Olympic closing ceremony?

[Bill V]

OK, first things first--Despite the poor weather, Vancouver, and Canada in general, did a great job hosting the Olympics. Well done!



That said...



Did anyone catch the closing ceremony last night--particularly that last 15-30 minutes? Was it just me, or was that the most ridiculous thing you've ever seen? It reminded me of a cross between Mel Brooks' "Springtime for Hitler" and South Park's "Blame Canada!"--except both of those were intentional farces, and this wasn't! I mean, come on--giant stick hockey players dancing with giant inflatable beavers??? Who thought this up?



And the bits before it, with William Shatner, Katherine O'Hara, and Michael J. Fox, probably looked good on paper--but they certainly seemed to bomb.



Thoughts? Like I said, I loved everything about how this Olympics was done--right up to the last half hour. I thought the bit at the beginning of the closing ceremony, with the mime mechanic "fixing" the torch, was great. But oh man, that ending was painful. It was like watching a wreck on the highway--it's simply awful, but you can't look away, for fear you might miss something even worse...

 

[Shaun Tucker]

Hate to break it to you Bill, but the closing ceremonies were designed to be a bit of a farce. I guess its confusing when they do a serious opening ceremony and a light-hearted closing, as people will most likely be taking your closing ceremonies pretty seriously, but yea...what can I say - didn't even watch it.



I went to AVATAR instead...finally.

Closing with a little fun

The Globe and Mail

By Mark Hume, The Globe and Mail Posted Sunday, February 28, 2010 11:10 PM ET



It doesn't get any more Canadian than a singing Mountie named Michael Bubl.



Unless of course it's a giant beaver, floating moose or the world's biggest table-hockey game.



All of those themes were rolled out in the giant party that was held last night in Vancouver to mark the end of the 2010 Olympic Games.



It wasn't clear whether those iconic, self-mocking images would be enough to satisfy those critical of the opening ceremonies for falling short on French content. But the intent was clear - the organizers of the closing ceremonies hoped that everyone would get the jokes and not worry too much about weighing the cultural elements.



It was meant to be a national celebration that was, more than anything else, just simple fun.



Some changes were made to address the lack of French in the opening ceremonies.



Just before the closing events were broadcast, a new bilingual video of I Believe/J'imagine was released, featuring both Quebec pop star Annie Villeneuvev and Montreal singing sensation Nikki Yanofskyv.



Marie-Mai, a pop-rock idol in Quebec, also performed during the show.



But the closing ceremonies were obviously not designed to perfectly reflect the cultural mosaic of the country. It was not designed by a parliamentary committee but by a creative team, led by artistic directors, David Atkins and Ignatius Jones, who more than anything wanted to put on a good show.



Before drafting the plan for both the opening and closing ceremonies, the creative team undertook a journey across Canada in which they held eight symposiums with poets, musicians, artists, writers and designers.



At those meetings, participants were asked four key questions: Where do we come from as a nation? Where is Canada today? Where are we going as a nation? And what should we show the world?



That process led to the powerful presence of first nations at the opening ceremonies - and last night, it led to the floating moose and a series of skits where several international stars revealed the real secret of their greatness with the words: "I am Canadian."



"Olympic closing ceremonies are strange creatures," Mr. Atkins and Mr. Jones said in a statement about their program.



They said they had to balance the sadness of the formal protocols - the closing of the Games, lowering of the flag, extinguishment of the flame - with a flat-out celebration of the Olympic athletes and of Canada.



Mr. Atkins and Mr. Jones describe us as "fabulous, warm, chronically polite and frankly, crazy Canucks."



They might have added that we are - or have been, perhaps until now - a nation very concerned with political correctness, especially when it comes to cultural and ethnic issues.



To get us to lighten up, they had everyone in BC Place put on cardboard moose antlers.



