McKayla Maroney is everywhere

“It is pretty funny.”

So said 16-year-old Olympic gymnast McKayla Maroney when asked by David Letterman in her Aug. 14 appearance on The Late Show about that infamous “not impressed” shot seen around the world after being awarded the silver medal that has now taken on a viral life of its own on the Internet.

As a result, McKayla Maroney is probably going to be one of the few Olympic athletes whose fifteen minutes of fame may go on for much longer thanks to 28-year-old Gavin Aloen’s clever meme on Tumblr called “McKayla Is Not Impressed” where her image is now incorporated into everything from travel pictures to movies to meetings with real life figures. She was not impressed, for example, by Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s pick of Paul Ryan for Vice President Aug. 13.

I doubt going into the Summer Olympics if Maroney expected her disapproving look to reach the height of hilarious proportions.

She is only 16 years old and yet she has traveled to more places in so short a span of time than any of us could have imagined.

McKayla is not impressed with the Mars rover Curiosity.

I wonder what the NASA technicians were thinking the minute the Mars rover Curiosity sent back a photo of Maroney in her spacesuit boasting that “not impressed” look. In Maroney’s defense, can you blame her? Here she is on a planet that is nothing but red rocks, sand and ice and no one to talk to save for her communications with the Pentagon telling them on a daily basis that she is “not impressed.”

Either that, when the gymnast came across those Martians, she didn’t care much for the greeting they gave her with a sign that said “F--- off. Go home!!!”

Now why am I not surprised that even aliens in outer space don’t want us visiting their planets?

McKayla is not impressed with The Hunger Games.

Maroney may have been born in 1995 but believe it or not, she was at the World Trade Center on August 7, 1974, when Phillippe Petit did his high wire walk between the Twin Towers. Look real closely at that "Man On Wire" photo and you will find her in the same outfit she was wearing when being given the silver medal 38 years later standing on the roof of one of the towers. I wonder if once Petit completed his stunt if Maroney told him she was “not impressed.”

George Lucas may have made film producer Kathleen Kennedy his heir apparent when he retires from Lucasfilm and the Star Wars franchise soon. I have a feeling; however, the creator of The Force will come out of retirement again just to tinker one more time with the original Star Wars trilogy (1977-1983). Or maybe he has done so already, and the images posted on the McKayla Is Not Impressed website are a taste of what we will get when another Blu-ray edition is released years from now.

I would like to think, no, actually I hope, the scene of Maroney’s not impressed image at the end of "Star Wars" (1977) during the awards ceremony standing beside the droids C3P0 and R2D2 and other rebel leaders as Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) and Han Solo (Harrison Ford) are awarded their “gold” medallions is just an April Fool's joke.

Maroney's second vault at the 2012 Olympics.

All kidding aside, however, despite losing her chance at the gold medal upon failing to land on her feet in her second vault jump at the Aug. 5 games, Maroney should still be proud of herself. She is only 16 and she still has plenty of time to work on winning that gold medal again.

“It happens,” Maroney said afterwards in a New York Times article. “It’s gymnastics, and you can’t be perfect. Sometimes, things don’t go as planned. I don’t blame it on anything else. I just messed up.”

There is nothing wrong with an athlete setting their sights too high only to have it come crashing down in an instant. It’s called competition and the desire to be the best. Maroney’s image is just one disapproving look. I can’t count how many pictures I have seen on the Internet of auto racer Danica Patrick not looking all too happy at the races over the years.

Every Olympian athlete is always remembered for something. I remember swimmer Amanda Beard making her first appearance at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games at age 14 holding her teddy bear. I know I won’t forget Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh Jennings third gold medal victory at this year’s events.

McKayla is not impressed with the Peanuts gang.

If there is one thing I prefer to remember about McKayla Maroney it isn’t that negative facial expression being awarded the silver medal. It is the fact at how she has since been able to have a sense of humor about the whole thing even joining in on the fun posting a picture of herself showing her displeasure alongside fellow teammates Kyla Ross and Aly Raisman tweeting, “The pool is closed. #not impressed.”

The day after her Letterman appearance, Maroney reposted a pic off the meme Tumblr website to her twitter account showing her famous pose in animated form with the Charlie Brown gang. At the bottom of the cartoon was the caption, “ice cream, pretzels, toast and jellybeans. Not impressed.”

“I just died” laughing, she tweeted on her account.

©8/15/12