We Are the Superhumans
July 15, 2016 7:39 AM   Subscribe

Channel 4's trailer for the 2016 Rio Paralympics (YouTube) just may be the best thing you see today. Via DangerIsMyMiddleName's twitter.
posted by middleclasstool (24 comments total) 48 users marked this as a favorite
 
Alert viewers will note the lyric "I can climb Everest", a reference to Jeff Glasbrenner, two-time Paralympic gold medalist who this year became the first amputee to summit Everest and descend under his own power.
posted by middleclasstool at 7:45 AM on July 15, 2016 [2 favorites]


OMG OMG OMG this is so badass and I'm so happy to share on FB.
posted by Dressed to Kill at 7:47 AM on July 15, 2016 [1 favorite]


Is that wheelchair jump at the end a real competitive event? Cause, damn....
posted by anastasiav at 8:05 AM on July 15, 2016 [7 favorites]


I think the best thing about it is with different athletes and musicians it would have made a great trailer for the Olympics as well.
posted by Rock Steady at 8:09 AM on July 15, 2016


I wish whoever did this had handled the referendum stuff. This is brilliant.
posted by dowcrag at 8:11 AM on July 15, 2016 [2 favorites]


The ASL interpreter is part of the action- his outfits!!!
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 8:14 AM on July 15, 2016 [5 favorites]


I don't understand either, but it's probably British Sign Language, not ASL.
posted by Omission at 8:18 AM on July 15, 2016 [6 favorites]


Holy crap that was well done. So rare you get an ad you want to rewatch, let alone rewatch right away.
posted by Mchelly at 8:29 AM on July 15, 2016


Wow, this is great. Thank you for posting it.
posted by LobsterMitten at 9:14 AM on July 15, 2016 [1 favorite]


may be the best thing you see today

Yup.
*validates MCTs parking*
posted by petebest at 9:58 AM on July 15, 2016 [6 favorites]


That's fun. The one good thing the Olympics provide without fail is the Paralympics. Totally worth the billions.
posted by chavenet at 9:58 AM on July 15, 2016


Channel 4 was the broadcaster of the 2012 Paralympics as well: their trailer from that year is unfettered badass.

London 2012 was amazing for many reasons, but the Paralympics were probably the best part of the summer. I was in the stadium for the main night of the athletics, and it was an almost transcendental experience. Johnny Peacock in the 100m practically ruptured London with the cheering
posted by DangerIsMyMiddleName at 10:10 AM on July 15, 2016 [9 favorites]


FSM, I needed an upbeat, bad-ass way to end this week. That was awesome.
posted by smirkette at 10:34 AM on July 15, 2016


I don't understand either, but it's probably British Sign Language, not ASL.

Yep! This was produced by Channel 4, which will be providing the UK coverage of the Paralympics.

The Canadian Paralympic Committee's Paratough campaign is pretty good as well.

Speaking of coverage, the CBC has been running a Paralympics A-Z explainer (available here, don't know if it's region-restricted for folks outside Canada) series that's pretty good.

For USians:

Increased coverage: U.S. media rights holders NBCUniversal and the USOC will build on its unprecedented coverage of the Sochi 2014 Paralympic Winter Games, March 7-16, with more coverage of the Games than ever before in 2016. The networks will air 66 hours of coverage of the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games, an increase of 60.5 hours from the coverage of the London 2012 Paralympic Games, while TeamUSA.org and USParalympics.org will provide comprehensive online coverage..

You read that right. The US networks aired exactly 5.5 hours of coverage of London 2012. For Athens 2004 that number was exactly zero hours.

So, progress.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 12:30 PM on July 15, 2016


Channel 4 also created an audio described version of the ad.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 12:37 PM on July 15, 2016 [1 favorite]


Thank you for this. I also loved the Superhuman Stories. "This is not about disability, this is about crazy talent and ability that we've all been blessed with." - Alvin Law, Drummer
posted by Orange Dinosaur Slide at 1:15 PM on July 15, 2016 [2 favorites]


Wonderful and I wish they showed a bunch of the Paralympics on TV to raise awareness of what people can do. Because . . . my former boss was a Paralympian in the 1960's. He uses a wheelchair and his wife does too. He posted this on FB yesterday about a shopping trip:

"Then, not five minutes later, we're asked if we are together. The wife said, yeah we're married. Then the woman says, must have been a rough marriage. I guess she thought we had beaten each other into wheelchairs, I dunno."

Together they had and raised four kids. He traveled the world as a Paralympian. He is a former teacher, ran a taxi company and was a state-level director and is an all-around great guy.

But all some people see is the wheelchair.
posted by ITravelMontana at 1:43 PM on July 15, 2016 [4 favorites]


OMG, the signer. I hope they have him to sign-interpret EVERYTHING.
posted by Pallas Athena at 5:28 PM on July 15, 2016 [3 favorites]


Heh. I've seen Alvin Law at least three times in various school assemblies, but I thought, "That's not him; this is a British thing."

20 minutes later, my brother commented on my Facebook post: "That's Alvin Law!"

What can I say? Guy's pretty memorable.
posted by St. Hubbins at 9:31 PM on July 15, 2016


That was awesome!

I think my favorite sport featured might be the blind soccer, which I had no idea existed until right now but want to attend a match immediately.

I'm so much more interested in watching the Paralympics this year than the Olympics - of course who the heck knows if it'll be aired anywhere other than tiny clips on youtube days after occurring. Is there maybe like an app or something?
posted by Mizu at 2:08 AM on July 16, 2016


As it happens YouTube has often one of the better places to find video that isn't overly edited - a boon if you're looking for coverage that's more useful than entertaining. Plus decent bits from other countries.

The ParalympicSport.TV channel really is worth checking out. Plus, well, the youtube-dl script may make taking said clips to show at workout somewhat easier....
posted by mce at 7:49 AM on July 16, 2016 [1 favorite]


DangerIsMyMiddleName: "Johnny Peacock in the 100m practically ruptured London with the cheering "

The best part of that video comes after the race. Each of his competitors embraced him with a huge hug -- I don't think I've ever seen a group of people in an athletic competition so happy to see another guy win.
posted by schmod at 9:32 AM on July 16, 2016 [1 favorite]


That video is my happy place today, and a further example for my contention that, despite the desperation we all seem to have to be angry and frightened about the world today, we live in an amazing time in which things are getting steadily better.

In my youth, it was "Don't stare, honey," and the admonition not to look, or to engage, except with condescension or pity, because we're all suppose to feel sorry for those with a lot in life supposedly lesser than ours…but now, we look, we listen, and we question, and that mass change applies to all sorts of things that we once just collectively swept under the rug instead of taking on one more aspect of how we live as a whole.
posted by sonascope at 4:10 PM on July 18, 2016


This also serves as a particularly gorgeous "fuck you" to anyone who still uses the idiot phrase "confined to a wheelchair." Confined, indeed.
posted by sonascope at 4:12 PM on July 18, 2016 [1 favorite]


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