From trick selfie to competition
The flash mob's precursors spread on Twitter in late 2013. In November, the blogger Rock Burgundy shared an unusual mirror selfie and used the tags Trick Shot Selfies and AND1 Selfie League. The idea was to complicate the familiar self-portrait: the body's pose and the way the phone was held became part of the act. In January 2014, accounts appeared that collected such images, and the name Selfie Olympics turned the stream of individual photos into an imaginary shared tournament.
The big wave coincided with the 2014 Winter Olympics season; the format regained popularity in February 2018, during the Pyeongchang Games. The user Bradleysanborn called for bringing back the hashtag and posted a series of photos, after which other participants picked up the idea. This “Olympics” has no official disciplines and no single judging: the sporting name describes competition in spectacle. The principle of the trick mirror selfie itself appeared before the first major wave under this name.
Bicycle, ushanka and bathroom
The photo shows a man in rectangular glasses and a black ushanka (a fur-lined winter hat) sitting on a blue bicycle. He wears a gray top and dark trousers. With one hand he holds the phone up to the mirror, with the other the handlebars; golf clubs are behind his back. The bicycle takes up almost all of the lower part of the frame. On the right hangs a patterned curtain; on the left you can see a shower shelf and a purple bath pouf, and the walls are covered in white tiles. The whole setting emphasizes how unsuitable a venue the imaginary athlete chose.
No elaborate caption is needed here. The bicycle suggests a ride, the golf clubs another pastime, the ushanka adds its own set of associations, and the bathroom keeps these preparations from being taken literally. The phone stays in view and ties the jumble to the task of taking a self-portrait. The author of this particular shot is unidentified; the image works as a single example of the general flash mob.
The room becomes the constraint of the task
An ordinary selfie tries to show a person to advantage. In this format, the person shows how much that is unexpected they managed to fit into a familiar composition. The mirror and plumbing keep the everyday setting recognizable, while the props change its meaning. The result is an almost theatrical set: the viewer immediately understands the location and therefore notices the intrusion of an unsuitable activity especially well.
The comedy is heightened by composure. The subject can look at the phone as though a bicycle in the bathroom is a perfectly normal start to the day. This manner doesn't explain the absurdity but invites the viewer to discover it. Unlike a simple photomontage, the selfie also shows the effort of preparation: the objects had to be brought in, arranged and aligned with the possibility of taking the shot. In the imaginary competition, it is precisely this excessive preparation that looks like a result deserving a joke medal.
Imaginary disciplines
In a fictional photo, a participant sits at a small office desk by the mirror, and beside the toothbrushes stand folders labeled “urgent” and “even more urgent.” The caption names the event “remote work at maximum distance.” The joke moves an entire work setting into a place where entirely different daily activities are expected.
Another fictional variant turns the bathroom into a recording studio: a toy piano stands on a stool, a cardboard microphone hangs in front of the mirror, and the person solemnly displays the cover of their imaginary album. A third example depicts a miniature exhibition: several frames with drawings are placed between towels, and the selfie's author holds a sign reading “tour in two minutes.” In every case the competitiveness arises from changing the room's purpose and from treating a deliberately absurd staging with complete seriousness.
