While some turned up their noses at debate, Trump frequently flares nostrils
84 million viewers watched Democratic nominee for president, Hillary Clinton and her G.O.P. contender Donald Trump, face off in the first of three presidential debates Monday night on CNN, according to Nielsen ratings. While many analysts focused on the debate’s pageantry, the candidate’s personality and their attention to issues, social media commenters couldn’t help but notice Donald Trump’s constant sniffling. It started out gradually, a shallow inhale between comments, but soon escalated to become a sensation on social media and ammunition for late night hosts. Incidentally, many late night television shows were live last night to ensure they could adequately cover and skewer the event in extended monologues and desk rants. Some of the more politically-minded hosts including NBC’s Seth Meyers (Late Night with Seth Meyers), CBS’ Steven Colbert (The Late Show with Steven Colbert) and Comedy Central’s Trevor Noah (The Daily Show) told pointed jokes that alluded to Trump’s newfound tick.
On CBS, Colbert went with the somewhat obvious angle of comparing Trump’s sniffles to drug use: “Trump sounded like he was fighting off a cold. With cocaine.”
Noah joked that Trump was “[P]robably smelling the bullsh*t he was saying on stage, all night.”
Late Night’s Meyers avoided the nose subject and closed strong with a line that blended campaign issue and cliche: “After tonight’s debates several FOX News analysts said that Hillary Clinton is the clear winner,” Meyers paused for a beat before adding, “Maybe global warming is a hoax, because hell has frozen over.”
One of the instigators of the Trump sniffle trend was former governor and presidential candidate, Howard Dean. His assertion that Trump was a “coke user” led to significant backlash with several users and analysts saying that coming from a public figure and former governor, was made in bad taste.
It wasn’t just Twitter that had fun with the Trump sniff meme, Instagram users decided to hit Trump in his second weak spot, which, evidently, is his hat.
However, it wasn’t just Twitter amateurs taking shots at Trump. Comedy authorities like Saturday Night Live’s Colin Jost tweeted their own verbal jabs.
Trump will take on Clinton in two more debates, and while there may be laughable antics, it remains unseen whether commenters and comics will be able to hit him right on the nose.
