The Olympics

Will Butler:

I was trying to remember what the Olympic theme song was.

Caroline Desrosiers:

Bum, bum, bum, bum.

Will Butler:

Oh yeah. With the tympanis. Bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam.

Will Butler:

You're listening to Say My Meme, the podcast that describes the internet's best memes for a blind audience. I'm your co-host, Will Butler from Be My Eyes and I'm joined by Caroline Desrosiers from Scribely.

Caroline Desrosiers:

Yeah, there it is.

Will Butler:

Yeah. Oh God. Isn't that funny? I was like, I was first thinking of the 20th Century Fox. It was barump bum. But then I was like, no, it's not that.

Caroline Desrosiers:

Oh my God. I'm glad that I could remember that.

Will Butler:

Bum, bum, bum, bum. It's so funny how easy it is to trigger that. We have a visceral connection to the Olympics.

Caroline Desrosiers:

Yeah, totally.

Will Butler:

Were you a fan growing up?

Caroline Desrosiers:

Oh my gosh, such a fan of the Olympics. Really big time into figure skating when I was a kid and I used to go out in our front yard and put my massive rollerblades on and pretend to be a figure skater. I love that and then gymnastics in the summer.

Will Butler:

Oh my God.

Caroline Desrosiers:

Yeah, what about you?

Will Butler:

Yeah, I think I was a Summer Olympics guy if I had to pick. But what did they do this year? They moved the 2020 to 2021 and so they're doing Japan 2021 for summer and then they're going to do winter next year?

Caroline Desrosiers:

I think so. I think that's the plan.

Will Butler:

Wow.

Caroline Desrosiers:

Got to stay on schedule.

Will Butler:

And so I understand that on this great occasion of finally having some Olympics, you've dug up some Olympic memes.

Caroline Desrosiers:

Yep. Covering a whole range of topics for the Olympics, Winter and Summer so we have a nice collection here.

Will Butler:

Awesome.

Caroline Desrosiers:

All right, meme number one. Side by side photos, the first is an excited Jonah Hill celebrating the moment and he's clapping his hands and screaming with his eyes shut. And the caption below Jonah reads, "I'm going to the Olympics." And the second photo is a runner just colliding head first with a barrier that's making him bend back like a big banana and the caption says, "Did I win?"

Will Butler:

Oh my God. Yeah, this is, wait. What is this image from? Because this guy is really biffing it.

Caroline Desrosiers:

Yeah. It's not actually from the Olympics but it's used for this meme about the Olympics. It's actually the IAAF track and field world championships back in 2007 and this poor runner Gunther from Austria, he was doing the 3000 meter steeple chase and he just collided with this barrier. It was just tragic.

Will Butler:

The whole world, watching.

Caroline Desrosiers:

Yeah, poor guy.

Will Butler:

All those billions and billions of people watching the IAAF world championships.

Caroline Desrosiers:

Well, if they didn't watch that, they definitely saw this meme because it's all over the place.

Will Butler:

Yeah. And what's the significance of Jonah Hill? Does he just represent like an excited nerd?

Caroline Desrosiers:

Yeah, exactly. This face that he makes is used quite often, both as a still image and a GIF of him just screaming and holding up his hands. And it's kind of to me, it's insincere excitement.

Will Butler:

Right. He's almost got jazz hands. Bent back a little bit. All right. What else? What's next here?

Caroline Desrosiers:

All right. Next step. I feel like this is a common feeling that we're all scared to miss our alarm for something really important. Has that ever happened to you?

Will Butler:

There's a lot of hype leading up to the Olympics and people are always like, well, when does it start? What day does it start? And then even when it does start, stuff happens at weird times.

Caroline Desrosiers:

Yeah. Yeah. It's hard to catch everything. The schedule is very confusing but I feel like this particular meme is about an athlete that's about to compete in a very important event like the Olympics and not wanting to miss it because they slept through their alarm. That's what I think this meme is about. Picture a figure skater beginning her performance on the ice, in the fetal position with a pillow and a blanket and the caption is, "When you don't want to miss the Olympics."

