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Gold-worthy memes from the Paris Olympics

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Gold-worthy memes from the Paris Olympics

What did American gymnasts Simone Biles and Suni Lee do first after leading Team USA to gold in the team all-around final? Discuss what TikTok sounds to use, naturally.

Biles, the eventual individual all-around winner, chose a crunching sound as she and her teammates mimed biting their gold medals in a TikTok video that has since amassed 120 million views. Lee, the Tokyo Olympics all-around winner, chose to lip dub Kanye “Ye” West’s “I guess we’ll never know” Grammys speech, drawing 43 million views.

The pair’s social media usage mirrors the larger trend of Olympic athletes meme-ing and becoming memes themselves. Compared to the quieter 2020 Tokyo Games, postponed due to COVID-19 and the least-watched Olympics ever for NBC, this iteration has no shortage of viral moments.

Here are some of the most popular Paris Olympics memes.

The muffin man

Olympians have turned to social media to share their experiences from the Olympic village — from the cardboard beds to the dining hall food. One athlete took the internet by storm with his love of one specific food item: the dining hall’s chocolate muffins.

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Now nicknamed the “muffin man” by social media users, Henrik Christiansen is beloved online. The Norwegian swimmer, who has more than 400,000 TikTok followers, went viral for his love of the chocolate pastry. He has posted multiple videos about the baked good to popular sounds with captions that include “when bae is looking like a snack” and “muffin reigns supreme.”

“The way I saw the muffin and knew whose account I just scrolled onto,” a TikTok user commented.

Chef Gordon Ramsay even joined in on the fun, commenting, “I think I need to try one now…”

Christiansen has inspired his fellow Olympians, including American sprinter Gabby Thomas and swimmer Abbey Weitzeil, to review the muffin.

Pommel horse guy

At the Paris Olympics, the U.S. men’s gymnastics team broke a 16-year dry spell and earned bronze, thanks in part to pommel horse specialist Stephen Nedoroscik.

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The glasses-wearing, Rubik’s Cube-solving gymnast spent almost 2½ on the bench waiting for his turn on the pommel horse. The NBC broadcast even included a countdown clock to his routine. During the hours of waiting, Nedoroscik won over the internet.

After the routine, social media conversation exploded and the gymnast was dubbed “Clark Kent” for his superheroic athletic abilities and calm demeanor.

“Obsessed with this guy on the US men’s gymnastics team who’s only job is pommel horse, so he just sits there until he’s activated like a sleeper agent, whips off his glasses like Clark Kent and does a pommel horse routine that helps deliver the team its first medal in 16 years,” one X user wrote.

One gym owner even told the Washington Post that Nedoroscik has increased boys’ interest in gymnastics. Nedoroscik also took home the bronze in the individual pommel horse event. No other male American gymnast earned an individual medal.

Turkey’s shooter

While most Olympic sharpshooters use futuristic-looking goggles and ear coverings, one shooter didn’t need any gear to get the job done.

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The 51-year-old Turkish shooter Yusuf Dikeç rocked a regular pair of eyeglasses and a hand in his pocket. Dikeç stood out next to the decked-out athletes from competing nations. Nonchalant as can be, he ended up nabbing silver in the mixed team 10-meter air pistol event, earning the country its first-ever medal in shooting.

Since then, internet users have used juxtaposing images of Dikeç next to his competitors.

One X user captioned a split photo of Dikeç and a South Korean shooter wearing specialized lenses with, “Girls packing for a trip vs guys packing for a trip.”

Others have turned the moment into a generation meme, with the shooters with fancy gadgets representing Generation Z and the relaxed Turkish shooter embodying Generation X.

After Swedish pole vaulter Armand Duplantis won the event, he copied Dikeç’s memed pose in celebration.

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The bulge that cost a medal

While Sweden’s Armand Duplantis clinched gold in the pole vault, France’s Anthony Ammirati was left medal-less after his crotch caught on the crossbar.

Of course, social media immediately went to work discussing and meme-ing the situation.

“A french pole vaulter knocked the crossbar off with his pole…whoops,” one X user quipped.

Many described it as the best way to lose.

“Some consolation prize having your weapon cause you to lose the pole vault. Like a platinum medal, that,” an X user wrote.

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The loss of the medal opened up new opportunities for Ammirati. Adult entertainment company CamSoda offered the athlete $250,000 for a 60-minute show.

Bob the cap catcher

When a swimmer’s cap fell into the pool, Paris sent a Speedo-clad worker to collect the headpiece. Viewers immediately grew obsessed with “Bob the cap catcher.” Many tweets refer to Bob as a “legend.”

