Students use drinking games and humor to cope with presidential debates

It’s time for the presidential debates — and this year, students are adopting a few interesting coping mechanisms to process the events. 

Senior Marcella Pansini played a debate-themed drinking game with her roommates for the first debate between former Vice President Joe Biden and President Donald Trump on Sept. 29. They got the idea from a TikTok they saw, proposing a game where players sip, chug, finish a drink or take a shot, depending on the actions and words of the candidates. 

Pansini said the rules that led to the most drinking were: doesn’t answer the question asked, loses track of what one or both are saying, directly insult each other and talk over each other or the moderator.

To avoid extreme amounts of alcohol consumption, they did not adhere strictly to the rules.  

“We didn’t do that, because we had class and we wanted to be responsible,” Pansini said. “So we each did one drink and then ate chocolate chip cookies.”

After 20 minutes of playing the game, Pansini and her roommates turned to Twitter, where they made jokes and comments about what was going on in the debate. 

“Humor was a big processing mechanism,” Pansini said. “And that’s kind of what we did to get through the debate.” 

Senior Joshua Greene also played the drinking game with his roommates. The version they played was found on Twitter. 

“One of the rules was actually to take a shot each time that one of the candidates interrupted the moderator,” he said. “We actually had to scratch that one because that probably wouldn’t have turned out well.” 

Like Pansini, Greene found that it was difficult to keep up with the rules of the game. 

“I think that we would have probably been in the hospital if we would have followed all the rules,” Greene said. 

Greene said much of the drinking happened in response to Biden saying things like "come on, man," or "listen, folks," or in response to Trump saying things like "China" or "the China virus." However, most drinking happened in response to candidates speaking over one another or the moderator.  

“I don’t think anything would have made (the debate) more enjoyable," Greene said. 

Sophomore Gabriela Duncan took a different approach to lightening the atmosphere of the debate: live-tweeting the event. 

Duncan said she appreciates the chaotic and comedic nature of Twitter as it compares to other social media platforms like Instagram. She likes to live tweet events like this one, as it helps ease the stress and frustration that can come with them. 

“I (used Twitter) a lot last year for the Democratic debates,” she said. “It makes me feel like I’m not alone.” 

Duncan said Twitter also helps to build community. 

“A lot of people who I do follow are also organizers on campus,” she said. “By being connected with them, you’re also connected to opportunities to help improve the Carolina community.”

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