Friday, May 27, 2016

Late night TV on Trump vs. Sanders debate


After I found out yesterday that Trump had finally collected a majority of delegates to the Republican convention, so he is now officially the presumptive nominee, I searched YouTube for an appropriately comedic reaction.  I found one in Stephen Colbert's Here's What Put Donald Trump Over The Top, although I've always thought Trump was over the top.

Hearing the news that Donald Trump has clinched the Republican nomination puts Stephen in the fetal position.
Yeah, Stephen, I wanted to lie down on hearing the news, too.

As viewers can see and hear, Trump's earning the nomination may have had top billing in the monologue, but it wasn't alone on stage.  The possibility of Sanders debating Trump shared the limelight and showed even more comedic potential.

One of the people responsible for the idea was Jimmy Kimmel, who had Trump and Sanders on as guests on consecutive nights.  Wednesday, Donald Trump told Jimmy he is willing todebate Bernie Sanders.

Donald Trump shares his opinion on the race between Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton and agrees to debate Sanders under one condition.
The next night, Jimmy asked Senator Bernie Sanders about debating Trump.

Senator Sanders talks about the possibility of debating Donald Trump and competing against Secretary Hillary Clinton in California.
Jimmy even has an idea of what a Trump-Sanders debate would look and sound like.

Recently we showed what it looks like if you play Donald Trump at half-speed. We tried it with Bernie too, but it wasn’t as good. Then we slowed Trump down and sped Bernie up and Jimmy thinks that if they end up debating, he’d love it to go something like this.
It turns out that Comedy Central has already had their simulated Trump-Sanders debate back in March.

Bernie Sanders (James Adomian) and Donald Trump (Anthony Atamanuik) debate their likeness to Jesus and launch attack ads in the @midnight presidential debate.
A real debate would be more substantive, but it wouldn't be as funny.

As for whether it's a good idea, I'm not sure.  If it's bad for Clinton, she should debate Sanders one last time instead.  If it's good for Clinton, she should continue what she's doing, which is ignoring Sanders.  On the other hand, it would make for great TV.  Stay tuned.

ETA: Vox reports Never mind, Donald Trump doesn't want to debate Bernie Sanders after all.  Oh well, it was too good to be true.

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