"Candidates: Olympic snowboarding judges
"Known for: Issuing oddly low scores, issuing oddly high scores, angering the Todds
"Why they might be jerks: On Friday morning in Beijing, Japanese snowboarder Ayumu Hirano stomped the men’s halfpipe with one of the best runs that NBC commentators Todd Richards and Todd Harris had ever seen. “Ayumu Hirano is from another planet!” yelled Harris. “That was the most difficult halfpipe run in the history of halfpipe that has ever been done,” said Richards. “It’s all about setting momentum. It’s a puzzle. Ayumu Hirano just put together one of those 15,000-piece puzzles you get at Christmas and you never get a chance to open it up because you’re too intimidated. He destroyed this halfpipe.”
"As viewers at home marveled at the destruction and at that extended puzzle metaphor, Hirano awaited the verdict from the judges—who, Richards predicted, would give him a score “that’s gonna be just … out of this world.” They certainly did, though not in the way that Richards expected. Hirano’s run got awarded a 91.75, leaving him in second place, behind Australian snowboarder Scotty James.
"What sort of jerks would give such a low score to such a great run? The Todds were at a loss for words. “Explain that to me,” said Harris. “Uhhhhh, what? What? Is there a mistake?” said Richards. “How did that … wait a minute. There’s no way. There is no way! A 91.75?” And with that, NBC went to commercial, giving Richards, Harris, and all the rest of us a few minutes to process what those (potential) jerks had done.". . .
In the end, the judges’ potential jerkiness was mitigated by Hirano’s third run, which, per the Todds, was “even more perfect”: “the heaviest run that has ever been done in halfpipe.” (A 30,000-piece puzzle?) This time around, the judges saw what the Todds saw, scoring the run at a 96, giving Hirano the gold, and weakening the argument that they are, in fact, jerks. True jerks don’t make amends; true jerks double down on their mistakes.
No comments:
Post a Comment