The olympics. Yay.

[SonicWaffle]

I can just ignore all that stuff though. I ignore almost every ad anyway, the torch only happens for one day, and you can just say you don't care about the olympics if anyone presses the issue. Sure you'll notice it, but you can just treat it like any ad and forget about it.

Seeing an ad once is forgettable. Seeing the same ad three or four hundred times a day is relentless. Shops covered in bunting, every advert on TV being linked to the games no matter how unrelated the product is, the front page of every magazine and newspaper you walk past, every bus stop or billboard or train station you visit plastered with Olympic-themed ads.

Maybe I could ignore the games if they were in any way restrained rather than being cynically exploited by every corporation who can in a desperate attempt to link their product to the national consciousness, but the way things are the moment attempting to ignore all the games-related advertising and media and everything else is like trying to ignore the fucking sun!

 

[General Twinkletoes]

I can just ignore all that stuff though. I ignore almost every ad anyway, the torch only happens for one day, and you can just say you don't care about the olympics if anyone presses the issue. Sure you'll notice it, but you can just treat it like any ad and forget about it.

Seeing an ad once is forgettable. Seeing the same ad three or four hundred times a day is relentless. Shops covered in bunting, every advert on TV being linked to the games no matter how unrelated the product is, the front page of every magazine and newspaper you walk past, every bus stop or billboard or train station you visit plastered with Olympic-themed ads.

Maybe I could ignore the games if they were in any way restrained rather than being cynically exploited by every corporation who can in a desperate attempt to link their product to the national consciousness, but the way things are the moment attempting to ignore all the games-related advertising and media and everything else is like trying to ignore the fucking sun!

Maybe it's just an australian thing, but I will usually see the same ad for about a week, none others, and then it finds a new one after I've seen it 200 times. Seeing an olympic themed one instead for say, 2 weeks is hardly different for me.

 

[SonicWaffle]

But the spirit of the Olympics is one of coming together and competing on a level playing field

...and then being thrown out posting for racist Tweets, or walking out because someone mistakenly introduced you under the flag of a country you hate, or getting sent home for attempting to cheat (honestly, I'm surprised there have only been 9 confirmed drug cheats so far!), or taking the opportunity to score petty revenge points by complaining about how shoddy the English accomodation is, or...

 

[StAUG]

As a 'lets foster international brotherhood and goodwill and competitive spirit and blah blah blah' I love the Olympics. As someone that almost never watches TV, I probably won't experience any of it beyond reading the medal tally in the paper while I'm at work. One thing even I've noticed though, is cheesy way it's being advertised. It's either the Escapist or YouTube that starts every 2nd video with a goddamned Coke ad with the British DJ. Coke and Maccas, official Olympics sponsors? Uh, yeah. Great.

 

[SonicWaffle]

Maybe it's just an australian thing

Ah. Therein presumably lies our difference; I'm English, and living in England. As such, I'm constantly bombarded with Olympic advertising from the moment I wake up (putting the news on while I have breakfast - breakfast which likely comes in special Olympic themed packaging - which these days is about 60% Olympic news) and which never goes away throughout the day. Even the detractors are still talking about the games, be it articles about the waste or the fucked up way we're ceding the IOC whatever they want or the spectacular security fuck-ups or how historically speaking the games does sod all for a country's economy, so that the people who disagree with them or don't want them here are still thrusting them into the national consciousness.

I'm apathetic about the actual events; I feel they're a big waste of money, but I don't resent the people who will actually enjoy them. I resent the fact that it feels like the media and the sponsors and the government are doing their damndest to try and make a largely apathetic nation pretend that we care. The torch went past my house, and it was so cynical (I happened to be sitting by the window) as to be ridiculous. People were issued with flags by organisers, children pushed to the front, and then there was about two hours of convey in front of the actual torch that was nothing more than people with megaphones screaming "BE EXCITED! The torch is coming, there will be cameras, and so help me god if you don't look happy about it we'll break your fucking face!". The torch went by, the people stood there for a second, then chucked the flags away and went back to what they'd been doing before. I doubt any of them really gave a shit, but the TV had told them it was an important, not-to-be-missed event and so they went.

I got a text from my mother asking if I'd been to see it. When I said no, she told me I'd missed a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Maybe so, but being raped by angry tigers is probably a once-in-a-lifetime experience too and I'm not giving up my lunch break for that.

EDIT: As if to make my point for me, within moments of finishing this post I got an email promoting the "Summer of Sport!" and a variety of Olympic-and-sport themed offers...from my mobile phone provider. What with there being such a strong link between portable communcation devices and some blokes running in a circle, and all...

 

[Kyrian007]

I enjoy the Olympics. Interestingly enough I enjoy watching the "more obscure (here in the US anyway)" sports, even though the US team usually isn't in contention. I'll cheer on the U.S. but stay for the finals of say... team handball for example (if we even qualified.) I just like the obscure, different sports.

