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Tim Kaine’s ‘Apprentice’ Jokes At The Vice Presidential Debate Were Pretty Satisfying

by Allison Piwowarski

Look, it had to happen. We're a mere thirty-some days away from Election Day and we've gone far too long not talking about Donald Trump's NBC show The Apprentice. The show made zero appearances during the first presidential debate, but during the vice presidential debate — when Trump was far, far away (OK, just not on stage) — it happened. Tim Kaine made an Apprentice joke at the vice presidential debate, and it was definitely satisfying.

While talking about jobs and the economy, Kaine was able to sneak in a quick little joke Hillary Clinton being a "you're hired" type of president, while Donald Trump was — say it with me — a "you're fired" type of president. Yes, Kaine went there. Kaine went there, he took a house tour, he bought real estate, and he's thinking of putting a pool in the backyard. And let's all just say it, finally. Donald Trump has built his television career on those famous words, and Kaine using the phrase in a dig at his competition was incredibly satisfying and also pretty inevitable. Of course, Pence didn't love the joke, but hey, some things land differently with certain audiences. You've got to respect Kaine for even touching that somewhat predictable joke, right?

If anything, think of it as a dash of excitement thrown into this pot of blandness. It was one of those things that felt like the elephant in the room, it had to be said, and now we can move on. We can start talking about the important things that this campaign should be compromised of.

Twitter is noticing that that joke seemed... somewhat planned. Personally, it almost felt like it was a situation room-type joke. The whole Clinton/Kaine team, sitting around a table, writing down their comedy set — I mean, statements — accordingly.

Not everyone loved the joke. Like I said, that type of joke isn't going to land with every audience. But let's remember what we're working with. This particular debate is the quintessential dad joke breeding ground. It is a petri dish of bad jokes, so we could probably have predicted this one coming.

Moving forward, hopefully these two can come up with some more original material. But as for now, let the dad jokes fly.