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Twitter Reacts To Tokyo’s Closing Ceremony Act

by Rachel Krantz

If you're already sad that the 2016 Olympics in Rio are over, you can always start looking forward to the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, Japan. And at the closing ceremony in Rio Sunday, Tokyo certainly gave us plenty to get excited about — or be confused about, depending on who you ask. Japan's slightly bizarre closing ceremony performance teasing the 2020 games was certainly entertaining, with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe himself entering the Maracana stadium wearing a Super Mario costume — yes, that's Super Mario, as in the famous video game character. And Prime Minister, as in, imagine if President Obama dressed up as Super Mario.

It's not as crazy as it sounds. Abe entered following a cartoon video featuring well-known characters — including Mario — shooting a drill bit through the earth and out the other side, creating a tunnel linking Rio to Tokyo ... OK, it's exactly as crazy as it sounds. My bad.

But it is also, to many, very exciting. According to the Tokyo Olympic Organizing Committee, the eight-minute show was designed to "introduce the capital of Japan to the rest of the world." Whether it achieved that goal you can decide for yourself — though Twitter certainly seemed more pumped than confused. This might just be the most high-tech and geekiest Olympics yet, which is kind of cool, considering the Olympics is also a gathering of the world's most accomplished jocks.

Of course, Twitter had a field day. There were those who were pumped (the majority, from what I can tell):

And then, there were those who were more... confused:

And those who just thought it was hilarious:

Whatever your reaction, it seems clear the 2020 games in Tokyo will at least be entertaining.