The final presidential debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump wasn’t funny – but the mock debate beforehand at Housing Works Bookstore was.
Five comedians participated in the event, held in the SoHo space as part of The UnConvention, a series of live and social-media events about what is at stake for young people across the country in the presidential election.
Connor Ratliff, Aparna Nancherla, Anthony Atamanuik and Jo Firestone were the “candidates” who had to answers questions from the moderator, Keisha Zollar.
The “candidates” had to answer serious questions like: “What do you think is America’s biggest issue?”
Their answers were less serious. “Uber drivers who don’t know how to pronounce your name when you get in the car,” said Nancherla. She also said the United States could improve its international relationships if its politicians had more late-night sexting.
Providing Comic Relief
They also were challenged with tricky questions like “Which world leader would you Netflix and chill with?”
“Angela Merkel – she has the shortest queue!” said Nancherla.
“Justin Trudeau!” said Firestone. “And sorry for taking the most popular boy in school.”
Ratliff chose Queen Elizabeth II, saying, “She has a nice house.”
The event offered a “comic relief moment before a very tense debate,” Firestone said.
“Comedy is helpful as catharsis,” said Ratliff, who actually tried to run for president in 2012 and 2016 as part of his comedy platform. “If you just criticize something in a direct way, as opposite to if you have a satirical spin on it, you can get better reactions. It’s a way to amplify news and make a point spread wider. It helps make the point more memorable.”
Ratliff also pointed out that the current presidential campaign is a media show. “We live in a society where people want everything to be entertainment, and we penalize people who are boring but great at their jobs in politics,” he said. “It is sad that we expect politicians to be entertainers now.”
When it was time for the real debate to start, Zollar announced the comics needed to wrap it up, and the audience booed.
To bring back them to reality, she said: “Yes, the real debate is happening and there is nothing we can do to stop it, no one here can stop it.”