“Ok maybe i do have a dream job,” one user wrote.

“My man Bob the Cap Catcher is the GOAT and I will die on this hill,” another declared.

Bob even gained a fan in Snoop Dogg. “That’s my guy,” the rapper, a special correspondent for NBC, said during the network’s broadcast.

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‘Unfortunately, I was not chosen’

The memes don’t end with the Olympians. Athletes are revisiting their biggest fails on social media.

Along with some variation of the caption “Unfortunately, I was not chosen for the team,” users can be seen falling off diving boards or flying off the uneven bars.

Lee got in on the action, parodying the popular videos.

“Unfortunately i was selected for the olympics,” she wrote below a video of her balance beam fall on Monday.

Lady Parmesan

Olympic athletes can earn a lot of sponsorships. They often go the classic route: modeling sportswear brands. Italian gymnast Giorgia Villa had a more unconventional approach: eating cheese.

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Villa, a part of the women’s team that took home silver, had an old sponsorship deal with Parmesan cheese maker Parmigiano Reggiano.

“I need the people to know that olympic silver medalist giorgia villa is sponsored by parmesan cheese and regularly posts pics of herself with giant wheels of cheese,” one X user posted alongside pictures of the athlete with wheels of cheese.

“It hurts to see people living your dream (being sponsored by parmesan cheese) (not an olympic silver medal),” another user responded.

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Kylie Jenner hit with third lawsuit as former chef claims Palm Springs party led to miscarriage

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Kylie Jenner hit with third lawsuit as former chef claims Palm Springs party led to miscarriage

Less than two months after being sued by two former housekeepers, Kylie Jenner has been hit with a third workplace lawsuit. The beauty mogul’s former private chef alleges a grueling workload led to her miscarriage.

Filed Monday in Los Angeles Superior Court, the complaint alleges the woman routinely worked 11- to 12-hour shifts, five days a week, and was assigned physically demanding tasks despite alerting supervisors to her high-risk pregnancy.

A representative for Jenner did not immediately respond to The Times’ request for comment.

According to the filing, reviewed by The Times, the woman was told she was selected to work as Jenner’s private chef around Thanksgiving 2024. In early December 2024, the woman claims she informed her supervisors, also named as defendants, that she was three months pregnant and “required reasonable accommodations to protect her health and pregnancy.”

On New Year’s Eve in 2024, supervisors who had allegedly been hostile with the former chef directed her to “lift and transport heavy food items across the street and uphill without assistance,” the documents say.

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As a result of the physical exertion, the former chef claims that she “became dizzy, began choking and gasping for air, and required assistance from security personnel, who intervened by providing water and aid.”

Around Feb. 1, 2025, the then-chef, five months’ pregnant at the time, was assigned to work Jenner’s child’s birthday event in Palm Springs, where she wasn’t provided “adequate support” despite the scale and demands of the party, according to the lawsuit. The former chef claims that when she asked for help and expressed concern over the workload, she was ignored by supervisors.

“Due to exhaustion and overwhelming physical strain, [she] broke down emotionally in the bathroom during the event,” reads the suit. “That evening, [she] experienced extreme physical exhaustion and heaviness throughout her body as a result of the prolonged and intense workload.”

The next morning, while the former chef was still in Palm Springs, the filing states that she awoke experiencing severe hemorrhaging and drove herself to the emergency room. “At the hospital, [she] was informed that there was no detectable heartbeat and that she had lost her unborn child.”

According to the former chef, she informed her supervisors of the miscarriage and medical emergency and, in the following days, was “falsely accused of leaving the kitchen and refrigerator in disarray following the Palm Springs event,” the lawsuit states.

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The court documents claim that the former chef suffered severe hemorrhaging again on Feb. 8 and collapsed in her bathroom. The filing states that after the miscarriage she suffered severe depression and emotional distress, and claims that a supervisor reprimanded her, saying, “Stop it, just stop it. You are upsetting Kylie. You are making her depressed.”

“Celebrity status does not exempt anyone from California’s employment laws. We look forward to presenting the evidence in court and allowing the facts to speak for themselves,” attorney Della Shaker told The Times.

The former chef is seeking an unspecified amount of damages and claims that in addition to suffering accommodation failures, pregnancy discrimination and harassment, she was misclassified as an independent contractor, did not get paid on time or for the appropriate hours she worked, and was wrongfully terminated.

After being let go, the former chef claims that she sent a formal written complaint to co-defendant Tri Star detailing the alleged discrimination, harassment and wage theft. The lawsuit states that on May 22, 2025, the management team sent her an email offering a settlement and release agreement (essentially offering her money to sign away her right to sue).

