He pranced, made funny gestures with his fingers, hooded his hands around his eyes, played to the big screen outrageously.
But if you're the fastest man who ever drew breath, the single most talismanic athlete on the planet, AND you then deliver on time you can pretty much play the clown before the entire world.
The Olympic Stadium was packed, 80,000 solid for Usain Bolt's first final yesterday. More than two million people applied for tickets, and put it this way: they weren't there for the hammer throw final.
Bolt had question marks over him going into the 100m final.
Was his mind really on the job? What about suggestions of a niggling injury in the leadup? And would his training partner, fellow Jamaican pace ace Yohan "The Beast" Blake - who had beaten the taller man in their last couple of meetings and was unbeaten this year - have the wood on Bolt?