2020 Tokyo Olympic Sport Pictograms Parodies

About

2020 Tokyo Olympic Sport Pictograms Parodies refers to a series of memes parodying the official 2020 Tokyo Olympics pictograms representing the various summer Olympic sports. In late July 2021, the format gained popularity among Japanese users on Twitter, with users creating custom pictograms referencing popular culture.

Origin

On March 12th, 2019, the official website of the Olympic Games^[1] unveiled 50 official white-and-blue pictograms representing the 50 Olympic disciplines of the summer games (image shown below).

…The Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 sport pictograms are designed to subtly communicate the characteristics and athleticism of each sport, as well as artistically highlights the dynamism of athletes. They will play a key role in enhancing the experience of athletes and spectators alike during the Olympic Games.

On the same day, a video presentation of the pictograms was uploaded to YouTube,^[2] where it received over 165,000 views in two years (shown below).

Spread

On July 23rd, 2021, the opening ceremony of the 2020 Olympic Games took place. The ceremony included a five-minute choreographed segment in which people dressed as the pictograms recreated each of the 50 pictograms. One YouTube^[3] upload of the segment received over 2.1 million views in five days (shown below).

Following the ceremony, several viral tweets^[4][5] about the segment and the pictograms were posted. Later, on July 23rd, 2021, Twitter^[6] user @miki_2199_2202_ posted the earliest found fan-made pictogram, an Uma Musume Pretty Derby meme that received over 11,600 retweets and 48,400 likes in five days (shown below).

Starting on July 24th, the parody format gained viral spread among Japanese users on Twitter. On that day, Twitter^[7] user @namururu posted five pictograms for cat body language created in the same color scheme as the Olympic pictograms (shown below, left). The post gained over 17,100 retweets and 48,700 likes in four days. Later on the same day, Twitter^[8] user @Shori39639 posted a pictogram that referenced the character Saber from Fate/stay Night franchise, with the post gaining over 8,400 retweets and 38,400 likes in the same period (shown below, center). On July 25th, Twitter^[9] user @at_3925 posted a Hatsune Miku pictogram that gained over 6,300 retweets and 37,800 likes in three days (shown below, right).

The format maintained popularity among Japanese users in the following days, with multiple viral versions posted in late July 2021.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References