The legal filing follows two lawsuits brought by former housekeepers of the embattled reality star. Less than two weeks after one woman on Jenner’s cleaning staff sued her, claiming her co-workers harassed and discriminated against her, another housekeeper came forward with allegations claiming the “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” star didn’t intervene while she suffered abuse from fellow staff, despite the housekeeper slipping the reality star a letter pleading for help.

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Shaker also represents Angelica Hernandez Vasquez, who filed the suit against Jenner on April 17, and Juana Delgado Soto, who filed her lawsuit on April 29.

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‘Supergirl’ review: DC Studios serves up a second less-than-super movie

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‘Supergirl’ review: DC Studios serves up a second less-than-super movie

James Gunn isn’t exactly crushing it.

Named co-chairman and chief executive officer of the newly formed DC Studios in 2022, the “Guardians of the Galaxy” filmmaker wrote and directed the division of Warner Bros. Discovery’s largely disappointing “Superman,” released last year.

This week, DC Studios’ second big-screen affair, “Supergirl,” lands in theaters with similarly underwhelming results.

‘Superman’ review: James Gunn gets DCU off to rocky, overstuffed start

Starring Milly Alcock as the movie’s namesake Kryptonian heroine — who also goes by Kara Zor-El and is the cousin of David Corenswet’s Superman/Clark Kent/Kal-El — “Supergirl” isn’t distractingly zany the way its 2025 sister film was. Instead, it’s tonally boring, a chore of a movie chock full of thinly drawn characters and increasingly bombastic and violent.

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To be clear, Gunn isn’t at the helm for “Supergirl.” Instead, it’s the typically dependable Craig Gillespie (“I, Tonya,” “Cruella”), working from a script by Ana Nogueira, making her less-than-impressive feature-writing debut.

This planet-hopping adventure in the new DC Universe isn’t a complete space wreck, however, thanks largely to the spunky performance by Aussie Alcock, best known for portraying the younger Rhaenyra Targaryen in the early episodes of HBO’s “House of the Dragon.”

When we catch up with Kara, she’s basically as we left her late in “Superman”: a super-sized mess. She’s out with her beloved, rambunctious dog, Krypto — the peppy and powerful pup having already been a major player in “Superman” — and enjoying a 23rd-birthday pub crawl among planets under a red sun. (Quick reminder: Supergirl, like Superman, draws her incredible powers from a yellow sun, like Earth’s, so she’s at least vaguely normal under a red sun and, importantly, can become intoxicated. The color of suns is a major factor throughout “Supergirl,” and it’s the movie’s most inventive narrative element.)

It is on such a world where a drunken Kara encounters 13-year-old Ruthye Marye Knoll of the Danastia Clan (Eve Ridley), whose family has just been brutally slain by the ruthless Krem of the Yellow Hills (Matthias Schoenaerts). Understandably, Ruthye wants revenge against Krem — leader of the Brigants, a band of male pirates and traffickers — and can think of little else.

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She’s offering anyone who will help a sword made by her family of skilled weapons makers. The beyond-buzzed Kara isn’t interested, but she gets involved when a scumbag type tries to take the sword. She continues to do her best to fend off Ruthye’s subsequent pleas for assistance in her quest to kill Krem, but when the baddie — in the process of stealing her floating RV of a spaceship — shoots a charging Krypto with a poison dart, Kara has designs on punishing him, too. In fact, she needs to retrieve the specific antidote Krem carries with him to save her four-legged bud.

Milly Alcock, left, as Kara Zor-El, and Eve Ridley, as Ruthye Marye Knoll of the Danastia Clan, appear in a scene from “Supergirl.” (Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures)

And so the gals are off to other worlds, initially traveling via the space equivalent of a beat-up Greyhound bus, on which they run into a trio of pillaging Sklarian Raiders. The sequence in which Kara retrieves stolen possessions and extracts information from them is as zany as “Supergirl” gets.

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Culture Clash knows the end is near. It wants to go out with a bang

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Culture Clash knows the end is near. It wants to go out with a bang

Richard Montoya of Culture Clash doesn’t mince words when it comes to politics, current events or the state of mainstream Hollywood. But he does sugarcoat his technological limitations as a 67-year-old comic in the dreaded age of video calls with a punchy Chicano twist.

“I’m a low-tech Aztec,” he writes via email when requesting a Zoom link to our Monday interview.

