Dem
49
GOP
51
On Wednesday, in our debate write-up, we included the observation that, in our view, there weren't "any meme-y moments that will enter the annals of presidential debate lore, like 'There is no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe' or 'binders full of women' or 'There you go again.'"
Oops. Clearly, we were wrong about that. And really, we should have chosen our words more carefully; what we meant is that there were no game changers. Thanks to the "dogs and cats" thing, it might also have been wrong to say that. But it was definitely wrong to suggest there would be no memes. There are all kinds of them. To make up for our error, we thought we'd run down some of the best and most ubiquitous ones:
Scheisskopf?: Even other countries were piling on Trump after the debate.
One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Orange Fish: Dr. Seuss may have been dead for 30 years, and yet...
Save the Animals: There are literally thousands of these out there. And they are being posted by both Republicans (un-ironically) and Democrats (extremely ironically).
What Would Franklin Do?: We think this is a more effective version of the previous bit.
Our Mistake: Several readers wrote in after the debate to point out, quite rightly, that there is one very well-documented example of an alien eating a cat.
Otto and Flash Disapprove: And it's not just cats.
D'oh!: The Simpsons has a meme for all occasions.
Snoopy Also Disapproves: This video is making the rounds; it's remarkable how well the piano from the Charlie Brown theme lines up with Trump's cat and dogs remarks:
A Song of Ice and Fire?: There are a lot of variants of this bit to be found. We liked this one, with George R.R. Martin (who has been promising to finish the book series that inspired Game of Thrones for years) best. (Though we very nearly went with the one featuring the Tesla truck.)
Phone Home: This one pretty much speaks for itself.
Anger Translator: This video, from the Lincoln Project, is sort of reminiscent of the old Key and Peele "Obama Anger Translator" bit. Note that it's PG-13, but that it will also please fans of late-20th-century pop culture.
Thanks, incidentally, to readers R.E.M. in Brooklyn, NY, M.G. in Augsburg, Germany, L.S.-H. in Naarden, The Netherlands, J.L. in Los Angeles, CA, S.A. in Seattle, WA, R.L. in Oakland, CA, M.A. in Albuquerque, NM, B.C. in Richmond, VA and C.S. in New York City, NY for sending in many of these examples. We hope we did not miss anyone. (Z)