I know Ryan Lochte from 2 things: the Olympics and an episode of 30 Rock.
I know he had a reality show, but I ignored it.
And even though I say I knew him from the Olympics I didn’t realize until recently that he was so successful; second only to Michael Phelps for medals.
So he had his medals, his goofy big nosed dimpled face and a propensity to appear in a Speedos: all the ingredients to be a celebrity in America and intergalactically through social media.
I was surprised when a high brow show like 30 ROCK featured him in memorable cameo, but NBC had both the Olympics and 30 Rock and Jack Donaghy sure would have been proud of that vertical integration.
The episode revolved around Alec Baldwin’s character being concerned that the woman he was currently involved with, the pizza heiress Pizzarina Sbarro, would find out he was still seeing other women and she would get the wrong idea and possibly dump him.
To his surprise while out with one of these women he runs into Ms. Sbarro also out on the town with another man.
The man here was guest star Lochte. The upshot being that both Donaghy and Sbarro have a “sex idiot” they keep around in addition to the person they consider to be their main squeeze. Sometimes they just need to be with someone “for fun”, no sparkling wit or conversation required.
The sex idiot need only be young hot and willing with any sort of intelligence being a highly undesirable trait.
They don’t give Lochte much to do as the male sex idiot and since he pretty much is a de facto one in real life not much acting is required. His laugh line has him wondering why so many “old guys” are constantly offering to buy his shirt (he appears shirtless here with only a jacket on). Funny, right?
Not a star turn by any means but memorably playing the definitive sex idiot it did give him a more humble good guy burnish than perhaps he had been projecting.
Then came Rio.
Too much idiot. Not enough sex.
Hey Ryan, I hear they are already casting the gay porn version of your story. Redemption is at hand.
The Fat of Now 