Culture Clash — which includes members Montoya, Ric Salinas and Herbert Sigüenza — arrived on the scene as a guerrilla sketch theater group from the San Francisco Mission District in 1984. By that time, the Chicano movement had reached its peak, thanks to the United Farm Workers labor movement, as well as student activist organizations like Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán (MEChA), which advocated for Chicano unity, political empowerment and educational access.

Luis Valdez, founder of El Teatro Campesino — who began putting on social justice-oriented plays for the striking Delano farmworkers in 1965 — backed the slapstick satire troupe, considering the trio “the cutting edge of fresh, new Latino comic genius.”

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Culture Clash stood out in a time when Chicanos became more vocal and visible — and its members challenged an entertainment industry that has historically lacked Latino representation. Between 1993 and 1996, Culture Clash hosted its own self-titled TV show on the syndicated Fox network. The show, which was filmed at the Mayan Theater in downtown Los Angeles, is widely considered the first Latino sketch comedy to air on American television.

Throughout the last four decades, Culture Clash has parodied nearly every prominent Latino figure in history, including Che Guevara, Frida Kahlo, Ritchie Valens, Rita Moreno, Edward James Olmos and others. Its members have mocked hard-shell cholos and gangsters, often by placing them in funny scenarios. For instance, take this clip, in which the trio take on cholo characters and reimagine what it would be like to surf on the Southern California shore.

But they’ve also taken on more serious topics in their classic “Chavez Ravine” play, which looks into one of the darkest chapters in L.A. history: the forceful removal and displacement of families, mostly Mexican, in the 1950s under eminent domain. Recently Montoya attended a live reading adapted by Somos El Teatro, led by Xolo Maridueña, Mariana da Silva and Angel Villalobos at Elysian Park.

“It gives us so much life that people are finding the issues of swindlers, whether it’s gentrification, the taking over of settlements,” says Montoya. “The generational trauma of losing your home in L.A. has never gone away.”

But not every Culture Clash joke or skit has been safe from criticism. Montoya still remembers how a conservative pundit chastised the group for using light humor to discuss the 1992 riots, when LAPD officers were acquitted for using excessive force in the arrest and beating of Rodney King.

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“By looking at it and treating it as dynamite, exploding it and then by bringing some levity and a whole lot of seriousness to the Rodney King matter allows us a moment, a fraction of time to look at the issues a little bit differently,” says Montoya. “That laugh allows us a moment to examine it differently.”

On June 27, Culture Clash will return to Grand Performances, a free summer concert series at California Plaza in downtown L.A., with comedic sketches colored by political and social satire. The show, titled “American Payasos! Culture Clash’s End Times Cabaret” will be co-presented with De Los.

While their 40-year-plus legacy might merit a show reminiscent of old goofball skits — like their early 1989 show “The Mission” that poked fun at the problematic Spanish Franciscan missionary Junipero Serra — this will not be an “oldies but goodies show,” as Montoya put it. “We are highly pissed off about a lot of stuff right now.”

“ We’re thinking a lot about the Mexican American patriarchy, Cesar Chavez, Dolores Huerta and it’s time to address some of these things,” says Montoya. “ We want to look at the service workers of Los Angeles, the people that sell cotton candy in MacArthur Park, the people that sell ice cream in Echo Park and the people working the World Cup.”

For the veteran comic, son of the late Chicano poet Jose Montoya, it is also impossible to ignore the immigration enforcement raids that have rattled Los Angeles communities in recent years.

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“This is a very strange moment for satirists,” says Montoya. “We have a responsibility to use those tools to say what’s going on in our city and country and provide these moments where we can do a little bit closer examination because the people in power aren’t telling us what’s going on.”

In the last five years, Montoya has fiddled around with digital media, creating sporadic videos featuring old clips of the troupe, as well as videos of Latino media, to connect with technologically diverse audiences of all ages. (One example is a video calling on people to get out the vote, that features clips of Speedy Gonzales and honors political figures like Huerta.)

Although Montoya believes Culture Clash is nearing the end of its career, there’s a question lingering inside his mind: What does a graceful exit look like for a group like Culture Clash, which has never been fully integrated into mainstream Hollywood and still left such a profound legacy in the world of Latino entertainment?

The answer to that might still be unknown, but like any Culture Clash project, it will likely be wickedly satirical and punchy. Says Montoya: “We’re ready to go out with a huge, loud bang that can say something against the power structure.”

Culture Clash will take center stage on June 27 at Grand Performances, in partnership with De Los. Also performing is the retro cumbia-quebradita musician É Arenas (bassist of Chicano Batman), the cumbia-fusion, luchador-masked cumbia group La Nueva Ola de Cumbia, as well as DJ Dali.

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