Let’s have some sympathy, please, for all the hardworking sportscasters around the world, local and national alike. Each day, these brave, blazer-wearing, well-coiffed men and women are tasked with filling up hours upon hours of television time, much of it unscripted, and they have to appear poised, knowledgeable, and in control at every second. And every two years, like clockwork, the Olympics provides its own set of challenges, from uncooperative athletes and horny mascots to faulty microphones and easily distracted camera operators. Naturally, glitches are going to occur now and then. When they do, rest assured that the popular YouTube channel News Be Funny will be there to collect them. In honor of the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio De Janeiro, the channel has assembled a highly entertaining, 12-minute video entitled “Best Funny Olympic News Bloopers.” This failure-focused supercut includes footage from Rio as well as past Olympics in London, Sochi, Atlanta, and elsewhere. Bored with the thrill of victory? Here’s some agony of defeat.
More than anyone else, it is NBC’s urbane Bob Costas who dominates these proceedings. He is the broadcaster most closely associated with Olympic coverage in recent years (though his unfortunate bout with pinkeye is not covered here). Costas has a few unfortunate moments of his own and he also inspires an epic rant from sportscaster Dan Hicken of Jacksonville’s WTLV 12 when he exceeds his given time slot. Hicken, whose local broadcast can’t begin until the national coverage has concluded, takes this as a show of discourtesy on Costas’ part and makes his feelings known in no uncertain terms. This is not how to treat the “NBC family,” Bob.
Speaking of rants, News Be Funny saves the best—or at least the weirdest—for last. While covering the Athens Olympics in 2004, NBC sportscaster Mary Carillo launched into what can only be called a lengthy soliloquy about badminton, sporting equipment in general, and the total havoc of raising children. This speech starts like a blooper and ends like an outtake from Network. Carillo is mad as hell, and she’s not going to fetch badminton racquets out of trees anymore.
[via Laughing Squid]