We may be neck-deep into the summer Olympics, but winter is still coming to Rio. Or that seems to be the case anyway, as Australian high-jumper Brandon Starc has leapt over the Wall and is bringing the White Walkers south to Brazil. The totally ironically named jumping aficionado named Brandon Starc is currently dominating Twitter’s Olympic hive-mind, so naturally we’re obligated to write it up and make some George R.R. Martin-based jokes. Because if an event happens and there’s a Game of Thrones joke/reference to be had, isn’t it our responsibility to be silly about it?
We were first clued into the existence of this non-paralyzed iteration of the son of Winterfell on Sunday afternoon, when a bunch of folks started tweeting about the arrival of the new Three-Eyed Raven to Rio.
Just watched Brandon Starc compete in the High Jump… Strange, coz I thought he's actually better at the Long Drop pic.twitter.com/GB1HXxXO4B
— Kate Ellora (@katellora) August 15, 2016
The jokes didn’t stop there—because much like humans, what jokes are dead may never die—as all sorts of fans pushed themselves off their windowsills and onto the bandwagon of yukking it up in the name of silly, meme-centric fun:
There is an Australian highjumper called Brandon Starc, dude could jump the Wall. #HouseStarc pic.twitter.com/KvJV6Waz03
— Fiona (@federering) August 15, 2016
But will he win the Olympics? Has it been foretold in the flames? Ordained by the seven? Manipulated into motion by the old gods instead of the new? Only time will tell—namely Tuesday, when he competes in the finals for the Men’s High Jump. Until then, we riff on:
High jumper named Brandon Starc made it to finals at Summer @Olympics.. even though #WinterIsHere @GameOfThrones pic.twitter.com/lNMQVyzK4X
— Virginia Cha (@10NewsCha) August 15, 2016
And on…
You're the 3-eyed wombat now, Australian high jumper Brandon Starc.
— Aaron S. Weber (@Short_epics) August 15, 2016
And on…
There is an Australian named Brandon Starc at the Olympics in high jump. No confirmation on there being a Hodor.
— Sam Vecenie (@Sam_Vecenie) August 15, 2016
Are you watching the Olympics this year? Have some jokes of your own for good ol’ Brandon Starc? Let us know in the comments below.
[brightcove video_id=”5014818294001″ brightcove_account_id=”3653334524001″ brightcove_player_id=”2bfa565b-5412-4cfd-9211-6269880b8a5e”]Image: HBO
Alicia Lutes is the Managing Editor of Nerdist, creator/co-host of Fangirling, and lives about 94% of her life on Twitter.
