Garth was a fan.
The 2024 Olympics in Paris got off to a rocky start, when organizers drew outrage after being accused of mocking the Last Supper with drag queens.
Btw, what the f*ck was all this about? A drag queen mockery of the Last Supper at the Olympics? Would they have mocked any other religion like this? Appalling decision. pic.twitter.com/50uREKJEJd
— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) July 27, 2024
The tasteless performance was condemned by the everyone from ESPN analyst Pat McAfee to Catholic Church, Italy’s deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini, French bishops and politicians, and many others.
Organizers quickly tried to do some damage control with an apology (kind of, but not really), with their excuse basically being, “Hey, we’re French.”
According to spokesperson Anna Descamps:
“Clearly there was never an intention to show disrespect to any religious group. (The opening ceremony) tried to celebrate community tolerance.
We believe this ambition was achieved. If people have taken any offense we are really sorry.”
And Paris 2024 president Tony Estanguet added:
“We imagined a ceremony to show our values and our principles so we gave a very committed message. The idea was to really trigger a reflection. We wanted to have a message as strong as possible.
Naturally we had to take into account the international community. Having said that – it is a French ceremony for the French games – so we trusted our artistic director. We have freedom of expression in France and we wanted to protect it.”
Those wacky French people, mocking Christians.
Of course not everybody was offended by the tasteless portrayal. Country music superstar Garth Brooks joined Maria Taylor on NBC, where he was asked his thoughts on the opening ceremonies – and in typical Garth fashion, it was nothing but love:
“I thought it was great…
I can tell you this, outside looking at France, how they’re reflecting their country to the rest of the world is beautiful.
If you’re going to get the gold medalist of all singers, Celine Dion, oh my gosh. What a performance.
And I gotta tell you, you might think this is totally crazy, I think that sets the tone for the games. And I think that set the tone for everything. The level of excellence, that bar was set pretty high…
France’s art, that they give to the world, I think, is all of a sudden discovered again. And I gotta tell ya, if I’m France I’m very proud, and let me tell ya from outside France you should be very proud.”
Oh we learned all about France’s art all right…and a lot of people weren’t happy about what they saw.
It’s always a great time when I get to interview my friend @garthbrooks ☺️
Thank you for stopping by Late Night In Paris! https://t.co/jQcqKNj6oU pic.twitter.com/KF2lx4lNUz
— Maria Taylor (@MariaTaylor) August 6, 2024