Olympic Games/YMMV


 * Acceptable Targets: Any Olympic "superpower", including Russia, China and especially the United States. Did I mention especially the United States?
 * Norway, Germany, Canada, and Austria are considered "superpowers" in the Winter Games but they are not as ridiculed since they aren't as huge in the summer games as well in comparison to the countries mentioned above.
 * Whatever country that is hosting the Olympics or the upcoming Olympics. This goes double for former and future "Olympic Superpowers", triple for current "Olympic Superpowers", quadruple if the United States is hosting. With the 2012 Summer Olympics next, Great Britain currently holds this distinction.
 * Canadians, as deemed by...Canadians in the 2010 closing ceremonies.
 * Crowning Moment of Awesome: Arguably the entire point of having them in the first place.
 * The Opening Ceremonies generally qualify (the closing ones are much more chaotic and informal), but the 2008 Beijing ceremonies deserve a special mention.
 * The Canadians winning the hockey gold medal in Vancouver, setting off every noise-maker in the city.
 * When the Jamaicans entered a team into the bobsledding competition, everyone treated them as a joke. They were Jamaicans, from a near-equatorial country that had no natural snow, and they had almost never actually practiced on ice. They did not win; in fact, they crashed rather horrifically. Then, when everyone was pretty sure they were dead, they emerged from their overturned bobsled, hoisted it up, and walked it across the finish line.
 * Crowning Moment of Funny: Anything that involved Stephen Colbert during the Vancouver Olympics.
 * Also in Vancouver, Canadian ice dancing gold medalists Virtue and Moir's funny showcase performance, which appeared to be a Homage to teen movies (he was a(n ice) Sk8erBoi, she did ballet...)
 * The closing ceremony for Vancouver, where in addition to the usual impressive ceremony Canada went with a menagerie of humorous Canadian stereotypes ranging from mounties, beavers, lumberjacks (wearing hastily-added gold medals), hockey players to oddly sexy woman dressed as giant maple leaves.
 * "Fixing" the last leg of the indoor torch for closing ceremony and allowing the last torch bearer to light it.
 * A number of Canadian comedians expressing the country's appreciation towards their guests, including Michael J Fox heartwarmingly declaring everybody as honorary Canadians - which he then claims means that Canada won every gold medal of the games.
 * The guy who ran amok on a ride-on lawnmower during the Australian opening ceremony. Briefly a national hero.
 * Crowning Music of Awesome: Over and over, but notably the "Bugler's Dream and Olympic Fanfare" commonly played on NBC.
 * They're also very fond of music from Pirates of the Caribbean.
 * This troper was shocked not to hear "The Parade of the Spirits" during the Beijing Olympics (sure it's not Chinese, but it doesn't sound strictly Japanese either).
 * And don't forget the Olympic Hymm, which plays during the Olympic flag-raising for bonus Awesome Moment of Crowning-ness.
 * "Ode To Joy" is also played in every opening ceremony; it was downright inspirational (or a bit odd) to see the Japanese singing along in Nagano.
 * Your national anthem, when your nation wins gold. You know it's true.
 * Ensemble Darkhorse: Curling.
 * And Canada's skips for that sport, Kevin Martin and Cheryl Bernard
 * The Vancouver Olympics gave us the Norwegian men's curling team pants.
 * By the time the games ended, those pants had their own Facebook page and Hatedom.
 * Harsher in Hindsight: Doomed luger Nodar Kumaritashvili's last phone call to his father included the phrase "I'll win or die trying".
 * Hilarious in Hindsight: Australia's speedskating outfits (which this troper, who hadn't heard of Kick Ass likened to Halo armor) looks a lot like Kick-Ass's costume.
 * Octuple-gold medalist Michael Phelps' rather large game-week diet, which was later "explained" as just a major case of the munchies.
 * For some reason, having Ireland as a "buffer" between Iran and Israel's flags/delegations.
 * For once, Ireland made something better.
 * While this does make sense ("Ireland" comes right between "Iran" and "Israel" in the list of IOC member countries), it remains particularly amusing to people who remember how things were in The Seventies and The Eighties (Iran fighting a war with Iraq, Ireland undergoing The Troubles, and of course Israel and Jordan, who didn't recognize each other at the time, are separated only by Italy, Jamaica, and Japan--thank God that those delegations tend to be quite large).
 * Internet Backdraft: Rooting for your country (specially if you're from the USA). And let's not even get started about bids for or even hosting the Olympics for a city.
 * Like the logo or mascots for London 2012? Don't bother voicing that over on the BBC Sport website.
 * Mention the 2010 hockey gold medal game on a hockey forum. Make sure to have the fire department on speed dial.
 * Most Wonderful Sound: "I officially declare the games open!"
 * Narm Charm: The opening and especially the closing ceremonies.
 * After the Bejing (2008) Olympics, this might end, considering their massive and very impressive opening ceremony.
 * Vancouver embraced the Narm; besides, I don't think many countries have thousands of soldiers they can spare for performances.
 * Once-Acceptable Targets: Any Olympic "superpower" that has since dissolved or is not as a superpower in the Olympics as they used to. While they can still be ridiculed from time to time, they aren't as ridiculed as much as current Acceptable Targets are. The Soviet Union, France, Germany, and Great Britain are such notable examples.
 * Tear Jerker: Derek Redmond is a good story to start off with here. In truth, we could probably fill a page of these by themselves.
 * At the Vancouver 2010 games, Nodar Kumaritashvili, a Georgian luge athlete, died in a practice run mere hours before the opening ceremonies. The Georgian team marched in with black scarves, and the Georgian flag sported a black band on top for the duration of the games. The other Georgian luger, who also grew up with Nodar, tried to get back in practice the next day but ultimately couldn't go on and dropped out of the games.
 * Quite a few of the other teams (at least those at the beginning of the Parade of Nations) put a band of black tape on their arms in honor of Nodar.
 * Munich.
 * U.S. speedskater Dan Jensen - in 1988 he was heavily favored in the 500 and 1000 meter races, but after finding out mere hours before the first race that his sister Jane had died of leukemia, he fell in both races in truly heartbreaking fashion. In 1992 he struck out again. However, in 1994, in the 1000-meter race, which was widely known to be his final shot at Olypmic gold, he did better. He set a world record, dedicated the win to his departed sister, and skated a victory lap holding his baby daughter, who, in a final burst of tearjerker, was named Jane.
 * Here it is.
 * Canadian figure skater Joannie Rochette's mother died two days before she could watch her daughter skate for the short-program. After winning the bronze medal, she placed her medal on her mother's casket for a time.
 * Tough Act to Follow: London's going to have a very hard time making an Opening Ceremony that could even compare to that of Beijing in 2008.