NBC
Somebody caused offense at the Olympics over the weekend.
It was something judged so horribly inappropriate, tasteless and antithetical to the spirit of the Games that the culprit was unceremoniously fired.
The severe punishment was instantly applauded by a horrified world.
“When will these people ever learn?” declared one furious professor from a British university on X. “Why aren’t they being given some kind of training?”
Another outraged commenter ordered the miscreant to “hang your head in shame!”
And there were demands for a public apology for the “disgusting” incident, which was so bad, it was immediately branded “outrageous” by one of their co-workers sitting beside them.
Now, at this point, you might be assuming that I’m talking about whoever decided it was a good idea to desecrate the Last Supper at the opening ceremony with a jaw-droppingly repulsive drag-act mockery of one of the most important and symbolic moments in the life of Jesus Christ.
But no, I wasn’t.
In fact, I’m talking about a Eurosport commentator named Bob Ballard, who, as the gold medal-winning Australian women’s freestyle swimming relay team left the Paris Aquatic center, quipped: “Well, the women just finishing up. You know what women are like … hanging around, doing their makeup.”
Sacré bleu!
Has there ever been a more disgraceful example of sexism perpetrated by a human being in the history of Planet Earth?
Well, yes, there has.
In fact, at the very same time feminists are frothing from their lipsticked mouths in rage about Ballard’s lame but tame joke, women around the world are drooling in a sexually charged manner on social media about Dutch male swimmer Arno Kamminga’s revealing flesh-colored trunks.
As is true so often these days, rhetorical sexism rules only apply from men to women, not the other way around.
But the far greater hypocrisy to me is why the hapless Ballard, a veteran of 40 years of elite athletic commentary, had to be instantly thrown to the virtue-signaling wolves, yet nobody’s been held accountable for one of the most egregious acts of deliberately offensive taunting that I’ve ever witnessed at an international sporting event.
Honestly, I could barely believe what I was watching as the Last Supper drag parody played out on Friday night.
The Olympics are supposed to be a unifying global event, yet here were the organizers brazenly insulting 2.4 billion Christians in the most flagrant manner imaginable.
I posted a photograph of it on X, with my reaction: “Btw, what the f–k was all this about? A drag queen mockery of the Last Supper at the Olympics? Would they have mocked any other religion like this? Appalling decision.”
And to give you some idea of the scale of the offense caused, my opinion has so far had 11 million views and been “liked” 163,000 times — by far the biggest response to anything I’ve posted in several years.
The comments were almost universally furious, and I fully understand why.
As I wrote, it’s unthinkable that Olympics chiefs would have allowed other religions like Islam, Judaism or Hinduism to have been so crudely ridiculed in this way.
So why did they allow the world’s biggest faith to be singled out, especially in a country like France, where 50% of the population are Christians?
It was so obviously repellent that not only did Christian leaders express outrage, led by a statement from French Catholic bishops which raged against the “scenes of derision and mockery of Christianity, which we deeply deplore,” but leaders of other faiths issued statements of solidarity, including Egypt’s Al-Azhar, the highest seat of Sunni Muslim learning, which attacked the decision to “depict Jesus Christ in an offensive manner, disrespecting his honorable person and the high status of prophecy in a reckless barbaric way that does not respect the feelings of believers in religions and high human morals and values.”
It’s been wrongly reported that Olympics organizers have since “apologized’” for the sickening skit.
They haven’t.
Instead, they just pretended they never meant to upset anyone.
“There was clearly never an intention to show disrespect to any religious group,” said Paris 2024 spokesperson Anne Descamps. “On the contrary, I think we tried to celebrate community, tolerance. We believe this ambition was achieved. If people have taken any offense, we’re of course really sorry.”
What a load of disingenuous bulls–t.
Others have tried to claim it wasn’t a lampoon of the Last Supper at all but in fact inspired by a 17th-century Dutch painting of Greek Olympian gods at the Feast of Dionysus.
But if that’s the case, then why did Barbara Butch, the self-styled “fat, Jewish, queer lesbian” DJ seen in the middle playing the role of Jesus, post to her Instagram account a now-deleted picture of the scene above Da Vinci’s painting of the Last Supper and caption it: “Oh Yes! Oh Yes! The New Gay Testament!”?
They knew exactly what they were doing.
Butch says her aim in life is to “unite people” and “share love,” but all she and her fellow mockers achieved is helping to cause huge disunity and anger.
Not that you would realize it if you heard the verdict of America’s first lady Jill Biden — who was in attendance — and said the opening ceremony was “spectacular … every step of the way.”
Really, Dr. Biden?
Why don’t you run that by the congregation of the churches in Washington and Delaware that you and Joe regularly attend as committed Christians?
Trust me, they won’t be using the word “spectacular” about this appalling display of deeply offensive blasphemy.