The Mute Button (2020 Presidential Debate)

About

The Mute Button refers to a series of memes, primarily on Twitter, surrounding the use of a mute button during the October 22nd, 2020 U.S. Presidential Debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump. Following the announcement that a mute button would be used if the candidates spoke over each other, Twitter users began Tweeting their support and opposition to it. After the debate took place, Twitter users began posting memes suggesting the mute button wasn't used enough, often making reference to "the guy running the mute button" slacking off.

Origin

On October 15th, 2020, the second of three U.S. Presidential debates took place. Following the debate, viewers expressed concern over how much each candidate interrupted the other, suggesting it made the debate less efficient and useful. To combat this, it was announced on October 20th that a mute button would be implemented into the third and final debate, which would be used to mute either Trump or Biden if they spoke over one another.^[1] That same day, Twitter users began commenting on the mute button, some showing support (example shown below, left) and others showing opposition (example shown below, right).

Spread

Over the next few days leading up to the debate, Twitter users continued to comment on the use of a mute button. On October 20th, 2020, Jon Cooper tweeted his support of the mute button, garnering over 11,000 likes and 1,400 retweets in 3 days (shown below, left). On October 21st, Twitter user Bob Geiger uploaded a photoshop image referencing the mute button, garnering over 4,600 likes and 930 retweets in 2 days (shown below, right). On the same day, Rolling Stone^[2] published a piece detailing the jokes that Late-Night hosts made about the mute button.

Shortly after the debate, Twitter users began tweeting showing their disappointment for the lack of use of the mute button. On October 22nd, The Daily Show's Twitter account posted a tweet joking that the "mute button guy" showed up late to the debate, gaining over 2,000 retweets and 22,000 likes in 15 hours (shown below, left). On the same day, Twitter user JuSLIKEMIKE911 posted, "The person in charge of the mute button:" overtop an image of Homer Simpson sleeping, garnering over 6,300 likes and 1,400 retweets in 16 hours.

On October 23rd, several news outlets published articles detailing Mute Button memes, including The List,^[3] NEWS 18,^[4] and THE CUT.^[5]

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References