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Winter Olympics: All of Leslie Jones’ Best Reactions (So Far)

The 'Saturday Night Live' star and Olympics superfan is enthusiastically providing her take on this year's winter competition.

By Lauren Huff, Zoe Haylock

Winter Olympics: All of Leslie Jones' Best Reactions (So Far)
Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic

Saturday Night Live star Leslie Jones has officially kicked off her coverage of the Winter Olympics, taking every possible opportunity to live-tweet her thoughts.

On Friday, the comedian started live-tweeting her viewing experience, making quips about the figure skating competition. In a variety of tweets, Jones compared a skater’s performance to the end of a relationship, praised commentator Johnny Weir’s bedazzled jacket and dubbed Russian skater Mikhail Kolyada this year’s “skate villain.”

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Jones did not live-tweet during Friday’s opening ceremony, explaining on Twitter that she needed to rest because she would “be in a coma” until Saturday night. “So exhausted and want to be nice and rested! Got a lot of work ahead,” the actress wrote.

On Saturday, the star kicked things off with her own version of a soundtrack (“It’s like the best boy band ever,” she said) to the speed skating event:

She also berated a snowboarder for not keeping his pants up:

In a series of tweets, the actress also freaked out over the luge competition and feared for the safety of the athletes. “I’m fucking traumatized,” she wrote in one. She also took a liking to USA’s Chris Mazdzer during the event: “Damn he is fine. Mmm, Chris, please God. I’m so scared for you Chris,” she said.

Moving on to the figure skating events later in the day, Jones cracked some jokes about Team USA’s sister-brother figure skating pair Maia and Alex Shibutani. “Hell no, this is definitely not something I could do with my brother. It would be the worst routine ever. I would not be able to get along with my brother long enough to trust him to do a damn triple axel throw, that’s for damn sure,” she joked.

Jones was announced as a new contributor in January, after garnering the attention of NBC’s president of Olympics production and programming, Jim Bell, for her enthusiasm during the 2016 Rio Olympics. Throughout the Rio Olympics, Jones live-tweeted her viewing experience, where she offered her own comical commentary and encouragement for Team USA.

“Yep I love the Olympics it’s the only time all countries come together to compete! I love it!!” Jones tweeted, along with a video of herself draped in an American flag.

Bell noticed the comedian’s love for the Olympics on Twitter and extended an invite for her to join the network’s team in Rio. “You’re officially invited to Rio. Want to come?” Bell tweeted at the actress. Jones immediately responded to Bell writing, “Don’t play cause y’all need me. I would have the whole Olympics pumped!!”

His promise to join their coverage team was fulfilled with Jones’ new role at this year’s Winter Olympics. “Experiencing the Olympics through the lens of Leslie is unlike anything else. Her passion for Team USA is contagious, and her adventures in South Korea should be fascinating,” Bell said.

After learning she would be joining NBC’s coverage team, Jones posted a patriotic video on her Twitter where she was, once again, decked out in red, white and blue attire, while riding an elliptical machine. “Guess what time it is y’all! And guess where I’m going!!” Jones announced.

On Monday night, Jones cheered on snowboarder Chloe Kim as she won the Women’s halfpipe competition, though the comedian wasn’t quite sure of the name of the event.

When it came time for the men’s halfpipe competition, Jones commented on how “crazy” the athletes had to be to engage in such a dangerous activity. “I mean look at that,” the comedian said. “It’s just a big-ass, long tub and they’re going to do flips down that?” She then took issue with the “pretentious” announcer calling out trick names.

On Saturday, she did a dance with figure-skating NBC hosts Tara Lipinski and Johnny Weir to Beyonce’s 2003 hit “Crazy in Love.”

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