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Tokyo Olympics memes: Snoop's hilarious horse commentary, diver's relatable flop

Rapper Snoop Dogg and comedian Kevin Hart are offering uncensored Olympics commentary on NBC's Peacock network, and it's a win.

Gael Cooper
CNET editor Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, a journalist and pop-culture junkie, is co-author of "Whatever Happened to Pudding Pops? The Lost Toys, Tastes and Trends of the '70s and '80s," as well as "The Totally Sweet '90s." She's been a journalist since 1989, working at Mpls.St.Paul Magazine, Twin Cities Sidewalk, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and NBC News Digital. She's Gen X in birthdate, word and deed. If Marathon candy bars ever come back, she'll be first in line.
Expertise Breaking news, entertainment, lifestyle, travel, food, shopping and deals, product reviews, money and finance, video games, pets, history, books, technology history, generational studies. Credentials
  • Co-author of two Gen X pop-culture encyclopedia for Penguin Books. Won "Headline Writer of the Year"​ award for 2017, 2014 and 2013 from the American Copy Editors Society. Won first place in headline writing from the 2013 Society for Features Journalism.
Gael Cooper
3 min read
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Video screenshot by Leslie Katz/CNET

The Tokyo Olympics is great for sports fans, but possibly even better for fans of memes. Remember #PhelpsFace from 2016? Yeah. Social media is forever fascinated with the weird expressions, painful-looking tumbles and shirtless Tongan flagbearers.

We'll keep a running tally of our favorites, and the opening ceremonies deserved its own post.

Snoop and Kevin Hart horse around

Rapper Snoop Dogg and comedian Kevin Hart are offering uncensored Olympics commentary on NBC's Peacock network, and they were especially entertained by a horse doing some fancy sideways walking in an equestrian event. (Note: Plenty of swearing ahead.)

"Horses. I like this," declared Snoop. "This is equestrian… Oh, the horse crip-walking, cuh! You see that? On the set! That's gangsta as a motherf-----!"

(Crip-walking is a dance move popularized in Compton, California, and associated with the Crips street gang.)

"Snoop Dogg and Kevin Hart commenting on the Olympics is the best content NBC Peacock has put out yet," wrote one Twitter user.

Canadian diver flops, gets no points

Canadian diver Pamela Ware messed up her dive at the last minute, ending up jumping feet-first and receiving a score of 0. Viewers understood that she had to bail out of the dive to avoid injury, but there was still a sense that here, finally, was a relatable athletic move.

"One of the few times in the Olympics where I have thought 'Well I could do THAAT,'" wrote one Twitter user.

Ware posted an emotional video on Instagram thanking those who supported and encouraged her after her failed dive.

"My dream is still very much alive!" she wrote in the post's caption. "This competition will NOT defeat me. This will only make me 10x stronger!"

Knit one, medal two

British gold-medal Tom Daley knits and crochets, even making a little knitted case for his gold medal.

And fans loved it when Daley was spotted knitting away while sitting in the stands watching other athletes compete.

"Nothing to see here - just @TomDaley1994 having a knit at the diving," tweeted Team GB, the British Olympic team, from its official Twitter account.

"When you gotta win a gold medal at 7, but finish your niece's hat by 8," wrote another Twitter user.

Australian coach goes crazy

Australian swimmer Ariarne Titmus won gold, beating legendary American Katie Ledecky in the 400-meter freestyle. But it was Titmus' coach, Dean Boxall, who made the meme list. When Titmus won, Boxall tore off his face mark, screamed and, uh, mimed intimacy with a guardrail. You do you, coach.

Even NBC Sports' official Twitter account got in on the joke, tweeting, "THAT'S MY SONG, TURN IT UP" with a video of Boxall's reaction. 

And some people felt sorry for the poor Olympics staffer seen in the background, writing, "Thoughts & prayers to the woman trying to keep Ariarne Titmus's coach from falling over the barrier during his celebration."

This injury is nuts

Skateboarding made its Olympics debut, and Peruvian skateboarder Angelo Caro Narvaez took an early fall, landing groin-first into a rail. No medal, but lots of sympathy. 

"And he made it to the finals after doing this in the prelims," one Twitter user wrote. "I would not have made it to the finals after doing that in the prelims, I'll tell you that. I would have made it to the hospital."

Air ball

The US basketball team is packed with pros but still lost to France, 83-76, snapping a 25-game win streak that it had kept rolling since 2004. And while it might not seem fair to make fun of amateur athletes, all bets are off when it comes to poking fun at the professionals.

Wrote one Twitter user, "American teams win an NBA championship and call themselves World Champions until they actually have to play against the world."

But as one Twitter user pointed out, it wasn't as if only the US used pro players, tweeting, "You realize these dudes on the other teams are NBA players too, right?"

The memes will keep on medaling; the Olympics run through Aug. 8.