And for all of the people who hate the commercialization... yeah it's bad. But it's better than some of the ideals the modern Olympics were founded on. Namely maintaining class and racial superiority. That's why there was an "amateur only" rule... it was assumed that only affluent white folks could afford to train up to world class status without being a paid professional athlete. And that was supposed further the idea that the highest class people were the most perfect physical and mental specimens. Mental too because there used to be ?art? events like prose and poetry.

 

[Zealous]

The only sports I care about are e-sports. If the players aren't sitting down and clicking vigorously, I'll pass.

 

[Sparrow]

The Escapist down on sports? Well I never!

Yeah, I'm hyped. I buck the geeky trend and actually enjoy sports. The fact that it's in my country this year doesn't bother me that much, although I get that it'll be good for us in more ways than one. I'm more interested in the people running really fast and the gymnasts doing that crazy spinning shit.

 

[SonicWaffle]

And for all of the people who hate the commercialization... yeah it's bad. But it's better than some of the ideals the modern Olympics were founded on.

Plus the whole 'The Nazis invented the modernised Olympic torch procession' thing...

 

[Wolf In A Bear Suit]

I hate most of the sports in the olympics. I'll watch the opening ceremony and the boxing, where Ireland have a good chance. Next Olympics however there will be rugby sevens which I will be veeeery excited for

 

[StAUG]

I was only 14, but when we had the Olympics here in 2000 it was much the same. The weather report had a little torch symbol on the map in with the clouds and suns to show where it was, and TV/newspapers/media in general simply couldn't shut the fuck up about it. Then it ended, and everyone forgot. OTOH I do like having our tiny population take out a disproportionately high number of medals

 

[SonicWaffle]

The Escapist down on sports? Well I never!

Seems like most of the posters, much like the British people, aren't down on the sports so much as they are on the over-hyped clusterfuck of an event. Sports are fine, I enjoy sports. I just resent being told every fucking second of every fucking day that I ought to have the worlds biggest boner for the Olympics just by virtue of it being near me, and that I don't care (let alone dare to criticise the games!) there must be something wrong with me.

Despite how hard the media and the advertisers push it, the overwhelming opinion of the public at large seems to be "it hasn't even started yet, and I'm already sick to death of it". To be expected to smile and act like we're having the time of our lives is insulting.

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

Unless David Tennant will be lighting the torch, my interest in the Olympics will wane rapidly.

 

[CD-R]

Spoiler: My opinion on the olympics

Feel my oodles of patriotic joy. Can you feel the oodles tonight? It's oodley. Even more so than the ood. I've got more joy oodles than an ood in an ood factory where the ood eat sushi and crap oodles. Oh joy. This country's shameful unemployment, severe chav infestation, and general lack of tasty but gloriously unhealthy american food products will all be solved by a load of people running and jumping. Sarcarstic impression of excitement, this one cannot wait for the olympics.

You get the drift. I hate the olympics. More so, I hate the fact that, because the olympics are in london this year, the entire country seems to be trying to force me to be excited.

DISCLAIMER: I know the entire country is not doing this personally. Use some damn common sense, or else I'll have to put a fucking disclaimer on every thing I say.

From my point of view, it's a load of people running and jumping, occasionally using sticks to jump over other sticks or over sand, because as we all know from childhood, THE SAND IS LAVA. Apparantly, it's inspirational, but for what? To become an expert runner and jumper? It's not a health message, because, well, what's more off-putting than trying to excercise and seeing a load of people who are miles better at it, and who probably laugh at your ineptitude with the other demi-gods when they return to mount olympus at the end of yet another day of running and jumping.

DIS-FUCKING-CLAIMER: I do not mean to insult athletes. They work incredibly hard to eventually become contradictions to how fast a human is supposed to go, and I respect that. I just don't know if it's worth such massive international focus. By the way, I also have no problem with feminism, furries, relgions/atheism, fanfiction writers, people who wear wigs, and people who hate bioware. There, I'm pretty sure I'm safe. I think.

The only thing worth watching might be seeing it all go wrong, which seems likely if you've had the massive amounts of exposure to constant updates on how badly the whole operation is going.

The point of the thread: What do you think of the olympics? Looking forward to it? Hate it? Don't care? Planning on sending a wacky robot to win the big race, dohoho, shenanigans?

Now who wants to here a story about a bridge?

 

[Psychedelic Spartan]

I'm only going to watch US basketball. I like seeing us streamroll every other country in basketball.

 

[Charli]

Sorry I have internet dragons to slay. My apathy to the outside world is born of it's apathy towards me. :|

 

[JoesshittyOs]

It's one of the few things in existence where nearly the entire world puts aside their beliefs and differences to get together. Something almost unheard of in this heartless world. That right there, is something beautiful. Doesn't matter who you are, that is something to be respected.

I get the whole cynical thing. It's a fun thing to have in place of a personality. Doesn't really bug me when people aren't vocal about how much they don't care about something. But this is really pushing it.