The 2012 Summer Olympic Games (The Games of the XXX Olympiad) were held in London, UK from 27th of July, 2012 to 12th of August 2012. London won the bid to host the 2012 Summer Olympics on the 6th of July, 2005 promising to deliver an environmentally-sustainable Olympics and is the only city to this point to host the Olympics three times. Over 10,000 athletes representing 204 countries took part in the global event and marks the first Olympic Games where all competing teams had a minimum of one female competitor.
Since the evolution of the internet since the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing until now, people have been looking for exploitable moments in the Olympics to create memes from. And so, the London Olympics has had many image macros created after odd or humorous events which has even spawned a facebook page.
London 2012 Official Logo
The LOGOC unveiled the official logo which was designed by Wolff Olins, a London-based branding company on the 4th of June, 2007. The logo consists of a rough depiction of an athlete’s body while simultaneously spelling out “2012” with the Olympic Rings in the “head” and the word ‘london’ in the “arm”. The logo was depicted with 4 colors reflecting the city’s impact on modern society. The logo was designed to appeal to young people in it’s unusual shape and explosively-colorful design. But instead, it has seen mostly negative criticism. In a poll performed by the BBC in the UK in June 2007, 80% of all votes strongly disapproved of the logo. Iran threatened to boycott the games, because the logo could spell out “Zion”. (a synonym for Jerusalem)
But the logo had some memetic qualities as well. Many online users had said that the logo looks like Lisa Simpson giving a blow job to Bart Simpson. A quick rearrangement of the colors makes this visualisation easier to understand.
After all, isn’t this the “XXX” Olympic Games?
One Is Not Amused
One of the earlier memes to appear from the games was One Is Not Amused, an image macro series of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II at the London 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremony looking bored or disgruntled. The series is similar to the already well-known Lolcat meme, X is not amused.
Olympics or Gay Porn?
Olympics or Gay Porn? is a meme based on the men’s high dive events. The score bar at the lower section of the screen would cover the lower-mid section of the competitor’s body. This would leave the impression that the competitor was naked and the screenshot was from a homosexual pornographic film when viewed without context.
McKayla is Not Impressed
McKayla is Not Impressed is a photoshop meme and image macro series of US gymnastic athlete McKayla Maroney, with an unimpressed or disappointed expression as she receives a silver medel for the Women’s Vault. It is a derivative of Spock is not Impressed which is basically the same meme, but with Spock from the Star Trek TV series. The meme is usually photoshopped into other photos or is an image macro.
Bolting
Bolting is a pose popularised by Usain Bolt after winning the men’s 100m and setting a new world record speed of 9.69 seconds. The pose was originally introduced by Bolt during the 2008 Beijing Olympics, but gained popularity in London. Bolting has since become a widespread photo fad, in a similar fashion to planking.
Dangling Boris
Dangling Boris is an exploitable photoshop meme showing a picture of Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London on a zip line holding two Union Jack flags. Johnson was testing a zip line in Victoria Park, London on the 1st of August, 2012 when the zip line got stuck 10 meters above the ground. Now, the event has spawned many photoshopped images of Jackson during the incident.
