thanks, internet!

A brief look at my train of thought this evening (not so much derailed as ‘got a bit turned around in a swampy morass of links and wikipedia links’).

1. I should write something. Maybe incorporating Fast & Furious. That would mean Brazil.

2. Brazil has an Olympics coming up! (2016, first Olympics to be held in South America and first in a Portuguese-speaking country.) Man, that logo is weird.

3. I thought Brazil was 2014. No, that’s Sochi. Sorry, IOC, I can’t agree with this assessment of the 2014 logo: “It’s very appealing. It’s very creative, innovative. I think it will appeal especially to the young population.”

4. Hey, doesn’t London have a weird/controversial logo? (Turns out it’s mostly just controversially weird.)

5. Though a quick logo search also revealed a more recent development: “London unveils creepy-looking mascots for 2012 Olympics”. (The video is truly something else. I don’t know *what*, exactly, but something.)

6. Well, what about Sochi’s mascots? Maybe they did better? Turns out they’re still undecided, with choices ranging from a Santa look-alike to a sun with pigtails. Yeah. For real.

7. *Someone* must have had a cool logo and mascots. Nagano 1998 had an awesome logo, and their mascots were four owls, which were… wait, found a picture. No, those are still pretty odd.

8. And… back to London. It’s like I can’t look away. Interpretations of the mascots ranges from ‘parasitic tapeworms’ to ‘Illuminati plot to take over the world.’

Mirrored from The Marci Rating System.

more on mascots

Because it’s just so tempting. More mascots, this time with visual aids.

Wenlock and Mandeville (London, 2012)

They have one eye! They love rainbows! And they know karate!

Lest anyone think I’m going easy on the States, ‘Izzy’ (Atlanta, 1996) is easily the most awful I’ve seen this evening. (His name apparently is understood to stand for ‘what is it?’ — the Olympics-friendly version of WTF?)

But it’s not all wacky imaginary critters! Sometimes it’s wacky based-on-reality critters! For instance: Waldi (Munich, 1972).

And, not to be left out, my current favorite fake mascots.

From the UK coat of arms, this is one of several alternate mascot suggestions for London 2012. (Art by Woodrow Phoenix.)

Mirrored from The Marci Rating System.