Opinion | 'How do you do, fellow kids' - Tokyo Olympics' undignified attempt to be cool leaves squash ostracised again
There’s a popular meme showing a clip from the sitcom 30 Rock, in which Steve Buscemi’s grizzled private eye recalls going ‘undercover’ at a high school. “How do you do, fellow kids?!” says the 50-year-old, sporting a backwards baseball cap, skateboard and a t-shirt with the slogan ‘Music Band’.
It seemed apropos as the Tokyo Olympics nominated five sports for possible inclusion in the 2020 Games: baseball/softball – no surprise there, given it’s the most popular sport in Japan and they’re desperate for it to get back in; karate – kinda similar; surfing – really?; skateboarding – pardon?; and sport climbing – wait, what now?
There’s a popular meme showing a clip from the sitcom 30 Rock, in which Steve Buscemi’s grizzled private eye recalls going ‘undercover’ at a high school. “How do you do, fellow kids?!” says the 50-year-old, sporting a backwards baseball cap, skateboard and a t-shirt with the slogan ‘Music Band’.
The announcement – by several old men in suits – was undignified in its fawning desperation to get down with the kids.
“Please like us fellow youngsters! The Olympics is cool too, just like you gritty urban skateboardists. We love Tony Hawks and his superawesome nine hundreder manoeuvre!”
And who should know know better about what da yoot want than chief Fujio Mariata, a billionaire CEO, and his fellow sept- and octagenarians on the committee?