Will Butler:

This woman's like, it looks like she's asleep on the ice with a pillow and a blanket. It's funny because I was interpreting this as when you are a viewer who doesn't want to miss the Olympics. But I could see it the other way too. There's an athlete who's got to be ready for my big moment on the ice. Who is person Evgenia?

Caroline Desrosiers:

Oh yeah, we're going to butcher her name.

Will Butler:

Medvedeva. Medvedeva.

Caroline Desrosiers:

Pretty good. She's from Russia and she is a huge fan of Sailor Moon and she's famous for doing this figure skating performance that's kind of pays homage to Sailor Moon. She's dressed up in an outfit and it's a total cosplay performance. It's not actually at the Olympics either, interestingly enough. But that's how she made a name for herself is with this and all of the anime fans out there were just overjoyed.

Will Butler:

At the beginning of the act, she's pretending like she's asleep on the ice and then she presumably gets up and does her thing.

Caroline Desrosiers:

Yeah. And it's kind of wild. Her performance is kind of wild but it's cool.

Will Butler:

It's interesting that a lot of these Olympics memes are not really from the Olympics.

Caroline Desrosiers:

I know. I know. And I had to look that up, because I was like, of course, I'm going to find it if I just put this in, in the Olympics and turns out there were snagged from other images.

Will Butler:

Well, this next one also does not look like it was from an Olympic performance.

Caroline Desrosiers:

It's about the Olympics I suppose. Picture a very strange Olympic medal photo opportunity of Michael Phelps and he's wearing only his low rise swim briefs and doing this slight plie bend at the knee and his arms are stretched out to the side. And to me, he kind of looks like a thunderbird and his metals are all on display and they're dangling from his arms and his neck like feathers. And the caption is, and this is actually a quote from Michael Phelps, "I've been out swimming people since conception."

Will Butler:

Oh my God. He's got quite a wingspan, doesn't he?

Caroline Desrosiers:

Yes, he does. It's incredible.

Will Butler:

And he's got how many medals is that?

Caroline Desrosiers:

Well, I looked it up and he has 28 medals, I believe. There must be, I didn't count them all, but they must all be there because they're pretty much covering his arms and his neck.

Will Butler:

It's pretty remarkable to see them all dangling from his arms together.

Caroline Desrosiers:

I know. But aside from that, how weird is this photo? It's just a strange photo opportunity.

Will Butler:

It's very weird. And is someone holding up his arms on either side?

Caroline Desrosiers:

Yeah.

Will Butler:

It must be actually heavy.

Caroline Desrosiers:

Yeah, that's what I think.

Will Butler:

Holding 20 gold medals from your arms.

Caroline Desrosiers:

Yeah. Either they're holding, they're helping him hold the medals or there are several people in a line. I don't know but it's strange.

Will Butler:

Wow. And those briefs. How about those briefs?

Caroline Desrosiers:

Yeah, right?

Will Butler:

They're pastel.

Caroline Desrosiers:

Yeah. Pretty great.

Will Butler:

Oh my gosh. Wow. Wow. Michael Phelps, he had his moment.

Caroline Desrosiers:

Yeah. Hats off to him.

Will Butler:

Next step, do I see SpongeBob again?

Caroline Desrosiers:

Yep. Yeah. These are fantastic. So many wonderful SpongeBob memes out there.

Will Butler:

And for folks who are wondering, Carolyn sends me these memes and mostly I read the alt tags. Most of these, I can't really see them but I'm reading the alt tags in advance. SpongeBob, how's how have our worlds collided here between the Olympics and SpongeBob?

Caroline Desrosiers:

Yeah, so I feel like this is a meme about yes, the Olympics but also another sport that Americans really don't seem to pay much attention to or care about for some reason. And to many this is kind of a perplexing but picture side by side images and the first is SpongeBob just screaming his face off in the bleachers with a Photoshopped Uncle Sam top hat on and a little American flag in his hand. And the caption above this image is, "Americans during the Olympics." And then the second image is SpongeBob at home peeking over and through his little porthole window and he's wearing the same top hat and he just looks kind of scared like he's hiding and the caption is, "Americans during the World Cup."

Will Butler:

Yeah, he's got nothing to offer.

