That Debate Was The Worst Thing I've Ever Seen

Submission 2,783

About

That Debate Was The Worst Thing I've Ever Seen is a phrase used in a series of viral tweets following the first 2020 U.S. Presidential Debate, made popular by Mark Hamill and other celebrities. Each tweet starts with the titular phrase, followed by a comparison to something regarded as "bad" that the tweeter once took part in. For example, "That debate was the worst thing I've ever seen, and I was in X."

Origin

On September 29th, 2020, screenwriter Jeremy Slater^[1] tweeted, "That was the worst thing I've ever seen, and I wrote FANTASTIC FOUR" (shown below). The tweet was well-received, garnering over 619 thousand likes and 79.5 thousand retweets in 6 days.

Spread

Following Slater's tweet, more people -- particularly actors, screenwriters, and other celebrities -- started posting their own renditions of the tweet. On September 29th, 2020, screenwriter Randi Mayem Singer^[2] quote-retweeted Slater, writing, "That was the worst thing I've ever seen, and I wrote Tooth Fairy" (shown below, left). The tweet garnered over 1,000 likes and 180 retweets in six days. Five minutes later, Sarah Watson,^[3] the writer of Disaster Zone: Volcano In New York quote-retweeted Singer's post, garnering over 300 likes and 50 retweets in the same amount of time (shown below, right).

On September 30th, actor Mark Hamill^[4] tweeted, "That debate was the worst thing I've ever seen & I was in The Star Wars Holiday Special" (shown below, left). The tweet was extremely popular, garnering over 1.1 million likes, 167 retweets, and 10.5 thousand comments in 5 days. On the same day, Alec Berg,^[5] writer of The Cat In The Hat movie, posted a variation of the tweet, garnering over 9.4 thousand likes and 690 retweets in the same span of time (shown below, right).

Beyond celebrities, other Twitter users made renditions of the tweet as well, using events from their lives as a comparison. Examples of this can be seen below.

By the end of September leading into October, the mainstream media started reporting on the trend. On September 30th, Fox News published an article on the trend.^[6] On the same day, Entertainment Weekly,^[7] CNET,^[8] The Hollywood Reporter,^[9] and Huffpost^[10] published articles on the trend.

Fake Stormy Daniels Tweet

On October 1st, Facebook page The Other 98%[] reposted a fake tweet photoshopped by Instagrammer therecoveringproblemchild, in which it looks like Stormy Daniels has tweeted, "That debate was the worst thing I've ever seen and I slept with Donald Trump" (shown below, left). The post garnered over 86 thousand reactions and 15 thousand shares, making it one of the top-performing Facebook posts that day. Many in the comments section seemed to believe the tweet was real. On the same day, Twitter user Seana Davis posted a tweet explaining that the post was fake, including an image highlighting the signs that it's fake (shown below, right).