TV Guidance

Jaime Weinman writes about all kinds of television and other kinds of popular culture. He does not write Gossip Girl episode reviews. Follow Jaime on Twitter: @weinmanj

Categories: TV Guidance

My Insta-Reaction To the Olympic Closing Ceremonies

by Jaime Weinman on Sunday, February 28, 2010 11:21pm - 116 Comments

You know how, in The Producers, the audience for “Springtime For Hitler” is left slack-jawed and horrified at what they’ve just seen? And then, just as they’re about to walk out, they start to realize that the whole thing is so over-the-top that it’s funny? And finally they’re loving it and saying it deserves to run ten years?

That’s me with the closing ceremonies. The mountie costumes. The two guys in a pair of canoe-shaped pants. The slide-whistle sound effects to take away the guest star’s dignity. The beavers. It all felt so ridiculous and so sincere in its cheesy showbiz phoniness that I couldn’t help but be won over; it was like The Simpsons Family Smile-Time Variety Hour came to life and had a Canadian theme.

So, to the producers of this show, and the little old ladies who presumably invested in it: I don’t know what you were thinking, but I’ll take it.

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http://qwiklok.com david Forrester

With all the hype about it being better than the opening, I bought in. At first, a good hearty laugh. The celebs – not too bad can I can take the funky mooses and the likes. Buble was OK. But ending on these HORRID BANDS AND MUSIC -what were they thinking. This is not party music -this hurts! Here was the greatest chance of a lifetime to end on a great note – albeit harder to find than the hockey win, and in the end – a let down. As Rene Zwelleger said "Stop it – you won me over at hello!" BTW – where was the men's hockey team on the floor?
bob craigshaw

i was pretty underawed at he whole thing. At first this quickly became an issue of being pee'd off at the stereotypical Canadian thing being broadcast to the world aka the opening ceremonies . Then i calmed down cracked a cool one and i realized that it was kind of a fun thing. Well thats the only way i could take it. It was really too bad shania and even ( God forgive me for saying this) Celine could not make it for one song each. Half way through the bizzare parade i laughed and told my wife wouldnt it be great ot have bob and doug mackenzie just kind of walk through all this, as a side show and walk off without any spotlight.
Because the thing is , if i go travelling NOW foreigners will either think I am a haida indian/eskimo, or a cape bretoner , with the profession of a mountie, a hockeyplayer, or hunter/trapper.
Dot

They apparently didn't get the press kit before the show started.
Canadaguy

I thought the closing Ceremonies were very unique, and awesome.

The theme of humour, poking fun at our Canadian stereotypes, Canadian pride, and our respect of other cultures was enjoyable to watch……very well done.
Just Me

This was fun. It really capture our collective sense of humour. One of our most endearing qualities is our ability to laugh at ourselves. The world has seen the best of us for the past two weeks, now they've seen us let our hair down and celebrate while giving them a 'nudge, nudge, wink, wink'.
CanadaMom

I thought it was all pretty darn funny, and the humour very Canadian. The Americans are getting more and more used to our humour, so some of them probably enjoyed it as well and got the point. What concerns me is that the audience for Olympics is much broader (the entire world) and I think somehow the organizers forgot that. Thinking of all the places far and wide where folks would have their TVs on, I cringe to think how that came across. It may have actually perpetuated the stereotypes instead of making fun of them.
http://www.suchiu.com C Suchiu

I agree. Canada is much more intelligence then what was shown on the closing ceremonies. If they wanted more Canadian based jokes they should have gotten Rick Mercer from CBC Television to do it. At least it would have been intelligent humour and not embarrassing bathroom jokes.
I am still cringing! I was always taught "less is more". They should have stopped it after the 4th torch was lit and a few speeches were made. The rest of the world must be giving their heads a shake. I am a proud Canadian…that certainly did not make me proud.
JWG

When the flame went out, and the over-the-top shenanigans began, I turned to my wife and said, "This isn't for the rest of the world anymore, is it? This is just for us."

And if you watched those closing ceremonies with the usual Canadian shyness and self-consciousness about 'how the rest of the world sees us', you might have felt embarrassed or ashamed, or any mix of feeling that normally accompanies our usual Canadian low-self-esteem when presenting internationally.

But that would mean you missed the point.

It's true that the World, or America, does indeed see us as a bunch of polite, quirky, affable folk who love their hockey and maple syrup, who live in a land populated by moose, mounties, and beavers, and who usually cry, "Yeah, but that's just a stereotype.. we're much MORE than that!".

The closing ceremony after-party, filled with giant moose, mounties, maple-leafs, canoes, table-hockey, bears, and all sorts of stereotypical Canadiana, took another outlook. It said, "You know what? We ARE all of those things! We love this stuff!"

Are we more than that? Sure. But we're past the point where we should feel that our national obsessions, our past-times, our quirks and our *history* is something that we need to get past, and get over, in order to 'grow up' and be more.. what, American?

No.. this is who we are, we know it's all a little strange to the rest of the world, but here it is, on display in all it glory!

It doesn't matter what the world thinks, and I – and Canada – no longer cares what the world thinks. Come and celebrate our Canadian-ness with us, because it's not going away. We *are* all grown up now, but grown up as Canada, no anyone else.
Ryan

Great post JWG. Hit the nail right on the head with your last point.
Amy

That's all well and good, but is the closing ceremonies the place for it? The opening ceremonies introduce the host country. The closing ceremonies are supposed to be a big party for the athletes and the viewers. As a dual citizen who has heard an earful of Canadian complaints about the US, I could not get over the self-referential aspect of the ceremonies. This was supposed to be about the athletes and the Olympics. You show what Canada is made of by showing the athletes and the Olympic movement what they/it means to us. You can get some Canadianness in there, but that shouldn't be all it is. This is a great country. The closing ceremonies, unfortunately, did not reflect that as well as it could have. Too bad.
Mark

Rick Mercer! I totally agree! Hadn't thought of him, but he would have been way,way better than Michael J Fox, Catherine O Hara and William Shatner ..for the "humor"part.
Oh and thanks ..whoever chose the artists….for letting lousy artists like Nickelback and Simple Plan represent us. Geez.
jojo

Definitely lacking! Didn't hold my interest.
Anon Liberal

Exactly right Amy.
Will

Same here. I would have normally found that type of humour boring but they put it together brilliantly. I didn't hear any complaints from the British press either. OK, some teased us about the beavers but it's part of our heritage and David Atkins pulled it off. Watching that bit with Buble singing the Maple Leaf Forever made me proud to live in Canada.