It was as if they were saying: Lighten up, the Games have been a huge success. Forget about the stress of Cypress Mountain melting away, forget about the carping British press declaring these "the worst Games ever" after Day 4, and forget about the question of whether or not a party has appropriate cultural balance.



Martin Short claimed Canadians invented everything (including, or perhaps culminating in, the Wonderbra), Catherine O'Hara poked fun at Canadians for saying "sorry" for everything, Michael J. Fox ramped up the medal count by claiming all the world's athletes as Canadian, and William Shatner mocked Canada's enduring love affair with sweeping landscapes.



None of that was meant to get us to seriously reflect on where we have come from, but it sure told us a lot about where we are now: In a mood to party.

 

[Les]

Canadian humor...eh.

 

[Mike Caldwell]

I don't know if Shatner meant to pronounce Juan de Fuca wrong but he did maybe he had five beer? Either way i enjoyed the olympic closing ceremonies it was meant to be a bit farce and i found it funny. I also enjoyed the speech by John Furlong.

 

[Kevin Lang]

Katherine O'Hara? Was that the name of that heinously bad "comedian"? Geez, that wasn't Canadian humor, it was British humor, as it made no sense, was not funny at all.



The stupid sound effects and graphics really ruined Shatner, when he was doing his statement about Juan de Fuca and 4 beers, it seemed he was interrupted by the corny sound effect that sounded like a toilet flush, and had to repeat the start.



(BTW Shatner didn't say that Canadians could correctly pronounce Juan de Fuca, just that after 4 beers Canadians wouldn't mispronounce it as profanity)



Shatner DID forget that Alaska is the final frontier, however.



Neil Young was atrocious, that song sucked even when he had a voice. Speaking of voice, the Premier had a ridiculously poor French accent.



When it was said that all olympians were Canadians, I felt sorry for them :grin:



...mocking the mounties was absurd. Why didn't they just throw Dudley Dooright out there too? The mounties are supposed to be the nationwide canook cops, which would equate to something like the FBI, and they have a reputation like the Texas Rangers, yet America would never lampoon its equivalents so absurdly. I'll never be able to assume a mountie is straight again, after that whole gay dance segment.



Avatar was a better choice...it was at least watchable due to Stephen Lang's performance as the Colonel. There was no redemption on the closing ceremonies.

 

[TomT]

Overall I enjoyed the closing ceremony. I thought Michael Fox's appearance was very heart warming. Wasn't one of my favorite Neil Young songs but it was fitting.

 

[Timmy-The-Ute]

I'm going to miss the curling.

 

[Geoff Barker]

Opening and closing ceremonies were both lame, but these things always are. Opening ceremony was too PC and too much about "diversity". Closing ceremonies were full of cliched stereotypes. Jim Carey or Mike Myers could would have been better than William Shatner and Chatherine O'Hare. Even though newspaper colomnists seemed to have liked it, polls show that most Canadians were not impressed with the closing ceremonies. The best performance of all was in the opening ceremonies by a barefoot lesbian in a white suit, K D Lang.

 

[Geoff Barker]

Opening and closing ceremonies were both lame, but these things always are. Opening ceremony was too PC and too much about "diversity". Closing ceremonies were full of cliched stereotypes. Jim Carey or Mike Myers could would have been better than William Shatner and Chatherine O'Hare. Even though newspaper colomnists seemed to have liked it, polls show that most Canadians were not impressed with the closing ceremonies. The best performance of all was in the opening ceremonies by a barefoot lesbian in a white suit, K D Lang.

 

[Mark K 2]

I'm going to miss the curling

Hard. Hard! HARD!



[Broken External Image]:

 

[TomT]

Jim Carey or Mike Myers could would have been better than William Shatner and Chatherine O'Hare.

Oh man. THAT would have been great.

:haveabeer:

 

[Bill V]

As would Phil Hartman, if he was still with us...

 

[Geoff Barker]

Cheryl Bernard. Even though she's from Calgary, she was being referred to as "The Vancouger".