Meanwhile in Olympics: Broadcaster Under Fire After Offensively Stereotypes While Introducing Nations (We’d Be Flattered If People Referred to Us This Way)

With the Olympics handily underway, there has been no shortage of scandal. From the host of the games being fired hours before his start time to the American swimmer who refused to wear a mask in the “mixed zone” (where journalists and athletes collide), there have been an impressive amount of foul-ups. But the funniest has got to be the semi-racist broadcast of the opening ceremony by South Korean network MBC.

Appearing as though it was conceived by a couple of sixth-graders, the network decided to add a helpful graphic alongside the introduction of each nation to give viewers a bit of context about who these countries are. While not a terrible idea (in theory), the execution was a grab bag full of all the lowest hanging fruit available.

For instance, when team Italy paraded across Tokyo’s Olympic Stadium, a super considerate icon of a pizza accompanied them. For Romania, it obviously had to be a picture of Dracula. How about Ukraine? You guessed it: Chernobyl.

But MBC didn’t stop there. They included some handy captions in case stereotypical (and outdated) icons alone weren’t enough to educate viewers. For Haiti, the network noted, “The political situation is fogged by the assassination of the president.” While letting people know how the Marshall Islands were, “once a nuclear test site for the US,” and Syria is chock full of “rich underground resources.”

Mmmm. Rich underground resources.

Shocked and angered, folks stormed Twitter to denounce the bizarre broadcast. The intense backlash led MBC to issue a response, saying. “The images and captions are intended to make it easier for the viewers to understand the entering countries quickly during the opening ceremony,” before apologizing for the self-admitted blunder.

Honestly, we don’t know why everyone is so upset. We’d love it if we had our own personal icon to help inform the public what we’re all about. How do you draw six empty shots of espresso, an unused bar of soap, and a constantly annoyed girlfriend anyway?

Cover Photo: Jamie Squire (Getty Images)

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