The Best Memes From the 2024 Paris Olympics Closing Ceremony
While thousands of people watched the 2024 Summer Olympics closing ceremony unfold within the Stade de France just north of France’s capital city on Sunday, August 11, countless others tuned into coverage of the event from afar and didn’t hesitate to share their opinions online.
Many praised Paris’ work closing out the Summer Games after watching the star-studded event, which concluded with a segment showing the 2024 host city handing over the Olympic flag to Los Angeles, Calif., which will host the next Summer Olympics in 2028.
Others found moments of levity over the course of the ceremony, which lasted about three hours.
One of the most popular memes to come out of the event was inspired by a humorous moment that occurred near its beginning. After the Olympic cauldron was extinguished by Léon Marchand, who ended the Summer Games with four gold medals and one bronze, some social media users noticed a couple of spectators realizing a bit too late that they were in view of the camera that was tracking the French swimmer as he helped the Olympic flame begin its next journey. A video clip of the moment shared on X, formerly Twitter, showed the two people attempting to hide behind a bush as they watched Marchand walk away.
“Don’t worry… no one saw you ?? ??,” one person jokingly wrote to caption the clip.
Later in the ceremony as a golden figure was lowered into the stadium, one X user compared the visual to another of the popular cartoon SpongeBob SquarePants, noting the two seemed to have the “same energy.”
Many people watching coverage of the ceremony at home also noticed that someone standing near an orchestra that performed in the stadium appeared to be enjoying a meal while watching the bustle of activity around them.
“Shoutout to the guy just casually eating noodles during the orchestra performance in the #ClosingCeremony,” one person tweeted alongside a video clip of the moment. Though the clip was later removed from X, the United Kingdom’s Metro tabloid published an article about the viral moment and some of the fan reactions it generated.
A few of the most popular tweets that emerged during the closing ceremony were posted in response to Tom Cruise’s cameo. The Mission: Impossible actor was expected to perform a stunt at the event, and didn’t disappoint when he stepped off the Stade de France roof and propelled himself to the stadium floor.
“Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to bring the Olympic flag to Los Angeles,” the Olympics’ official X account tweeted alongside a photo of Cruise holding the Olympic flag.
“IT'S A BIRD. IT'S A PLANE. IT'S TOM CRUISE! ??,” the NBC Olympics & Paralympics X account tweeted alongside a video of the actor’s stunt.
The same NBC X account also shared a meme on the social media platform of another moment that fans agreed was “pretty cool.” As shown in the photos included in the tweet, pianist Alain Roche stunned viewers by playing a piano that was suspended in mid-air. The tweet imagined what Roche’s conversation with their agent might have been like before they accepted the invitation to bring the musical stunt to life above the stage.