When it comes to sporting pageantry, the Olympics represents the peak.
Every event, from the blue-ribbon marquees to the more obscure and often altogether baffling disciplines, are treated with a reverence that borders on pomposity.
And for good reason too; these athletes have trained for years for the chance to prove they are the best in the world at whatever it is they do.
Still, it is this sense of occasion, this inflated grandiosity, that makes what Roy and HG do so funny.
Sporting commentators are prone to wild overstatement, confected expertise, and saccharine mythologising at the best of times, but during the Olympics these vices go into overdrive.
Roy and HG have their act down to a science; they satirise the turns of phrase exactly, they have mastered the cadence of broadcast banter, and even the moments when they crack themselves up are hilarious.
Very few moments in the Games' history aren't improved by the Roy and HG treatment, and so here are 10 of their best Olympics highlights.
1. Damian Istria's floor routine – Sydney, 2000
When Damian Istria's hips met the gymnasium floor with no small amount of force, the term "battered sav" entered the national lexicon, and it hasn't left.
Other gymnastics terms: flic-flac, kip, salto … why not "battered sav" too?
2. Steven Bradbury's gold – Salt Lake City, 2002
Of course, we know that Bradbury's years of hard work, dedication and resilience are the reason he won in Salt Lake City, but it would be remiss not to mention the good fortune he enjoyed in that final lap of the gold medal race.
Hearing Roy and HG discuss the tactical genius of Bradbury's stranglehold over last place, and their cackling as the skaters ahead of him all fall over — it's just perfect.
3. Pulling a muscle in the weightlifting – Athens, 2004
There's the risk of witnessing a horrific injury when watching almost all sports, of course, but watching weightlifting just feels so much more perilous in this regard.
These squat men and women, all bulbous muscle and veiny gurning, lifting frankly ludicrous amounts of metal over their heads, seem to be one extra milligram away from some catastrophic prolapse, or indeed simply exploding into a fine, person-flavoured mist.
Trust Roy and HG to know how to best communicate the idea of a shredded glute to the common man.
4. Eric the Eel – Sydney, 2000
Eric Moussambani's solo effort in the 100m freestyle heat was simultaneously one of the funniest and most stirringly beautiful things ever to happen at an Olympic Games.
And HG was right – I'd bet fewer people can recall the name of the 100m freestyle gold medallist that year than remember the lump in the throat that formed seeing Eric clinch the Equatorial Guinean record.
5. HG calls the ping-pong – Sydney, 2000
When it comes to onomatopoeia in sports, the joke writes itself.
6. Calling the diving … harshly – Sydney, 2000
The sport itself is an attempt to defy the basic physical laws governing the displacement of matter, so it always seems harsh to criticise divers when all they've done is throw up a bit of splash.
Having said that, the boys don't hold back, unleashing a series of withering and – at times – viscerally graphic put-downs.
Roy, after one deficient dive: "Nice bomb."
7. Jane Saville and Roy's fury – Sydney, 2000
We were all heartbroken for race walker Jane Saville after she was disqualified mere metres from winning gold in Sydney.
But the national sentiment was best articulated by Roy's in-depth, rage-fuelled analysis — snubbed by the Walkleys, in my view – which revealed a cruel double standard.
8. Mr Innocent's difficult jumps run – Athens, 2004
The equestrian sports are always a little tough to watch when things don't go to plan, as there are two competitors, and only one of them really understands what's at stake.
Poor Mr Innocent.
9. The soundtrack to the Greco-Roman wrestling – Athens, 2004
It's a sport that evokes vivid images of the ancient Games, as if the burly champions of centuries past are mid-clinch with the leotarded grapplers of today.
But it took Roy and HG to reveal to the world Greco-Roman wrestling is actually best watched while accompanied by a Carpenters classic.
10. Fatso the Wombat – Sydney, 2000
The mascot for the Tokyo Games is a creature called Miraitowa, a name derived from the Japanese words for "future" and "eternity".
Like all Olympic mascots, Miraitowa was spawned from the sanitised union of corporate buzzwords and market research, attempting to represent all things to everyone, and so ultimately representing nothing.
Not so Fatso the Wombat, Roy and HG's unofficial mascot in Sydney, whose prodigious hindquarters first appeared on their television desk, but ended up gracing Michael Klim's gold medal podium.
The Roy and HG Olympics Podcast will be released daily from July 23 on the ABC Listen App and will be available via their existing feed.
