Someone should make Botchamania for the Olympics

Blogs and microblogs are flooded during the Olympics with people making the exact same joke about how they’ll see a gymnast or diver do the most insane thing they’ve ever seen while the announcers act like Gordon Ramsey on Hell’s Kitchen.

It’s the same joke, time and time again, but I get a laugh out of it every time. I even make it myself, sometimes, though I’m not as prone to sharing every thought on the internet as others. I think my years as a wrestling fan have broken my brain a bit, but it makes the Olympics more enjoyable.

In wrestling, matches are push-and-pull: Rarely does someone who sucks at it have a “great match.” Judging, from fans, is closer to gymnastics and diving judging than the non-fan realizes. Every move is overanalyzed and hyped up. People ask “where’s the story?” There’s a series called Botchamania that makes fun of mess-ups in the ring. 

Watching the Olympics with that in mind is fun: Teddy Riner probably can’t do a moonsault, but he had the crowd in the palm of his hand his entire run. Novak Djokovic, meanwhile, drew the crowd’s ire and persevered, overcoming the only other modern professional tennis player I’ve heard of, Carlos Alcaraz.

The narrative is what makes it fun. I don’t have the luxury of watching every second, but I do have the luxury of having a largely work-from-home job. This means I can have the events on while I traverse the content mines in hopes of appeasing the Google/Facebook machine. 

Some housekeeping things: I haven’t been writing blogs because I’ve been writing a novel. It’s taking up more time than I thought it would because I really thought the idea was just a passing thing. It’s not and now my brain is mush.