Paris Olympics Opening Ceremony Features Drag Parody Of Last Supper

 The opening ceremonies of the Paris Olympics on Friday featured a parody of The Last Supper with an obese woman wearing an aureole as Jesus surrounded by drag queens as the Apostles, a decapitated head representing Marie Antoinette of the French Revolution, and drag queens dancing around children.

The artistic director of the Paris Olympics is Thomas Jolly, who stated, “Above all, I want this ceremony to include everyone. We must all celebrate this diversity.” He also said, “I was overwhelmed at first. I wondered how I could create a show where everyone can feel represented as part of this great union. This responsibility was ambitious, complex, but magnificent for an artist.”

He added, “When we watch ‘Emily in Paris’ or ‘Amélie Poulain,’ we know it’s not quite the real Paris. We’re going to play with all those cliches, but we’re also going to challenge them. Paris is also a vibrant youth. Different cultures rubbing shoulders in the streets. I’ll be fired if I tell you anything. All I can tell you is that it will be very meaningful for the artists that will perform.”

 

“Jolly expressed his intent before the ceremony to ‘play with’ but also ‘challenge’ French cliché, and in the most vibrant, exciting celebration of French identity in the ceremony so far, they did a full musical, metal–opera–Cameron Mackintosh mash-up tribute to … the guillotine!” Vulturereported.

“Jolly’s liberation of the ceremony conveyed more about his own outsize ambitions than his nation’s identity,” The Washington Post opined.

“More than 3 billion people worldwide tuned in to watch the 2020 Tokyo Olympics (which were held in 2021 due to Covid-19 complications) across linear TV and digital platforms. Olympic broadcast partners’ digital platforms saw 28 billion video views, a 139% increase compared to the Rio 2016 Games,” Forbes noted.