Mike Pence’s rouge fly and red eye: internet distracted during vice presidential debate

A fly rests on the head of US Vice President Mike Pence as he takes notes during the debate

Credit: AFP

An unexpected participant swooped in and stole the show during the vice presidential debate in Utah on Wednesday night.

For several minutes, a black housefly took up residence in Vice President Mike Pence’s white hair, not moving as he answered questions about racial injustice and whether justice has been done in the death of Breonna Taylor.

The pesky guest hung on as he shook his head and parried with California Sen. Kamala Harris.

Conversation about the fly dominated social media, where debate watchers discussed their distraction and inability to focus on Mr Pence and Ms Harris’ answers.

The hashtags #fly2024, #flyforpresident, #fly2020 and  #flyguy soon surfaced on Twitter. And accounts The Fly on Pence’s Head and  Fly in Mike Pence’s Head also appeared.

Even Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden couldn’t help but acknowledge the intruder and used it’s presence to promote his campaign.

Pitch in $5 to help this campaign fly. https://t.co/CqHAId0j8t pic.twitter.com/NbkPl0a8HV

— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) October 8, 2020

Mr Biden’s camp also appeared to have bought the domain name ‘flywillvote.com’ which redirects back to their ‘Iwillvote.com’ website.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi couldn’t resist adding to the flurry of tweets using the fly to remind people to vote and times ticks down to the Nov. 3 election. 

The election is fly-ing by. Make sure to make a plan to vote. https://t.co/dMhxJsRcW7#BidenHarris2020 #VPDebate2020

— Nancy Pelosi (@TeamPelosi) October 8, 2020

"Three debaters are now on the stage: Harris, Pence, and a very political fly that has nested in the Veep’s head," Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics, wrote on Twitter.

Former White House intern Monica Lewinsky used the blow-in’s appearance to take a dig at the Vice President, tweeting "One fly on the cuckoo’s nest".

one fly on the cuckoo’s nest

— Monica Lewinsky (@MonicaLewinsky) October 8, 2020

Some joked about the need to test the fly for the coronavirus, as it had skirted the plexiglass partitions separating the candidates and moderator.

Total time a fly sat on Mike Pence's head: two minutes pic.twitter.com/PtI0rKSi5I

— Timothy Burke (@bubbaprog) October 8, 2020

The invader wasn’t the first to take centre stage at an election year debate. In 2016, a fly briefly landed between Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton’s eyes during a town hall-style debate with now-President Donald Trump.

Earlier in the night, social media users were also distracted by Mr Pence’s left-eye which appeared to be bloodshot.

“Why’s Mike Pence’s eye so red? I think he might have the Rona!,” tweeted Maziyar Jobrani, an Iranian-American comedian, to his 125,000 followers.

Several posted close ups clips of his eye and the hashtag #pinkeyepence began to trend.

Mr Pence has repeatedly tested negative after coming in contact with people who later tested positive for Covid-19 over the weekend.