When the COVID-19 pandemic socially distanced the world and pushed off the 2020 Olympics, we knew the games weren't going to be the same. The fact that they're even happening this year is a miracle, but without spectators and the usual hustle and bustle surrounding the events, it definitely feels different.
But it's not just the games themselves that have changed. The coverage of the Olympics has changed as well, including the unexpected addition of un-expert, uncensored commentary from comedian Kevin Hart and rapper Snoop Dogg on NBC's Peacock.
In the topsy-turvy world we're currently living in, it's both a refreshing and hilarious addition to the Olympic lineup.
Just watch this clip of them narrating an equestrian event. (Language warning if you've got kiddos nearby. The first video is bleeped, but the others aren't.)
We hereby demand all Equestrian events at the #TokyoOlympics be commentated by @SnoopDogg and @KevinHart4Real 💀 https://t.co/dDRAzCT3Me— Peacock (@Peacock)1627685660.0
The duo has been sharing their unbridled thoughts since the opening ceremony:
.@peacockTV, whoever thought to put together @KevinHart4real and @SnoopDogg to cover the Tokyo Olympics deserves a… https://t.co/TZnCruEJoh— Patricia Alba (@Patricia Alba)1627519976.0
Watch Kevin Hart explain to Snoop why the lane 8 gold medal upset is such a big deal in swimming:
Our #TokyoOlympics commentary from @KevinHart4Real and @SnoopDogg is going (...ready for it?) Swimmingly. 🏊♂️ https://t.co/Tt1aW6kRau— Peacock (@Peacock)1627516801.0
Here they discuss how adding a word to a sport makes it a whole new sport, and Snoop proves he's as quick as any comedian on the fly.
"Snoop & Kevin Hart about #Olympics" this is priceless im dead with them pic.twitter.com/1kbAf2l7nE
— Undeportable Puertorican 🇵🇷 (@YourLiberalBORI) July 31, 2021
"Oh, that's Auntie! Look at Auntie! Go ahead!" Snoop says, as 46-year-old Oksana Chusovitina performs the vault in gymnastics. Hilarious.
"Oh that's Auntie!" @SnoopDogg's new favorite gymnast? 46-year-old Oksana Chusovitina. 🤸♀️😂 #TokyoOlympics… https://t.co/NAyJgD2QHn— Peacock (@Peacock)1627938300.0
So many times since the pandemic started, it's felt like we've just collectively tossed up our hands and said, "Whatever!" With Kevin Hart and Snoop Dogg commentating on the Olympics, it feels like that's what Peacock did, and the coverage is all the better for it. We all need to laugh, and if it takes Snoop Dogg talking about Olympic dressage horses "Crip walking" to make it happen, so be it.
- Snoop Dogg just made a powerful apology to Gayle King after ... ›
- Snoop Dogg just handed out over a thousand turkeys to families in ... ›
- Snoop Dogg wants equal pay for women - Upworthy ›
How a DIY dress helped one woman reclaim the power words had on her body.
'We should all be able to celebrate and love ourselves without fear of criticism from others, whatever shape or size we are.'
News flash: Words have power. This is something Jojo Oldham knows all too well.
Whether you're a soap star hearing lewd comments made by a politician 10 years ago or the average woman getting catcalled on her way home from work, what other people have to say about your body leave a lasting impression.
Over Oldham's 31 years of existence, she's received countless comments about her body — both good and bad.
After years of letting these words affect how she sees herself, however, Oldham was finally ready to release them and embrace herself.
She took all the comments she's heard about her body over the years and painted them on a dress. Posing for pictures, with a smile on her face, she took the power those words had over her and refused to let them dictate her self-worth any longer.
Photo via Jojo Oldham/Lovely Jojo's, used with permission.
"The love I have for my body these days is something I've had to learn. And it requires constant maintenance," Oldham wrote on her website.
Photo via Jojo Oldham/Lovely Jojo's, used with permission.
Like so many of us, Oldham says she's been in a love-hate relationship with her body for as long as she can remember. There are days when she's thrilled with how she looks, and then there are days when she wants to delete every unflattering photo ever taken of her. The comments she would receive fanned the flame of her own insecurities.
"I had 31 years-worth of other people’s comments about my body swirling around my head and popping into it on a daily basis, and I wanted to do something positive with them," Oldham explained over email.
The dress is a badge of honor, symbolic of the fact that, while Oldham may have been called these things, she is not defined by them.
Photo via Jojo Oldham/Lovely Jojo's, used with permission.
"The comments that made the final cut have all stuck with me for different reasons," Oldham wrote. "Some because they’re really weird, some because they’re really lovely, some because they’re funny, and some because they’re particularly nasty and they really crushed me at the time."
Photo via Jojo Oldham/Lovely Jojo's, used with permission.
"Once I learned how to be happy with myself as I am, the negative things that other people said about my body just stopped mattering to me," Oldham explained.
Photo via Jojo Oldham/Lovely Jojo's, used with permission.
Comments can do serious damage to even the strongest, most self-confident people. Oldham hopes her dress will help curtail some of that damage.
"We should all be able to celebrate and love ourselves without fear of criticism from others, whatever shape or size we are," she wrote on her website.
She hopes the work will inspire women to remember they are not the sum of the comments made about their bodies; they are so much more.