Wednesday nights' Presidential debate in the USA has provided a treasure trove of comedic material for the various late night comedians, all of whom no doubt tasked their writing staff to make much comedy hay out of the night's developments.
Some of their work revolved around poor Jim Lehrer, who hauled his butt out of debate retirement to tackle one more gab session between politicians, no doubt wishing he'd stayed home by the time it was all over.
Mr. Lehrer as respected as he is, quickly seemed to take on the role of Grampa at Sunday dinner, sitting at the head of the table trying to get a word in edgewise to the conversation, only to be totally and completely ignored.
It was not at all how we imagine he thought the structure of the debate would go, as the night moved forward he appeared to have all the resonance of a substitute teacher in a class run amok.
However, the main focus of the late night take on the debate has been the less than forceful performance of President Obama, a man who as we have seen in the past is given to great oratory, but on Wednesday seemingly adopted the role of less than attentive pupil to Professor Romney's lecture series.
The President missed many an opportunity to rebut some of his Republican competitors talking points, or deliver a powerful defence of his four years in office thus far, even his staunchest supporters in the media (hello MSNBC) felt that he was dis-engaged from the entire night's production.
The cable news networks of course had the wall to wall coverage of the night that we have come to expect these days.
As mentioned MSNBC post debate had the aura of a wake, CNN that of a cocktail party where the booze has run out and over at FOX, well HOLA, Hoochie coochie Coo, it was though a party scene from Animal House, such was their joy at the Romney performance.
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Still, the real barometer of success these days in the US seems to be how the late night comedians review the political developments.
In this multi channel universe, with Netflix, Apple TV and oh so many other distractions, we are thankful that the folks at Mediate take the time to provide the Best of collections of the late night shows.
Below some of their submissions from the Comedy Review of Debate Night in America.
The Daily Show
Stewart: 'Deeply Divided Nation' Has Agreed on Something - Obama's Debate Performance Sucked
Late Night with David Letterman
David Letterman presents Obama's Top Ten Excuses for his Lacklustre Debate Performance
The Colbert Report
Stephen Colbert Feasts Off Chris Matthews' Impotent Rage
Jimmy Fallon
Jimmy Fallon Shows Candidates Ganging Up On Jim Lehrer: "Jim, Shut the F**k Up"
Conan
Conan Shows Us Why Big Bird is No Match for Mitt Romney
Of course all of this is but a preamble to Saturday Night, where the folks at Saturday Night Live no doubt with a few days extra to work with will provide a most enjoyable review of Wednesday night.
Though we imagine that Mr. Lehrer, perhaps should take the advice of the twitter universe, where more than one contributor suggested that he NOT turn on his television at 1135 on Saturday night.
We imagine that may be sage advice...
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