The Third Presidential Debate Summed Up in 31 Tweets

The third and final presidential debate that took place in Las Vegas Tuesday night tackled many of the most important issues facing our nation -- bad hombres, puppetry, BFFs, nasty women -- and of course the Twittersphere dutifully kept track of it all. Although Excedrin was a sponsor of Debate Night on Twitter -- paying for the promoted hashtag #DebateHeadache to appear atop the list of trending topics -- some viewers stocked up on other provisions. Popcorn ✅ beer ✅ chair ✅ cyanide ✅ rope ✅ Ready for #debatenight! 😊👍🏻 The first big viral moment of the evening was the one that prompted its own spontaneous hashtag, #badhombres, which became an organic trending topic on Twitter. Speaking about his plan to deport illegal immigrants, Donald Trump declared that "We have some bad hombres here and we're going to get them out." Bad hombres -- the drinking game we didn't know existed until, suddenly, it existed. "Bad hombres!" Drink. Bad Hombres -- a movie (maybe a camp Western?) we didn't even know was being made. "BAD HOMBRES" coming to Netflix this Christmas #debatenight Here it should be noted that there was debate on Twitter about whether Trump said "hombres" or "ombres" -- "ombre" being a hairstyle in which long hair is dyed in a gradient, going from dark to light. Some people agreed that, yes, we absolutely must rid our nation of bad ombres. Are these the bad ombres Trump said are ruining the country? 😤😤 #DebateNight pic.twitter.com/cFZJpSp2lV On to the puppetry portion of the evening's entertainment! "That's because [Putin would] rather have a puppet as President." - Clinton on Putin's support of Trump. #debates https://t.co/60SIFWI2Jz The tranquilizers just wore off: "No puppet! You're the puppet!" #debate The third Presidential #debate: live-drawings by @JasonAdamK https://t.co/8oexdPcnyh pic.twitter.com/FGX4uPQLRQ We'll leave this right here: CLINTON: "Here is a trap." TRUMP: "Gotcha, here I come." Notably, Trump also tried to distance himself from Putin, saying, "This is not my best friend" -- and so naturally this became the most retweeted tweet of the night, according to Twitter: Do you think Putin will be going to The Miss Universe Pageant in November in Moscow - if so, will he become my new best friend? Look at the date on that tweet: June 19, 2013. Yes, once again the Twittersphere went digging around in Trump's timeline to mock him with his own (historic) words. Meanwhile, some viewers were maybe a bit confused about what they were watching. Saturday Night Live on a Wednesday!? I'm not complaining 😂😂 #debatenight pic.twitter.com/7gguOPXugq The confusion only increased when Trump reprised his debate tactic of leaning into the microphone and repeatedly saying "Wrong" to express his disagreement with Clinton. Was Trump doing Trump? Or someone else? That "wrong" was STRAIGHT UP Alec Baldwin. Hey, Donald Trump does a pretty good Alec Baldwin impersonation. #debate #wrong Amirite?! #debatenight https://t.co/BpaHnNOh7s pic.twitter.com/nkN1XDQJgp Speaking of Trump doing Trump -- or Trump not doing Trump -- Kellyanne Conway, Trump's campaign manager, took to Twitter to retweet a tweet from The Washington Post's Robert Costa, sticking a big ol' typographic arrow before it to get us all to look at it. --- > https://t.co/hE5b2ghYjN Um... Could somebody please talk to Kellyanne? @KellyannePolls Hi you're still running a national campaign; Twitter isn't a resume website. OK, thanks. But back to the action on stage... Here come the punches....#debate pic.twitter.com/Kk8HtxxPyu Trump got a lot of criticism for interrupting Clinton during previous debates, but she sure wasn't shy about interrupting him this time around -- most notably when he brought up his Vegas hotel: .@HillaryClinton ribs @realDonaldTrump for his apartment being made with "Chinese steel" https://t.co/zknNNUKTov https://t.co/JMMJ640ZiK Trump: "I was sitting in my hotel" Hillary: MADE FROM CHINESE STEEL #debatenight pic.twitter.com/zMp51aHisA But wait, we almost forgot! Did Donald Trump apologize to his wife in the wake of #TrumpTapes and multiple allegations of sexual assault? Moderator Chris Wallace didn't ask that specific question, but Trump still graciously volunteered an answer: "I didn't even apologize to my wife." #okthen "I didn't even apologize to my wife." Hillary HQ furiously cutting this into ads. Trump also served up one of the night's literal laugh lines at this point in the debate. "nobody has more respect for women than I do" *laughter in the room*#debate Another literal laugh line: Trump's response to Clinton saying that he thinks everything is rigged against him, including the Emmys, which failed to give his old reality TV show, "The Apprentice," a third Emmy award, much to his dismay at the time. "He didn't get an EMMY for his TV program... he started tweeting the EMMYs were rigged." - Clinton"Should have gotten it." - Trump #debate pic.twitter.com/jY7rIUg5e3 "Should have gotten it." - A person up for President of the US talking about the 3rd rigged Emmy he didn't win for his reality show. #debate Which, naturally, caused #Emmys to become a trending topic on Twitter. The larger point of the exchange, of course, was whether or not Trump, who has been insisting the presidential election is rigged, will accept the results on Election Day -- something Chris Wallace pressed him on repeatedly. "I will look at it at the time," Trump said. "I'm not looking at anything now." Check out Clinton's facial expression as he said that: ON @GMA: "I will look at it at the time," Trump on if he'll accept outcome of the election. #Debatespic.twitter.com/0IvgrOBfmv What do you call that facial expression? Hillary Clinton has only two facial expressions. Seething hostility and contemptuous amusement. #debatenight OK, but what would you call this?: When things feel a little too real. #debate https://t.co/oYcCrGIw1W pic.twitter.com/8yOQ7i2gh2 The evening's entertainment arguably came full circle when Trump muttered "Such a nasty woman" under his breath -- which caused "Nasty Woman" to become a Twitter trending topic. "Such a nasty woman." - Donald Trump following a jab from Hillary Clinton. #debatenight pic.twitter.com/cRl4UsOfez Clinton, who perhaps didn't hear it, kept right on talking, but speaking of facial expressions: #debatenight Trump: "Such a nasty woman." America: pic.twitter.com/KWXuuzbOKK As the end of the debate neared, The Onion detected an existential subtext. Chris Wallace Asks Dark Void Behind Him To Please Swallow Him Whole #debatenight That said, America's master of horror, Stephen King, gave Wallace a thumbs-up. Chris Wallace did a good job. Taking no shit, like a veteran teacher monitoring detention hall. Speaking of horror... american horror story #debatenight And the final word on the debate? We'll leave that to @StefonOn2016, a parody account that pays tribute to the Stefon character Bill Hader used to do on "Saturday Night Live." NY's hottest club is #NastyWoman. It has everything. Rigged Emmys. Bad hombres. Donald rejecting two centuries of American democracy. Simon Dumenco, aka Media Guy, is an Ad Age editor-at-large. You can follow him on Twitter @simondumenco.

The Third Presidential Debate Summed Up in 31 Tweets

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