Headless Marie Antoinettes and Minions: Weird Moments From the Paris Olympic Opening Ceremony
The ceremony was full of flair and emotion, but also some, well, wacky moments that bewildered and amused many viewers.
The Paris Summer Olympic Games kicked off on Friday with the opening ceremony, which made history as the first Olympic ceremony to be held outside a stadium. Thousands of spectators watched the ceremony from the banks of the Seine, and even more tuned in from around the world. The ceremony was full of flair and emotion, but also some, well, wacky moments that bewildered and amused many viewers.
[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]Here are some of the weirdest moments from the opening ceremony.
A masked individual carries the torch
The opening ceremony began with a pre-recorded video of French soccer legend Zinedine Zidane carrying the famous Olympic torch and running through the streets of Paris, before passing it off to a group of children. But soon after, a masked individual took the torch from the children. As the ceremony continued, the broadcast cut back and forth to the mysterious figure as they leaped and climbed and ran through the city.
The masked individual wore a dark jacket and pants, with a dark mask akin to a fencing mask, and a white hood. Viewers began comparing the torch bearer to a character from the video game series Assassin’s Creed—so much so that the video game was trending on X at one point on Friday, with more than 21,000 posts. Ubisoft, the creator of the video game series, leaned into the comparisons, posting a photo from one of the games that was set in revolution-era France with the caption, “Welcome to Paris.”
The identity of the mysterious figure hasn’t been revealed, but some viewers spent the duration of the opening ceremony speculating on who could be behind the mask.
“If this masked torchbearer isn’t revealed to be Celine Dion then what are we even doing,” one person posted on X, formerly Twitter. (The French Canadian singer ended up closing the opening ceremony with a moving performance—her first public performance since 2020. In 2022, Dion announced that she was suffering from a rare neurological disease called stiff person syndrome.)
One person on X joked that the torch bearer might be the main character from Emily in Paris, the Netflix television show about an American who moves to France’s capital.
Marie Antoinette gets beheaded… again
Queen Marie Antoinette was beheaded during the French Revolution that led to the overthrowing of the French monarchy. And that 18th century Queen of France made an appearance at the 2024 Games. As the French heavy-metal band Gojira played, the Queen’s body held her head in her hands—and then the camera panned to several others headless Marie Antoinettes.
The Olympics teases a ménage à trois on network television
The opening ceremony continued with a pre-recorded video of three people wearing psychedelic-like outfits who wandered over to an apartment and engaged in a sensual scene—before one of them closed the door on the camera, shutting out the viewers watching around the world.
Many people joked about how the sultry scene played into French stereotypes.
“Are they showing a threesome as a french contribution to society???” one person posted on X.
Minions steal the Mona Lisa
At one point during the opening ceremony, a pre-recorded video panned to the Louvre Museum, revealing that the iconic Mona Lisa painting had been stolen. The culprits? Minions.
The minions from the Despicable Me franchise then made their debut at the ceremony, playing some of the sports featured in the Summer Olympics, like boxing and archery, in a submarine. At one point, they accidentally destroyed their submarine and ended up in the water—and the Mona Lisa (through video editing, not the actual Mona Lisa) can be seen floating in the Seine.
Viewers immediately took to social media.
The animation production company behind the minions, Illumination Studios, is headquartered in Paris.
A blue Dionysus dances
During the opening ceremony, a group of performers gathered for a fashion show-like performance. At one point, French singer and actor Philippe Katerine—whose skin was painted blue and who was covered in flowers and leaves, representing the Greek god Dionysus—appeared on the runway on a large plate of fruit and flowers. He proceeded to dance and sing in French.
Some viewers were a little confused by the performance.