A sign of things to come?

I love the Olympics. Watching my countrymen invade other nations and valiantly kick ass—awash in unbiased media coverage that supports our troops, for once—brings joy to my patriotic heart. (And hearing everything narrated by that one guy from "Pootie Tang" to the tune of "Summon the Heroes"? I could cry right now just thinking about it.)

But that's not all I'm anticipating this year: I eagerly await the added diversion of good old fashioned cultural and linguistic humor in Beijing this summer. I'm talking about the sort of fun to be had reading chopsticks labels ("experience glonius Chinese histoy and cultual!") and WTF-style signage (e.g., right). My hope is that Bob Costas and his distinguished NBC colleagues have the stones to replace at least one of those traditional sob stories (you know, "this brave athlete grew up with a hamster for a father and lost six limbs and a tooth to constant heroin use before turning her life around by training for the triathlon") with a wacky montage set to "Yackety Sax" featuring all the hilarious ways those inept Chinese (God bless 'em!) try and fail to welcome foreigners in English (Engrish?).

The least this would do is make the members of the International Olympic Committee—who, as The New York Times pointed out in a Tuesday editorial, have much more important reasons to be ashamed—feel foolish for allowing such a ridiculous country to play host to the venerable games.