[identity profile] spaceroo.livejournal.com 2008-09-05 02:54 pm (UTC)(link)
What is the deal with Olympic mascots sucking so badly anyway? Misha the Bear was awesome, granted, but for the most part they're a pretty piss-poor lot. (The low point undoubtedly being "Izzy" from 1996.)

*snirk* It's a shame Fatso the Fat-Arsed Wombat (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatso_the_Fat-Arsed_Wombat) was never official. His presence would improve the gene pool substantially.

[identity profile] xolo.livejournal.com 2008-09-05 06:03 pm (UTC)(link)
I don't know what the deal is with sucky mascots for the Olympics. That's long fascinated me. I'm inclined to speculate that it's a sort of freezing-up due to anxiety: the organizing committee realize that what they do will make history, so they try to have some sort of uniquely creative mascot that no-one could have imagined. Most of the results are just plain stupid, though.

The London committee is already talking about wanting a distinctive mascot, and not something commonplace like a cute animal :(

Many of the Paralympic mascots are oddly competent, even in years in which the Olympic mascot is a trainwreck. Atlanta had a stylized Phoenix (http://www.aldaver.com/Images/Po/ms1996pr.gif), and Beijing has a cute rainbow Cow (http://www.aldaver.com/Images/Po/ms2008pr.jpg).

I'll confess a fondness for the Vancouver 2010 mascot, who looks to me like a South Park alien in a mind-control helmet (http://www.aldaver.com/Images/Po/ms2010pr.jpg).

[identity profile] spaceroo.livejournal.com 2008-09-05 11:06 pm (UTC)(link)
I noticed that anomaly with the Paralympic mascots myself. ("Proteas the Seahorse" fairly rules.) It's also notable how the Winter Olympic mascots also tend to be better then the summer ones. Why there would be an inverse relationship between the quality of the mascot and the likely viewership of the event truly escapes me.

The 2010 Olympic mascots have a certain something, but they really have this "PaRappa the Rapper" vibe going. Come to think of it both them and the entire Beijing 2008 crew would make great guest stars on Happy Tree Friends (http://happytreefriends.atomfilms.com/).

Of course, leave it to me to spot a certain hairdo problem with the 1992 Barcelona mascot, Cobi. (Image slightly edited for clarity.)

Image

[identity profile] xolo.livejournal.com 2008-09-06 12:29 am (UTC)(link)
BWAHAHAHHHH!!!!