MEL Presents: Twitter’s Best #DebateNight Analogy Awards

Somewhere out there, there is a flaming garbage barge full of reasons why the 2016 presidential election has already secured its notoriety in the annals of history. Not many of these reasons are good, but at least one is less depressing than the rest: It’s had a hell of an effect on our creativity.

From foreboding movie references to iconic nicknames, everyone with an internet connection and the mildest sense of humor has found relief in drafting their best jokes about the absurdity of this charade (absurd and potentially apocalyptic). It’s probably a bad sign when satirical comedy makes more sense than deeply consequential real-world events in real time…but, hey, remember what George Bernard Shaw said about telling the truth and staying alive?

Last night, Twitter once again kept many of us sane through the latest and perhaps most mind-bogglingly anarchic installment in the Clinton-Trump saga yet: the first presidential debate. And since we’d rather stop thinking about the number of interruptions made and lies told in those 90 minutes — and since social media is a popularity contest anyway — these creative efforts clearly warranted an official judgment.

FIRST PRIZE: Angel Varak-Iglar, “STRAIGHT-UP JIM HALPERT”

SECOND PRIZE (TIE): Gregory Dean, “A tenured economics professor debating a few torn-out pages of Atlas Shrugged”

SECOND PRIZE (TIE): Janey Godley, “The worst live custody case for intelligence”

THIRD PRIZE: Mackenzie Coffman, “A live re-enactment of Leslie Knope and Bobby Newport”

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Brian Gaar, “A straight-A student trying to debate a guy screaming at the TV at the end of the bar”

Tanya D, “A slightly sentient YouTube comment trying to speak”

Ange Kagame, “Trying to meet the essay word-count requirement”

Danny O’Dwyer, “A 12-year-old on cocaine trying to convince a room of teachers that he didn’t cheat on his exam”

Lizzie Leis, “Your three-year-old niece try[ing] to convince you why she deserves to have two ice cream cones instead of one”

Alexander Grabau, “The job interview when you can’t stop talking but know you need to shut up”

Adrian Morrow, “Slam poetry in a drug-induced nightmare”

Muuka, “The National Enquirer having a conversation with The New York Times”

Blake A., “Two kids arguing in front of a principal”

Ben Domenech, “Someone who thinks they’re on ‘Survivor’ vs. someone who thinks they’re on ‘Jeopardy’”

Greg Fitzsimmons, “The school bully attacking Reese Witherspoon from ‘Election’”

Johnny Boy, “A ‘Real Housewives’ reunion”

David Amoyal, “Champions League & World Cup finals taking place in same stadium”

Great work, everyone. See you back here next week for the VP debate!