About

“Olympics or Gay Porn?” is a photoshop meme in which screen captured images from the London 2012 Olympics are altered to look like they were taken from an adult entertainment film. The images typically include a progress bar or a lower third banner covering the athlete’s mid-section to appear as if the subject is not wearing any clothes, in similar vein to unnecessary censorship and bubbling.

Origin

On July 30th, 2012, Tumblr ^[1] user windshieldviper uploaded a set of screen captures from the broadcast coverage of Men's Olympic Diving events with the caption “the score bars are leaving much to the imagination." The oddly-timed photos showed several male Olympic divers standing with a scorecard banner displayed over their waists, accompanied by the me gusta reaction face (shown below). Within three days, the post received over 66,000 notes.

Spread

That same day on July 30th, Tumblr^[2] user jackmok65 posted a similar image in which a paused progress bar covered two divers' waists (shown below). Within three days, the post received over 100,000 notes.

On July 31st, Redditor amberrgerr submitted a Facebook screenshot featuring jackmok65's image to the /r/funny^[3] subreddit in a post titled "Olympics or gay porn [fb]," receiving over 5,500 up votes and 95 comments within two days. The same day, the viral content site BuzzFeed^[4] published a compilation of screen captures from men's Olympic diving with banners covering the subjects' waist.

On August 1st, similar compilation posts featuring partially obscured images of male divers and other Olympic athletes began to emerge on various internet humor sites and forums, including a follow-up post by Buzzfeed^[6], an article by the entertainment news blog Pedestrian^[5], as well as a China Daily^[7] forum thread titled “Olympics or gay porn?” As of August 2nd, similar images continues to spread on Tumblr^[8] under the tag "#olympics or gay porn."

Various Examples

Thom Yorke Edition

Also on August 1st, Tumblr^[9] user Ivanwho posted a photo of Radiohead singer Thom Yorke swimming in the ocean with a fake scorecard banner superimposed over his waist (shown below). The post received over 1,400 notes within the first 24 hours.

Search Interest

External References