Caroline Desrosiers:

Yeah. I'm still, I guess, rooting for America here, but I don't know. I'm not sure of the rules.

Will Butler:

Yeah. That's accurate. That's definitely accurate. SpongeBob is a great meme character for just in general. He's just got so many looks.

Caroline Desrosiers:

I know so many.

Will Butler:

Glalooks.

Caroline Desrosiers:

Yeah. And this is perfect. I got to admit, I'm not really, I don't watch the World Cup. Do you?

Will Butler:

No.

Caroline Desrosiers:

Yeah. But the rest of the world really cares about this.

Will Butler:

It is really funny that people and the World Cup is very established, all the countries competing, just like the Olympics.

Caroline Desrosiers:

I know.

Will Butler:

People don't really care.

Caroline Desrosiers:

Oh well.

Will Butler:

Maybe it's the marketing. Okay, and then finally here, we've got, what is this one about? This is a more current sort of comment, this next one?

Caroline Desrosiers:

Yeah, yeah. Picture an action shot photo of an athlete right at the moment he's just barely clearing this high jump bar and there's kind of this wild look on his face. And he's pushing really, really hard. Mouth is open and his arms are out and he's just barely getting over the high bar and the caption reads.

Will Butler:

I love this one.

Caroline Desrosiers:

There should be an Olympics where athletes can take as many drugs as they want. Fuck it, let's see how high humans can really jump.

Will Butler:

I love that. Let's really push the limit. It's a good point. I don't know what drug it would be that would get you to jump higher. Certainly not marijuana.

Caroline Desrosiers:

No, no, definitely not. But they probably have looks a lot like this one, right?

Will Butler:

Maybe PCP. I don't know. What would get you higher? Because there was a situation this year where an athlete was disqualified for smoking weed, right?

Caroline Desrosiers:

Yes, yes. Sha'Carri Richardson, right?

Will Butler:

Right. Exactly. And that was a big deal. And obviously our friend, Michael Phelps has been known to smoke the weed but he's got his 27 medals dangling from his arms. What is really fair here?

Caroline Desrosiers:

Right. Exactly. And then, there's so much effort made to make sure that athletes are not doping and they don't have an unfair advantage, but this meme is kind of about imagine an Olympics where everyone was taking performance enhancing drugs and just really stretched the capabilities of the human body.

Will Butler:

Yeah. It's called burning man, Caroline.

Caroline Desrosiers:

True.

Will Butler:

Yeah. It happens every year, it's 10 days long. It's actually very similar to the Olympics in a lot of ways. This next one is about the contrast between these superhumans and ourselves, right?

Caroline Desrosiers:

Yes, exactly. Miss Simone Biles, she's incredible. She's breaking all of these records and she's just, she's amazing. This meme it's about her and it's also about all of the ridiculous questions that people ask Google. The questions you're afraid to ask others or you're too embarrassed so you just need to Google it real quick. But picture Simone smiling and holding up a gold medal from Rio 2016 and above that it says, "Simone Biles at 19." Picture that. And then below that it's a screenshot of a Google search and it says, "Me at 19." And then the question, "Can you die from eating too much garlic bread?" Simone's out there at 19 years old winning gold medals and you're at home worrying about all the garlic bread you just ate. That to me is perfect. And it resonated because I'm sure I had a 1,000 weird hypochondriac questions for Google at that age.

Will Butler:

I'm sure that the young teenage gymnast with five gold medals are also Googling that type of stuff, right?

Caroline Desrosiers:

Right. Well, yeah.

Will Butler:

They're just as anxious and nervous as us I'm sure.

Caroline Desrosiers:

Yeah. And confused. What can kill me in this world?

Will Butler:

Well, it's an exciting time. I know that there's been a lot of, well, it's almost like you can't have a major world event now without drama playing out on Twitter but nonetheless, I'm glad that they have brought the Olympics back and thank you for bringing us these Olympic memes, Caroline.

Caroline Desrosiers:

Yeah, of course. I hope everyone has fun watching the Olympics this year.

Will Butler:

Thanks everyone. Talk to you all next week.

Caroline Desrosiers:

Later.

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