The 2020 Vice Presidential debate between Mike Pence and Kamala Harris wasn’t quite as full of crosstalk as last week’s Trump-Biden non-meeting of the minds, but there were plenty of interruptions. And things got gross, starting with Pence’s grody eye and continuing with an unwanted visitor: an enormous fly. It didn’t help matters that Pence’s stark white hair (and obvious love of hairspray) made the perfect environment for this sucker to stand out for a global audience. And it felt like forever.
A fly lands on Vice President Pence during #VPDebate. pic.twitter.com/i0O2K6N9Yy
— CSPAN (@cspan) October 8, 2020
A large fly appears to have landed on the Vice President's head
— DJ Judd (@DJJudd) October 8, 2020
Here’s a close-up because this fly demanded to be seen in all its glory.
https://twitter.com/bubbaprog/status/1314029118279897089
For two minutes, this fly simply hung out. It wouldn’t move. It appeared to be stuck. Was it enjoying itself? No one knows. People went absolutely nuts.
Stephen King noted it as a harbinger. Padma Lakshmi was aghast at how long the fly stayed put (and that was only after one minute). And MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough swiftly tweeted, “The fly is the October Surprise. ~ @JonLemire.”
“The fly is the October Surprise.”
~@JonLemire— Joe Scarborough (@JoeNBC) October 8, 2020
The fly knows.
— Stephen King (@StephenKing) October 8, 2020
Just a full minute of a fly on Pence's head: pic.twitter.com/PjmoXDHdgV
— Padma Lakshmi (@PadmaLakshmi) October 8, 2020
The Atlantic writer Clint Smith declared the fly to be “the hero we all needed.” For 2020, that works.
Shout out to that fly. The hero we all needed.
— Clint Smith (@ClintSmithIII) October 8, 2020
The fly soon acquired its own Twitter account (because of course), which declared that Mike Pence is the real “Lord of the Flies.”
https://twitter.com/FlyOnMikePence3/status/1314029122306232322
Everyone went bonkers and would not stop. Merriam Webster chimed in, David Cronenberg got shoutouts (as did Jeff Goldblum), and comedian Subhah Agarwal called the fly “Pence’s only black friend.”
That fly just took out a mortgage on Pence's head.
— Steven Hyden (@Steven_Hyden) October 8, 2020
THE FLY (1986)
Cinematography by Mark Irwin
Directed by David Cronenberg#VPDebate pic.twitter.com/8lzZQnLu2s— Esmail Corp® (@esmailcorp) October 8, 2020
I miss the fly. Things were better then.
— Philip Cosores (@Philip_Cosores) October 8, 2020
hey who knew,….my fly incantation worked !!!
— THE TAO OF NOW (@InTheNoosphere) October 8, 2020
https://twitter.com/EricHaywood/status/1314035804063166464
📈 Trending on our site for quite possibly the first time:
'fly'#VPDebate
— Merriam-Webster (@MerriamWebster) October 8, 2020
https://twitter.com/subhah/status/1314027862102470657
My debate ranking:
1. Senator Harris.
2. The fly.
3. Vice President Pence.— Bill Kristol (@BillKristol) October 8, 2020
I think we can all agree the winner of tonight’s #VPDebate was Jeff Goldblum. pic.twitter.com/dIKP4Q7ubQ
— Randy Rainbow (@RandyRainbow) October 8, 2020
*Relatively normal debate*
WAIT IS THAT A FLY#VPDebate pic.twitter.com/91qXG2Bd5r
— Omar Jimenez (@OmarJimenez) October 8, 2020
The funniest part is that Pence doesn’t know about the fly, so someone will have to come up to him after this and be like:
“Yeah, so, good job, but…”— Farron Cousins (@farronbalanced) October 8, 2020
when the fly found the trash pic.twitter.com/osUT7UEIih
— matt (@mattxiv) October 8, 2020
You know that Pence had a very bad backstage moment after this debate. Yikes.