In accordance with a long-running Olympic tradition, the country that will be the next host of the Games concludes the closing ceremony with an artistic display, hinting at what’s to come. With the ceremony edging to a close, the Olympic Flag was passed on to Tokyo's new (and first woman) governor, the kimono-clad Yuriko Koike, as the host of the 2020 Games. While a drizzle was picking up and threatening to rain on her parade, things took an unexpected turn.
With the aid of a digital projection unspooling on the floor of the stadium, we were carried away (or rather, back) to Tokyo and found ourselves sitting opposite prime minister Shinzo Abe in his limo. Apparently on his way to Rio and flustered about being late, Abe decided to metamorphose into Mario (?) and dashed all the way to Shibuya Crossing, where he stumbled upon Doraemon. Although the creature of a different universe (think Marvel meeting DC Comics), Doraemon immediately understood his friend’s predicament and produced Mario’s iconic green pipe, at which point Shinzario jumped in to slide down halfway across the world to Brazil.
But the real WTF moment came soon after, when a man dressed as the world's premier Italian plumber emerged out of the pipe’s replica placed in the middle of the stadium, slid out of his overalls like a stripper in a hen night and materialised into an unfazed Shinzo Abe greeting an ecstatic crowd. The rest of the ceremony proceeded in a relatively ordinary fashion with a fantastic light and dance choreography, but we were still too flabbergasted by what we saw earlier to pay any attention to the rest of the show. We can already guess what everyone will dress up as for Halloween this year: a jaded politician wearing a Mario costume over a suit.
Relive the action with the clip below:
マリオの中身が安倍晋三だった pic.twitter.com/Piitbx5vI0
— junya犬ラブユナイテッド (@junyaganba) August 22, 2016