I’ve been watching the Winter Olympics, and I do have my normal complaints. I would like to see all of the events, not just the ones that Americans don’t suck balls at. But there’s something else that is bothering me more at the moment. NBC has been treating commercials for the new Dreamworks film like it’s part of the Olympics. They always set it up something like this, “While snowboarding has only been an Olympic sport for the last 10 years, snowboarding has a much richer history going all the way back to the days of the Vikings and Dragons, as we can see from this clip of new Dreamworks animated feature How To Train Your Dragon.” And then the proceed to show a very entertaining clip from the film where a teenager snowboards with a dragon.
Okay, I get it, NBC. You’re a for-profit enterprise. You’re trying to make money bringing to us the Olympics at great expense for free. You primarily want to recoup your expenses, by selling commercial advertising. I get that. That’s the way that commercial television has worked since the very beginning. But don’t show me what is obviously a commercial and call it part of the sports. Don’t piss on my foot and tell me it’s raining. Please. The only dragons I want to see during the Olympics are the ones on the Japanese short track speed skaters uniforms. Kudos, Japan.