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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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Movie Reviews

Movie Review: The Mortuary Assistant – HorrorFuel.com: Reviews, Ratings and Where to Watch the Best Horror Movies & TV Shows

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Movie Review: The Mortuary Assistant – HorrorFuel.com: Reviews, Ratings and Where to Watch the Best Horror Movies & TV Shows

Forget the “video game movie” curse; The Mortuary Assistant is a bone-chilling triumph that stands entirely on its own two feet. Starring Willa Holland (Arrow) as Rebecca Owens, the film follows a newly certified mortician whose “overtime shift” quickly devolves into a grueling battle for her soul.

What Makes It Work

The film expertly balances the stomach-churning procedural work of embalming with a spiraling demonic nightmare. Alongside a mysterious mentor played by Paul Sparks (Boardwalk Empire), Rebecca is forced to confront both ancient evils and her own buried traumas. And boy, does she have a lot of them.

Thanks to a full-scale, practical River Fields Mortuary set, the film drips with realism, like you can almost smell the rot and bloat of the bodies through the screen.

The skin effects are hauntingly accurate. The way the flesh moves during surgical scenes is so visceral. I’ve seen a lot of flesh wounds in horror films and in real life, and the bodies, skin, and organs. The Mortuary Assistant (especially in the opening scene) looks so real that I skipped supper after watching it. And that’s saying something. Your girl likes to eat.

Co-written by the game’s creator, Brian Clarke, the movie dives deeper into the demonic mythology. Whether you’ve seen every ending or don’t know a scalpel from a trocar, the story is perfectly self-contained. If you’ve never played the game, or played it a hundred times, the film works equally well, which is hard to do when it comes to game adaptations.

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Nailed It

This film does a lot of things right, but the isolation of the night shift is suffocating. Between the darkness of the hallways and the “residents” that refuse to stay still, the film delivers a relentlessly immersive experience. And thankfully, although this movie is filled with dark rooms and shadows, it’s easy to see every little thing. Don’t you hate it when a movie is so dark that you can’t see what’s happening? It’s one of my pet peeves.

The oh-so-awesome Jeremiah Kipp directs the film and has made something absolutely nightmare-inducing. Kipp recently joined us for an interview, took us inside the film, discussed its details and the game’s lore, and so much more. I urge you to check out our interview. He’s awesome!

The Verdict

This isn’t just a cash-grab; it’s a high-effort adaptation that respects the source material while elevating the horror genre. With incredible special effects and a powerhouse cast, it’s the kind of movie that will make you rethink working late ever again. Dropping on Friday the 13th, this is a must-watch for horror fans. It’s grisly, intelligent, and genuinely terrifying.

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Entertainment

Former Live Nation executive says he was fired after raising ‘financial misconduct’ concerns

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Former Live Nation executive says he was fired after raising ‘financial misconduct’ concerns

A former executive at Live Nation, the world’s largest live entertainment company, is suing the company, alleging that he was wrongfully terminated after he raised concerns about alleged financial misconduct and improper accounting practices.

Nicholas Rumanes alleges he was “fraudulently induced” in 2022 to leave a lucrative position as head of strategic development at a real estate investment trust to create a new role as executive vice president of development and business practice at Beverly Hills-based Live Nation.

In his new position, Rumanes said, he raised “serious and legitimate alarm” over the the company’s business practices.

As a result, he says, he was “unlawfully terminated,” according to the lawsuit filed Thursday in Los Angeles County Superior Court.

“Rumanes was, simply put, promised one job and forced to accept another. And then he was cut loose for insisting on doing that lesser job with integrity and honesty,” according to the lawsuit.

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He is seeking $35 million in damages.

Representatives for Live Nation were not immediately available for comment.

The lawsuit comes a week after a federal jury in Manhattan found that Live Nation and its Ticketmaster subsidiary had operated a monopoly over major concert venues, controlling 86% of the concert market.

Rumanes’ lawsuit describes a “culture of deception” at Live Nation, saying its “basic business model was to misstate and exaggerate financial figures in efforts to solicit and secure business.”

Such practices “spanned a wide spectrum of projects in what appeared to be a company-wide pattern of financial misrepresentation and misleading disclosures,” the lawsuit states.

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Rumanes says he received materials and documents that showed that the company inflated projected revenues across multiple venue development projects.

Additionally, Rumanes contends that the company violated a federal law that requires independent financial auditing and transparency and instead ran Live Nation “through a centralized, opaque structure” that enables it to “bypass oversight and internal checks and balances.”

In 2010, as a condition of the Live Nation-Ticketmaster merger, the newly formed company agreed to a consent decree with the government that prohibited the firm from threatening venues to use Ticketmaster. In 2019 the Justice Department found that the company had repeatedly breached the agreement, and it extended the decree.

Rumanes contends that he brought his concerns to the attention of the company’s management, but his warnings were “repeatedly ignored.”

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Movie Reviews

‘Madhuvidhu’ movie review: A light-hearted film that squanders a promising conflict

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‘Madhuvidhu’ movie review: A light-hearted film that squanders a promising conflict

At the centre of Madhuvidhu directed by Vishnu Aravind is a house where only men reside, three generations of them living in harmony. Unlike the Anjooran household in Godfather, this is not a house where entry is banned to women, but just that women don’t choose to come here. For Amrithraj alias Ammu (Sharafudheen), the protagonist, 28 marriage proposals have already fallen through although he was not lacking in interest.

When a not-so-cordial first meeting with Sneha (Kalyani Panicker) inevitably turns into mutual attraction, things appear about to change. But some unexpected hiccups are waiting for them, their different religions being one of them. Writers Jai Vishnu and Bipin Mohan do not seem to have any major ambitions with Madhuvidhu, but they seem rather content to aim for the middle space of a feel-good entertainer. Only that they end up hitting further lower.

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