss it?

Of course I'm quoting specific individuals verbatim.

Or it's a joke.

You decide

I think the mocking of the last supper was appalling - this was a world event with people from countries across the entire world, they choose to mock Christianity. This is not diversity, had they mocked a different religion I am sure there would have been outrage and condemnation as being discriminatory and prejudiced.

Whatever it was, seems a bit pointless

It’s not really surprising. France is intolerant of Islam, Judaism disability, mental health problems, neurological diversity - in fact the only diversity it seems to embrace is gay men and men in frocks. So it’s not surprising that they thought fit to mock Christianity as well. We shouldn’t forget France has a history of being the sight of what many consider to be the first genocide (against other Christians).

The fact its politics are now politics of extremism at both ends isn’t surprising.

I agree, seems like hard work. Have a nice day

Not forgetting Marie-Antoinette’s talking head!

I didn’t like it but I want to know what it was referencing? What was the intention behind it?

@Tulipsareredvioletsarebue
"If you look at this thread here only, nothing self depreciating, just loads of people tapping themselves on the shoulder any how amazing London 2012 was. But if life me you are a foreigner, then large chucks of it has zero meaning not significance, and like lots of Brits didn't get cultural references of parisian segments, most abroad didn't get obscure references to the Archers among others."

Well yes of course, in the context of this thread they're talking about opening ceremonies. That's why I mentioned that they're feeling pride in something specific in contrast to their general self deprecation, and how that tends encourage disparaging remarks aimed at the entire nation from certain people.

I didn't spend a lot of time in this country growing up and have no idea about things such as the archers. I also cba watching hours of ceremony so only ever watch clips. With that in mind London was enjoyable regardless of reference, Beijing was hugely impressive and I loved what I saw from Athens. The bits I've seen from Paris were dreary, ugly, offensive or just inappropriate. But the point of my post you quoted was that whether you enjoy a poxy ceremony or not it's unacceptable to use it as an opportunity to make sweeping generalisations about an entire nationality. And on this site it's the same xenophobic posters popping up at any opportunity.

I have no idea what the intention was other than it seems to alienate a whole section of the world. Either parody all major religions or non.

none

What happened in 2020? The Olympics didn't cos of COVID.

I thought we were talking about the 2024 Paris Olympics.

What I meant is that everyone was saying on-line that the ceremony was promoting threesomes and then it turns out it was a cultural reference about iconic French cinema featuring Jules et Jim!

I agree that outwardly a trans Last Supper is objectively offensive but speaking as a Christian, I would like to know more about it before judging, rather than emulate ranting US bishops on You Tube shouting about Sodom and Gomorrah.

I’ve just Googled and apparently …

The burlesque performance was an “interpretation of the Greek God [of wine and festivity] Dionysus” to make viewers “aware of the absurdity of violence between human beings,”

The Olympics on X (formerly Twitter)

Well who knew? Why parody the Last Supper in that case?

No wonder right wing frothers are gaining traction in politics and on social media atm when woke politics are represented so crassly.

A good example of inclusivity though was the refugee team boat! I thought that was great!

Oh @libre me too!!!

It was a joke but if you need an ultra serious point - to illustrate how people's values can change over time and what may seem like a silly or strange thing to celebrate by one group, might be viewed differently after different experiences. It was responding to various comments about the NHS segment in London 2012, I didn't bring it up. Not sure why this is such hard work.

As for Paris 2024, my pointless opinion is that I enjoyed a few segments of it and I admire the ambition behind it, but it lacked cohesion as a whole and didn't work for me. The boats had been done before at the Diamond jubilee and didn't work for exactly the same reasons - however, the athletes parade can be quite dull as the Olympics has increased in size over the years, it goes on for longer. i think it needed a stronger director, sometimes the braver thing to do is cut things back, particularly things that tick boxes or try too hard but add nothing.

As above, it was a reference to Jules et Jim, a famous film of the New Wave.

Are you joking?

Mumsnet, if anything, has a 'Britain is worst', or at least an 'England is worst' mentality. From all the threads during the pandemic about how Britain was 'the laughing stock of the world', to how people working in tourism hate the Brits (or just the English), to how British kids are all badly behaved fatties, it's rare to see a good word about Britain here.

