Every once in a while, we come across a movie that everyone – from film critics to audiences – agree is cinematic perfection . For Bollywood , the movie’s probably Sholay, while Hollywood has Casablanca. From the plot to the acting, it is, as Homelander would say: “.
..perfect, down to the last-minute details.
” Homelander "It was perfect" interview speech 1080p The movie has many dialogues that have lived through time, that one can instantly recognise even if one hasn’t watched the movie, each line etched in the tapestry of cinematic heritage. There’s “round up the usual suspects”, a favourite phrase of the nefariously corrupt Captain Louis Renault (Claude Rains) who also utters the eminently quotable: “I am shocked, shocked to see gambling going around here” before quietly pocketing his earnings. There’s Ingrid Bergman’s Ilsa saying: “Play it, Sam.
Play as time goes by (often misquoted as “Play it again Sam”).” Casablanca Quotes Humprey Bogart’s Rick Blaine also has some of the best lines including “Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine,” “Here’s looking at you kid”, and “Louis, I think is the beginning of a beautiful friendship”. But frankly, the one that has stayed with us forever is Rick assuring Ilsa, that no matter what happens: “We will always have Paris.
” Like Rick and Ilsa, we will also always have Paris 2024, the first proper Summer Olympics of the post-Covid era that will be remembered as much for the memes as it will for the games. Here are, in no particular order, our viral moments from the Olympics. 1) Catholic Outrage We live in the era of perennial outrage, where the world might fall of its axis if the good people of X (the hellhole formerly known as Twitter) don’t deem something offensive and in bad taste.
This year, it started with the Opening Ceremony, that many Catholics across the world – including born-again ones like Elon Musk – found to be mocking Christians wondering if the French would have the Gaul (pun intended) to do the same to Islamists. Of course, they forget that this is France where mocking everything is a national past-time, where De Gaulle refused to put Sartre in jail (One doesn’t jail Voltaire), and where a magazine’s editorial board was wiped out for cartoons (which only made them make more offensive ones). However, as Dutch historian Walther Schoonenberg explained to people willing to listen, the opening ceremony wasn’t even mocking The Last Supper but was parodying The Feast of the Gods by Dutch painter Jan Hermansz van Bijlert.
2) Turkish John Wick Was he an assassin drafted in at the last minute to compete? Did he take up shooting after a messy divorce involving a dog? Yusuf Dikec is, without a doubt, the biggest breakout star of this year’s games as the world and its pibling fell in love with his nonchalant swag as he picked up a silver in the Mixed Rifles 10m event, the same one where Sarabjit and Manu Bhaker won bronze. Dikec’s image, hand in pocket, no special equipment (except ear guards), and nonchalant energy vibe launched a thousand memes. Even the John Wick account agreed, saying: “Yeah” to be read in Keanu Reeves’ iconic voice.
And just for the record, Dikec is a longtime shooting champion who has been in the Turkish Army and not someone who decided to pick up shooting to make up for a broken marriage or a lost dog. 3) Breaking Bad Dancing There’s an old meme that goes: Those who can’t do, teach. Those who can’t teach, teach gym.
And those who can’t teach gym, do PhDs. And sometimes, those who do PhDs end up representing their country in the Olympics. Rachel McGunn AKA RayGun, a PhD scholar who represented Australia in breakdancing had quite unique dance moves that didn’t move the judges, who gave her zero points, but they did launch a thousand memes .
One columnist even read her thesis and lost his mind, but irrespective of what happens, we have to admire her gumption for coming up with that routine and then performing it for the world. 4) The Vaulter’s Pole Sometimes our gifts can be a hindrance as French pole vaulter Anthony Ammirati learnt when he bar treated his equipment with the same disdain as Pope Pius IX. His plight (and gift) was celebrated by one and one all, so much so that one prominent adult website even offered him half a million dollars to display his gift.
CamSoda vice president Daryn Parker reportedly sent Ammirati an offer letter outlining the deal, saying, “If it was up to me, I’d award you for what everyone else saw: your talent below the belt.” Even the 21-year-old saw the funny side, posting: “You create more buzz for your package than your performances." 5) Snoop Dogg in Paris Much like Wimbledon, where sometimes the audience is more interesting than the actual event, the Olympics saw iconic American rapper Snoop Dogg, who was everywhere: doing a classic Crip walk at the Opening Ceremony, watching dressage in matching attire with Martha Stewart, and swimming with Michael Phelps (“we go back like the backstroke”).
Like every American on a Euro trip, Dogg even went to Louvre where he declared that he was the twin brother of Leonardo Da Vinci’s iconic creation, christening himself: “Tony Lisa.” 6) The Hovering Surfer There was a light reminder of colonial history thanks to surfing which is being held in Tahiti, the political centre of French Polynesia, France’s only overseas country. Colonial horrors aside, Tahiti is the home of the iconic Teahupo’o waves – that can go up to 22 feet – and will now forever be cherished for the most iconic Olympics image of all time.
The image is etched in everyone’s memory by now, Brazilian surfer Gabriel Medina – captured by AFP photographer Jerome Brouillet – shows the surfer hovering mid-air, seemingly just floating above the water, a finger pointed to the sky like a messiah with his surfboard at his side which is somehow on the same axis as him. As far as Olympics pics go, it doesn’t get more iconic than this. 7) Swimming Trunk Guy If there's something strange, in your swimming pool, who you gonna call? The answer, Paris taught us, is “swimming trunk guy”.
There’s a running joke that if one ever feels useless, one should remember there are lifeguards at the Olympics events but their raison d’etere became evident when American swimmer Emma Weber’s cap sunk to the bottom of the pool. Enter: swimming trunk guy, a gentleman in multi-coloured swimming trunks who dived to the bottom of the pool to retrieve her cap from Davy Jones’ Locker. Job done, he adjusted his pants and just walked off: the hero we never knew we needed or deserved.
8) Muffin Man While the Olympics has been choc-a-bloc full of athletes complaining about the culinary offerings and the lodging, one man who stood out was Norwegian swimmer Henrik Christiansen who rated the chocolate chip muffin at the Olympic Village, 11/10. His gustatory feedback led to several athletes posting their own reviews. Sadly, muffin man, failed to qualify for any of the finals of his events but he did get a new nome de plume.
9) “Should we bow?” Sport is often a representation of true merit as evidenced by the first all-black gymnastics podium ever. Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade won gold ahead of Team USA’s Simone Biles and Jordan Chiles who both bowed to the new Queen, because as Biles put it: “It was the just the right thing to do.” It was reminiscent of the hilarious moment in Avengers: Infinity War when Colonel Rhodey AKA War Machine cons Bruce Banner into bowing in front of Wakanda king T’Challa who tells and embarrassed Banner: “We don’t do that here.
” 10) The Italian Job Since 1896, Olympians have made it a tradition of biting into their gold medals since it is a malleable metal and would leave a mark but since 1912, the medals are now an amalgamation of silver and gold which means athletes can only leave their mark on the field and not the medals. Still, it is a tradition that lives on and led to a rather cute moment. Chinese gymnast Yaquin Zhou, who won silver in the Women’s Balance Beam event, went viral after failing to quite grasp the concept of biting the medal.
Zhou, stood with her Italian counterparts who bit into their medals, and she wasn’t quite sure what to do but followed suit. To be fair, a Chinese following Italians and copying their tradition is a cute twist of history, given the long-held false notion that Marco Polo brought noodles to Italy from China..
