Olympic Flame Went Out During the Opening Torch Ceremony; Olympics Are Canceled Now
Something hilarious happened during the Very Pagan Olympic Opening Ceremony Extravaganza Spectacular in Greece today: the Olympic flame went out, like, immediately after they lit it.
That ain't supposed to happen.
The moment is made all the funnier by the BBC announcer's narration of it in the above video. (The flame goes out at 0:22, but it's worth watching the whole clip just to see everyone, guys and girls, flitting around in flowy white dresses, like they're in a commercial for Yaz.)
"A rogue gust of wind, and the flame was extinguished. [Zoom to close-up] An expression of mild panic, as she realized what had happened."
This poor High Priestess is Mild Panic personified. After the flame goes out, you can see her think, for a second, "Ohmygod, maybe no one will notice," but then she remembers that, actually, everyone will notice, and just kinds of stands there, holding the empty bowl, and breathing very rigidly.
Eventually, the torch was lit using fire from a back-up, sub-par flame, and Liverpool-born Greek swimming champion Spyros Gianniotis ran it through the ancient Olympic stadium on the first leg of its 70-day journey to London, over the course of which it will be carried by 8,000 people. (Bring hand sanitzer, guys.)
As punishment for the flame's being extinguished, one athlete from every nation must now be sacrificed to appease the angry wind gods.