Just like with the Presidental Debate, I had a plan to watch the VP Debate. And my plan was pretty much the same for both debates. I was going to watch it through Crooked Media‘s YouTube channel so I could see their Slack conversation and I had my own FB Messenger group to message with during the debate. I find it so helpful to have people to talk to while watching debates. Sometimes for making jokes and being silly, but sometimes for asking if someone knows if something is true or not.
Also, debates can be frustrating and upsetting, depending on what they may say. If someone is saying a complete lie, it’s hard not to react to it. If someone says something that you know is against everything they said before, you want to call them out. Having people to chat with, even over text, really helps me get out whatever emotions I might feel during the debate.
For the VP Debate, there was a good mix of getting out frustration and telling jokes. Hearing Pence say that Trump has taken this pandemic seriously since January when he was calling it a hoax well beyond then was frustrating. Whenever Pence was asked about his administration, he seemed to ignore that question and just say that the American people are doing the right thing. For example, when he was asked about wearing masks, he didn’t say anything about anyone in the White House wearing masks and only that the people will do the right thing. That’s also ignoring the people claiming that wearing a mask right now violates their rights or is discrimination.
And Pence kept interrupting Harris and the moderator. My messaging group is all women, and we all have experienced men interrupting and talking over us. We were all so frustrated watching it happen. Thank goodness Harris did try to explain that she was speaking so he shouldn’t be interrupting her. But I know that so many women online were posting about how we have experienced this so much and how we wish men wouldn’t do this to us.
Even though there were a lot of things to be frustrated at, I think our message group had a lot of silliness going on too. You have to find comedy in these things otherwise you will be overwhelmed watching them. And there were a lot of moments to laugh at. But nothing was a bigger moment than the fly on Pence’s head.
I don’t know why everyone found the fly so funny, but it became one of the biggest moments of the debate. There were so many jokes being posted and I was enjoying all of them. I kept seeing a lot of posts about how the fly had been on the screen long enough to be eligible for SAG-AFTRA (even though that’s not how it works), and I decided to create something to go with that.
I lucked out that I found an image of a union card that didn’t have a member name or number on it, so it was really easy for me to come up with this tweet.
I posted it in a few places and everyone seemed to get a good laugh out of it. I also saw posts saying that the fly should be up for a SAG Award now or asking if the fly will be in the In Memorium segment at the next SAG Awards since flies don’t live that long. I know that having a fly on someone’s head wasn’t the most important thing we heard, but it was the moment that stuck with most of us and gave so many of us a much-needed laugh.
There is supposed to be another Presidental Debate in a week, but I don’t know if it will be happening. Because Trump was diagnosed with COVID, the group organizing the debates said that they would be doing it virtually for the next one. Trump has said that he will not be participating because the debate is only trying to protect Biden, which they are because Trump shouldn’t be wanting to expose others to this disease. But I know that Trump also changes his mind a lot so even though as I am writing this he says he will not attend and will do a private rally instead, that can change by the time the debate is supposed to happen (or by the time this post goes live).
I don’t know if I hope there will be another debate or not. The last Presidental Debate wasn’t good. There was no information really shared because of how often there were interruptions. It was not a good moment for this country. And I don’t know if any other debates would be better. But if there is another one, at least I have a good system figured out to make them a bit more entertaining.
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Trying To Make The Debates More Fun To Watch (or Group Chats Make Things Better)
And Some More Politics (or Appreciating Social Media)
SAG Awards (or Watching After Knowing The Winners)
A Tasting And Theater Night (or Enjoying A Fun Night Out)
A Night Of SAG Awards (or Watching Union Unity)
Such An LA Night (or Just Having Some Fun With A Friend)
