NewTeeVee has been covering all the technical trials of the 2008 Olympics — but what about the actual presentation? How much fakery is acceptable when no one’s watching live? In today’s Station Conversation, Chris Albrecht and Liz Shannon Miller debate the Opening Ceremony controversies, the lameness of fencing and the bitterness of PowerPC Mac users.
Liz: So, Chris, I missed watching the Olympics Opening Ceremony live — did you catch it?
Chris: I’m married and live in the suburbs, what else am I going to do on an Olympic Friday night?
Liz: Fair point. What’d you think of it? I mean, did China have the right to fake so much of the spectacle?
Chris: Well, I didn’t see the world all up in arms when the Jonas Brothers lip-synched on the So You Think You Can Dance finale.
Liz: Yes, but the Jonas Brothers are a bunch of punk kids. They are not the world’s largest nation.
Chris: You and I have vastly different definitions of “punk.”
Liz: Probably. Mine at this point consists of “anyone under the age of 18 who I suspect of smoking pot in my apartment building’s laundry room.”
Chris: Somewhere, Johnny Rotten is crying.
Liz: Here is my question for you, since you saw it on a very big screen. Did the featured 9-year-old, Lin Miaoke, look like she was faking it?
Chris: It seemed pretty apparent while I was watching it. Let me also add, though, that it is awful that Yang Peiyi, the little girl actually singing, got told she wasn’t pretty enough to be on TV. Only Tyra should be able to tell someone that.
Liz: This is why China is a less free nation than America. Because it doesn’t delegate that kind of power to its talk show hosts.
Chris: And that is why they can put on kick-ass opening ceremonies. More to the point, multiple clips discussing the lip-syncing are getting tens of thousands of clicks — why is the Internet abuzz about this? Are you actually upset that someone was lip-synching?
Liz: Not exactly. What I find disturbing is that we’ve reached this point in our culture where there’s just a general assumption that not only can you not trust what you see on TV, but you’re foolish to do so, period.
Chris: I guess you never owned a Milli Vanilli or C+C Music Factory album?
Liz: Oh, no. I knew about Milli Vanilli, but C+C? Not C+C. Say it ain’t so, Joe.
Chris: Exact same thing — they swapped the actual singer for a “prettier” one in the music video.
Liz: But back then, it was a scandal, yes? What worries me is that we’re going to reach a point, where it’s just ASSUMED that these things are faked.
Chris: This all gets very Matrix very quickly. But I think you’re being too cynical.
Liz: The fact that China doesn’t care — and more specifically, neither of the little girls involved really care either — is what’s disturbing to me.
Chris: I’m just saying that if you watched it, it was pretty clear she wasn’t actually singing. Maybe it was just a background vocal like Ashlee Simpson on SNL. See? There’s a rich history to all of this.
Liz: I just want to believe in magic and puppies and footprints of fire, scorching the sky.
Chris: That one really irritates me. Bob Costas and Matt Lauer said it was fake while it was happening.
Liz: But it was presented like it was really happening.
Chris: Until they said it was fake — while it was happening.
Liz: It’s one thing to do a recreation of an event that happened, but the VXF artists involved spent six months faking a fireworks display that hadn’t happened yet. Just so everything could look perfect on TV. I guess what I’m saying is that I’d rather see the less-cute girl, and the real fireworks, and know that they’re real.
Chris: The thing is that the opening ceremonies are a big show. They are entertainment. It’s not like the Chinese are putting underage girls on their gynmastics team — oh wait.
Liz: Touché! “I swear, IOC, she LOOKED over 16…”
Chris: Speaking of touché, how lame is fencing? I always wanted to like it — but it kinda sucks, really. Just a bunch of stutter steps and tapping. (I watched it online.)
Liz: Sadly, I wouldn’t know about fencing — I work nights and my Mac laptop is Power PC. NBC hates me, and I hate them right back.
Chris: That’s sadder than being rejected to sing at the Olympics.
Liz: It is! Yang Peiyi at least got to be there!
Chris: I really wanted to like these “Broadband Olympics,” but there are too many hurdles…
Liz: BOOOOO.
Chris: Sorry. But there are too many pole vaults…
Liz: That was so funny that it made my elbow invert.
Chris: So what have we learned today?
Liz: The Olympics are fake, but we like it better that way?
Chris: I’d agree, but I don’t think Liz Miller actually typed that.
Liz: It’s true. I’ve been replaced by the far more adorable Liz-o-Tron 5000.
Chris: She still isn’t able to watch the Olympics online.
Liz: But at least she doesn’t feel bitter about it.
Chris: That’s version 5000.1.
