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Olympics Viewers React to the Paris 2024 Opening Ceremony’s “Ménage à Trois” Bit

A suggestive prerecorded scene in the Paris 2024 opening ceremony prompted jokes online. Here’s what happened—and why the reported reactions don’t prove a majority view.
Opened Runtime2 min Written byDocumentaryTube Team
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A short prerecorded scene in the Paris 2024 Olympic opening ceremony showed three people entering an apartment before a door closed on the camera. Viewers and commentators joked about the suggestive moment, but the reported posts are examples—not evidence of what most viewers thought.

What happened in the “ménage à trois” bit?

During the Paris 2024 opening ceremony on July 26, a prerecorded sequence showed three people in psychedelic-like outfits going to an apartment. The scene was sensual and suggestive; as the door closed, the camera’s view ended. It did not show explicit sexual activity. TIME described the moment in its report on the ceremony’s unusual scenes: TIME’s account of the opening ceremony.

It was a staged video within the ceremony, not an event in Olympic competition. TIME’s review placed it in a sequence it described as an ode to love and literature: the sequence began in a library and ended with the apparent ménage à trois entering an apartment. The ceremony used Paris and the Seine as a setting for performances and themed vignettes, rather than unfolding entirely inside a stadium. TIME’s review of the ceremony.

How did viewers react?

Contemporary coverage highlighted amused and surprised social-media posts. TIME reported jokes about French stereotypes and quoted one viewer asking, “Are they showing a threesome as a french contribution to society???” That was an anonymous viewer post reproduced by TIME, not an official description of the scene or an explanation of its intent.

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Yahoo Entertainment’s search-result text also reported a viewer saying “Here for It, Not Gonna Lie” and another post referring to NBC commentators not knowing how to react. These are selected examples reported by outlets, not a poll or a count of audience responses. They cannot establish that viewers broadly agreed or that the jokes represented most of the audience.

What did the scene mean?

The visible action supports calling the moment suggestive or sensual, and its placement in a sequence about love and literature is noted in TIME’s review. But no attributable explanation from artistic director Thomas Jolly or the organizers establishes what this particular scene was meant to represent. Calling it a “ménage à trois” is a viewer-facing shorthand for what the scene appeared to suggest, not a confirmed statement of production intent.

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Why was the ceremony staged across Paris?

The ceremony took place on July 26, 2024. TIME reported it was the first Olympic opening ceremony held outside a stadium. Performances and vignettes along a stretch of the Seine made the city part of the staging; the apartment scene was one brief prerecorded element within that broader format. TIME’s contemporaneous report on the ceremony.

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