JUST RANKIN’ SH!T

5 Debates the Fly on Mike Pence’s Head Might Have Enjoyed More, Ranked

When you’re the only buzz of the night, you gotta take your talents elsewhere

LEVEL Editors
LEVEL
Published in
2 min readOct 8, 2020

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Photo: Ethan Miller/Getty

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5. Lincoln vs. Douglas, 1858

No moderator, no interruptions, no cameras. Just nine separate three-hour debates that drew crowds from across Illinois to hear the would-be senators spit fire. (For real: each candidate spoke for an hour, then each got 90 minutes to rebut the other, then each got a 30-minute closer.) We don’t even know if a fly can live 27 hours, let alone get from Springfield to Chicago, but if it could catch a ride in Stephen Douglas’ neck folds or something? LEGEND.

4. Obama vs. McCain, 2008

Granted, a debate’s not a speech, but damned if listening to 44 wax extemporaneous wouldn’t have inspired that fly to dive-bomb into John McCain’s eye, just to juice the odds a bit.

3. Jay-Z vs. Nas, eternal

The most heated debate in America didn’t go down at lecterns in an auditorium somewhere—it happened in pre-Covid-19…

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