Dumbest OG TV Commentaries

[jhc68]

Some initial entries:

1) During the opening ceremonies as the Ugandans walked in Bob Costas quoted someone (Churchill, I think) who praised Uganda as a beautiful place, and Costas says he "never met Idi Amin". WTF !?! Why would anyone say that for millions of people to hear?

2) Tonight some talking head at poolside measured the importance of a dive by giving stats about the number of people who had friended the diver on facebook...

3) Finally, the stupidest thing I have ever heard Costas say (and that is going some.)
He tells a wide-eyed John McEnroe that before Karch Kiraly the universally recognized best volleyball player on earth was... wait for it... Wilt Chamberlain!!!
(For some perspective, Wilt was about as good a V-baller as he was a high jumper, which is to say that he never came close to jumping anywhere near his height)

[Jackaloupe]

Will was also a decent ShotPutter, what with all that leverage. I think his HJ, using the old Western Roll, was around 2m. In fairness, Bob wasn't really claiming Wilt was the best VolleyBall player, as he immediately qualified it with "amateur"; it was just "filler" anyway.

I chortled that NBC felt obliged to inform the clueless what the Union Jack was, yet hardly bother to clarify the basic rules for less known sports like Water Polo, where there's a whistle every few seconds. Guess Team HandBall isn't worth getting into...

[Per Andersen]

Wilt's best in the HJ was 1.97 (6-5 1/2). He was a straddler. He was nothing compared to Russel.

[dj]

Wilt was nowhere near the shot putter he was claimed to be.

[DecFan]

Wilt was nowhere near the shot putter he was claimed to be.

In the statement "Wilt was nowhere near the X he was claimed to be" there are very many possible values for X that make the statement true.

[dukehjsteve]

Wilt was nowhere near the shot putter he was claimed to be.

In the statement "Wilt was nowhere near the X he was claimed to be" there are very many possible values for X that make the statement true.

And his best X of all is X-rated.......

[mump boy]

We were told by a weightlifting commentator

"It's great to have short arms when jerking over your head"

[catson52]

I am dreading the NBC track coverage. Aging pretty boy, smug, ignorant, Bob Costas, and the others. Can one somehow hook onto other coverages, e.g. CBC or BBC - or are those going to be equally irritating?

[nevetsllim]

John Inverdale's performance in the rowing is certainly up there in the moronic commentating stakes.

[Pego]

I am dreading the NBC track coverage. Aging pretty boy, smug, ignorant, Bob Costas, and the others. Can one somehow hook onto other coverages, e.g. CBC or BBC - or are those going to be equally irritating?

Webcasts seem to be without talking heads. The graphics have been quite informational in swimming, boxing, water sports, gymnastics...

[uakari]

bob costas is twit, and wtf, aging pretty boy? when was he ever pretty?

nbc coverage of course is atrocious. i went home last night to catch the men's gymn. all around final, and they kept focusing on the americans. marcel nguyen, the german who finished 2nd, they didn't even show him until the last routine, because that'd decided whether the us got bronze or silver. pathetic.

i was watching some VB online, and i have to say, the BBC announcer is totally clueless about the sport, constantly asking basic questions from the "expert." i'm surprised GB even fielded teams in this sport -- i saw the GB women beat algeria, and they were about the level of a top US high school team...

[AS]

i'm surprised GB even fielded teams in this sport -- i saw the GB women beat algeria, and they were about the level of a top US high school team...

The host nation gets automatic entry in to pretty much every team sport (and most events) at a Games. I seem to recall some pretty awful Aussie volleyball back in Sydney. And we scrambled together a Handball team of Cool Runnings quality (as it appears have GB: http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2012/ju ... c-handball)

[jhc68]

Looking back, the worst NBC stuff was the nightly Ryan Seacrest review of social networking.... the idea being that what the masses of uninformed doofuses are tweeting is more important than actually covering events that the tweeters were posting about.

[Friar]

"I seriously don't care about the royal air force in WWII, where's the 5k final? #Olympics #runnerproblems"
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/12/nbc-olympics-tom-brokaw-world-war-ii_n_1770146.html?utm_hp_ref=media
This was about the host's egomania, not Sir Winston. NBC has lost it's way in a number of areas (Today Show is awful).

[EME1980]

One of the BBC commentators kept on expressing surprise that Kemboi ran out into lane 7 in the last 30m of the finishing straight yet he'd done that at least twice before at global championships.

[jazzcyclist]

One of the BBC commentators kept on expressing surprise that Kemboi ran out into lane 7 in the last 30m of the finishing straight yet he'd done that at least twice before at global championships.

When I saw that, I thought of one of Desean Jackson's game winning touchdowns.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vCaVfcZrLI