Frazz by Jef Mallett for August 12, 2024

It was a LOT of BS.

Question arises — what will life in Los Angeles be like by 2028? With their current problems, common to many US cities, and little improvement in sight, no way to guarantee either the financing or the venue.

Also wonder how many more very strange evens will be added to boost attendance and backing.

I watched one event.

I enjoy watching a little bit of whatever the “odd” sports are: The ones I haven’t a clue about, really. Like equestrian stuff. And this year “breaking” aka break dancing. And in the winter Olympics, I learned to enjoy curling at least a bit. In addition, Spouse enjoys the gymnastics a lot and the “artistic swimming” or whatever they’re calling synchronized swimming now. And diving. So I get to see some of that too unless I leave the room.

Couldn’t watch them, it was during work hours. But watched the opening and closing ceremonies. The closing one was a yawn a minute.

I wish they would quit using the flag as a victory prop. I am also opposed to flag patches and pins.

I competed to see which of my friends watched the least amount of the Olympics, and I won because I didn’t watch anything.

You get a chance to watch the best athletes in the world compete but, yeah, I’m above that.

Nothing says sports like breakdancing.

The level of blase cynicism demonstrated by some commenters here is worthy of gold medals. Some of y’all would seriously give Oscar Wilde a field day. I have to say, for the first time, I am disappointed in Jef. Of course it is absolutely fine to not watch the Olympics, whether because one is simply not interested or because one has better things to do with his/her/their time. But to adopt that level of aloof disaffection is, imho, the height of arrogance. These athletes dedicate their lives to the sports they love, sacrificing so much to achieve their greatest potential – and the honor of representing their country on the field of competition against the finest athletes in the world. If all I can do is sit on my couch and yawn in disdain – well, whoopie for me.

 citius altius fortius

Does not disappoint.

And really, did you watch Simone Biles and come away yawning? That says there’s something wrong with you!

This is one of the rare times I disagree with Frazz. I would think an athlete would appreciate the amazing human feats of the Olympics more than most. You don’t have to give up your own athletic pursuits to watch the Olympics. Just do both, unless you’re too busy patting yourself on the back for not watching the Olympics.

Wait, is it actually over? I can read the news again?

I understand flag football (both men’s and women’s) will be part of the 2028 Olympics. At least it’s a sport. The original Olympics were pretty straightforward: who reaches the finish line first, jumps the highest, throws something the farthest, pins the opponent, lift the most weight… everyone understands what it means to win such an event. But I’ve never gone for the “judged performance” events like gymnastics or now break dancing…

Watched some of the replays after dinner, after spending the day outside doing things.

So much for the strip’s either/or premise…

With all the politics and silliness involved, it seems to be irrelevant to me.

Their opening ceremony controversy threw an ugly smear over the whole thing, and was a bad way to start anything. The athletes didn’t deserve that.

I watched archery, women’s gymnastics, diving, women’s breaking and equestrian (show jumping). All of them provided first-rate competitiona and fascinating stories. The lazy cynicism of this strip is frankly insulting to people who can do what most of us can only dream of after putting in a level of dedication and effort that most of us would never be capable of.

The Paralympics start soon: Wed, Aug 28, 2024 – Sun, Sep 8, 2024. (Also in Paris.) If you’ve never watched them, they are also AMAZING and even more inspiring!

I watched the second half of the Men’s Basketball Gold Medal game (I saw on my phone that it was on, so I sought a place to watch it). The French commentators were apparently referring to “the devil Curry,” and Caitlin Clark subsequently revived the “human cheat code” meme on X (formerly Twitter).

Steph gonna Steph.

Waitaminnit: is this an Olympics year? When do they start?!

Zero

I lost interest after some guy won the Abuse Women event.

The Olympics were automatically recorded and thus served as great viewing. No need to be active for the whole day/night. Those people are amazingly talented and dedicated.

I watched the closing ceremony live – it could be the next Cirque Du Sole performance in Vegas, quite theatrical (prime-time version was cut to hell)

I liked the fact that the “Olympic Flame” was kept in a tiny oil lamp and the “Temporary Stadiums” they erected (like the pool) can be relocated for public access.

Surprised with all the “Green” technologies used to reduce the carbon footprint of the Olympics didn’t get a peep by Mr Environmentally Conscious.

And who can forget the viral life lesson of the pole-vaulter who learned that you shouldn’t pole-vault with an erection?

I watched a bunch in re-caps on Peacock. It’s amazing the physical effort and skill in all of them. From Javelin to Breaking, Artistic Gymnastics to Rings, Pole Vault, Sport Climbing, Diving….and more. I just fast forward through all the B.S. listen to the explanations, and do something else during the commercials. Saw some on You tube too.

All you cranky, jaded people missed the best Olympics in many, many years – yes, even Frazz who should honestly live for this stuff.

There were some great, world class competitions, the spirit of camaraderie and sportsmanship was widespread, and NBCs coverage stayed mostly on the sports. It was a ton of fun.

I feel sad that many of you missed it. There are lots of places to find joy in life. It’s OK to not constantly be cynical and negative about everything.

They were wonderful and if you would get out of your little cocoons you would see the magnificent competition that it was. These young athletes trained for years to get to the Olympics, but you just brush them off. Yeah, you’re too cool for school, as we used to say.

Frazz should’ve watched the Olympics. He could’ve picked up training advice.

I actually greatly enjoy watching the Olympics, but I have watched much less of these games in Paris and also the last 2-3 Olympics…. something about how they were televised made them more difficult to plan for and watch than they had been typically before. The downward slide in how they have been televised began to be more noticeable by me in the 2010s and later.

I am sure part of it may be me in terms of the viewing being more difficult, but I do remember how it was easier to know and plan for watching particular Olympic sports in the 1970s, 1980s and into the 2000s.

In my old codgery ways…. I still feel the old way of televising the Olympics the way it owns shown by ABC was the best.

Very poor coverage, especially on YouTube TV.

What does the last sentence mean? That the Olympic athletes suck at it? Or that he doesn’t care about any competition in which he’ll never compete?

last few Olympic, coverage was not good, in my opinion. I used to enjoy watching the competitions, even if the U.S wasn’t the favorite to win.

I watched a lot of the sailing. They’ve continued to evolve the racing to include some really modern and athletic classes. The 2 new ones were on hydrofoils. first the windsurfers, and then the kite boards. The later involves up to 10-12 racers flying parasails, up on a 5 foot long board, which is in turn flying on foils a foot or so out of the water. They go 2-3x the wind speed, which meant up to about 35mph in some of the races. At these speeds, some of the mark roundings had a time between contestants as low as 1 second.

If you have peacock go check out some of the replays, or search for “kiteboard 2024 olympics”

The more people are glued to the screens for events like the olympics, super bowl, world championships of any kind, they don’t fight or perform atrocities. And pools or parks, or other entertainment places, are much less crowded. I’ve been to Europapark once, when Germany played France in the soccer EM – that was great, the lines at the rides were not a quarter of those on usual working days.

I’m astounded at the number of people who are terminally offended that people who don’t share their interests exist.