But the London Olympics opening ceremony was brilliant. One of the best ever, although of course these things are subjective. Last night's affair - it's hard to see it as a 'ceremony' - was frankly a shambles. You certainly don't have to agree, but for people to say that one British event was great hardly translates to a 'Britain is best mentality'.

I don't agree.
There is an awful lot of Britain is best here and thinly veiled racism against France, USA and Ireland in particular.

I’d love to see the masked parkour figure running away over the rooftops with the flame again, it was really intriguing.

LoveRosesClimbing that was extremely clever, so agile and fearless. But oh, my heart was in my mouth and my stomach churning because I don't like heights!

I agree with your assessment re: cohesion but I think the idea of the Seine was that the ceremony would be easily accessible to as many Parisians as possible, but it was difficult to encapsulate on film.

I imagine with every Olympic opening ceremony there is a battle between what looks good on the tv screen and what looks good to the audience.

In this day and age all the best bits will be endlessly repeated on Instagram, Facebook and You Tube so maybe they decided that audience accessibility and participation was the way to go. And it did highlight a lot of Paris… shame about the weather.

Fwiw, I think your joke may have fallen a bit flat because French health care is so excellent in comparison with some bits of NHS nowadays so it was the wrong subject to to joke about perhaps?

Now you mention it though, I remember there was a bit of bewilderment at the time about nurses dancing about with bedpans in uk 2012 ceremony 😀, but in retrospect we understood and came to celebrate it and look back on the whole thing very fondly!

Agree, there are very blinkered views expressed on here a lot of the time, strongly influenced by Murdoch & co.

And I couldn’t believe some of the hateful comments about France and Ireland that spewed out on the Brexit threads.

And the USA is often defined in lazy stereotypes.

I once tried to raise the subject of identity cards for uk on here (think it was on a frothing immigration thread) and had my arse handed to me on a platter, even though it works perfectly well in most EU countries without feeling the “dreaded” hand of the state on your shoulder. I used mine to pick up my prescription this morning at the chemist. Took all of 50 seconds.

Having lived abroad in EU countries most of my life in which the basic public services: such as health care , reasonably priced and subsidised public transport and childcare, social care, etc, actually function well; I get flamed on threads if I suggest this is sometimes not the case in the uk, despite endless threads to the contrary.

I have lived in the UK too and there is so much to love about it: its humour, creativity, unmatched beautiful countryside, gorgeous architecture, sense of aesthetic, stately home, the arts, fantastic universities, respect of history, entrepreneurial spirit, gardens, sense of fairness, support for the underdog, queuing and general friendliness in shops, great biscuits, seasons, etc, to name just a few.

There is absolutely no need to be defensive when someone is praising how things work in other countries but some British people have a defensive mentality I guess.

And I don’t say that to be rude although I know it sounds it. Geography does matter. If you live in France, work in Switzerland and regularly visit friends in Germany at the weekend, you will naturally have a different outlook because you have to regularly confront very different laws, humour, habits, languages, and culture close by. I’m not saying everyone in England, Scotland, Wales, and N Ireland are particularly homogenous either but we are isolated from the main body of Europe and it does make a difference somehow.

Living on an island does breed a different mentality, I mean who cares if the boarder between say France and Germany shift, foreigners can literally live down the road. Many of the countries are fairly new,

We have a clearly defined area which is ours, we aren’t part of mainland Europe - we’re islanders - people crossing the sea are viewed largely with suspicion because historically they’ve been trying to invade.
Our countryside is different, our customs are different, you’re never more than a couple of hours from the sea so everyone is connected.

We have an amazing history, for such a small island, our impact in shaping the world is almost unparalleled,we are the birth place of the Industrial Revolution, we were the people who sent out her navy to bring the Atlantic slave trade to an end. We are a nation of inventors.

Yet it’s unpopular to recognise any of this, people would rather slag us off. Most Britons are fed up of it.

There is a lot to be proud of in Britain. Also other countries have a lot to be proud of too.

I am not sure who is slagging you off. There is a lot of Britain is best insular mentality on here.

Just because someone else does something well that does not take away from you doing something well too.

We live where we live by accident of birth. We should just do the best we can and be respectful of other people and cultures who may be different to us.