With today’s US Presidential debate done and dusted, the question universally on the mind of all who watched it is simple: Who let these two geriatric fucks anywhere near the reigns of power? In fact, such was the sheer calamity of the entire 90-minute pissing contest between Donald Trump and Joe Biden that searches for the term “shitshow” almost immediately shot through the roof.
Search data pulled from Google Trends shows a heaving spike of searches for “shitshow” in the minutes immediately after the debate finished airing. Searches peaked at around 12:40pm AET, with US audiences apparently sprinting to their devices to plug the term into Google.
Here in Australia, a similar spike in searches for the term was observed. Although it should be noted that the spike began in earnest in the minutes leading up to the start of the debate, and sustained itself pretty much all throughout proceedings.
How Australians managed to see that, well, shitshow coming but US audiences only observed it after the fact is another story entirely.
On the American front, searches peaked in, remarkably enough, the District of Columbia, home of Washington D.C. Which says a decent amount about how political insiders viewed the debate.
The spike in interest for the term has been spurred on largely by CNN’s post-debate coverage, in which host Danan Bash flat-out asserted “that was a shitshow” on live TV. That was preceded by Jake Tapper calling the debate “a hot mess, inside a dumpster fire, inside a train wreck.”
CNN with the most accurate, succinct post-debate analysis:
“That was a hot mess inside a dumpster fire inside a train wreck.”
“That was a shitshow.” pic.twitter.com/ASenlBOCiK
— Ԍεοϝϝ’s Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly 🌹 (@SpittingBack) September 30, 2020
That came on the heels of a debate that involved repeated mockingly, bullying, shouting over, and downright racist baiting from Trump, and a whole bunch of incoherent babbling from Biden. Also Biden called Trump a “clown” on at least two occasions. So that happened too.
Realistically, “shitshow” is the only word to describe it. It was an absolute mess from bell to bell.
And for those literary pedants among you, the question of whether “shitshow” is one word or two has already been answered.
“Shitshow” is one word.
— BuzzFeed Style Guide (@styleguide) September 30, 2020
So we can just put that one to bed right here on the damn spot.
