Dylan Bettencourt
The opening and closing ceremony director for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics has been fired after an old clip surfaced displaying a comedic skit regarding the Holocaust.
Kentaro Kobayashi’s video from 1998 caused mass shock and outrage with the director losing his job in what can only be seen as another blow for the already troubled games.
Seiko Hashimoto, Tokyo 2020 chief responded to the clip: “It came to light that, during a past performance, [he] used language that mocked a tragic fact of history. The organising committee has decided to relieve Kobayashi of his post.”
Kobayashi was just hours away from directing the biggest event of his career but his time as a comedian has come back to haunt him.
Kobayashi said the joke was a desperate plea to get laughs: “It was from a time when I was not able to get laughs the way I wanted, and I believe I was trying to grab people’s attention in a shallow-minded way.”
The director is just one of several Olympics staff who have been shown the exit door for being controversial. The creative director of ceremonies resigned in March after comparing a plus-size comedian to a pig. This week, a musical composer for the ceremonies was fired after old interviews showed the composer admitted how he bullied his disabled classmates.
The Tokyo 2020 chief said decisions still had to be made around the opening ceremony set for Friday 23 July. The 68,000-capacity stadium can only hold 950 people due to the coronavirus regulations in the nation as Tokyo continues to struggle with its fourth wave of Covid-19 infections.
Image source: @SkySports
