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Ding Ding! The GOP Debate Bell Has Arrived

by Cate Carrejo

Fox Business, the host of Tuesday night's GOP debate, introduced a talking time bell that was largely ignored by participants. And the tweets about the bell are fairly incredible. As the competition heats up in the presidential primary, the GOP competitors are fighting tooth and nail for every second of airtime. This meant that the bell, which signaled the end of the 90-second time limit for responses, was treated as more of a friendly suggestion than a requirement of the format.

Donald Trump and Ben Carson almost boycotted the last debate over the format, but they were both liberal with the agreed structure for this one. The effort to limit talking time and extended monologues seems to have backfired, because the competitors mostly treated the bell like a nuisance. And the moderators didn't provide much help reining in candidates who went over the limit.

Nearly every participant transgressed the bell rule over the course of the debate, and people hopped on Twitter with hilarious comments about the bell's weakness. The friendly double dinging (which reminded a lot of people of Jeopardy, and made peoples' dogs go crazy) prompted an avalanche of tweets bashing its inefficiency.

And the kicker, from the reactionary Twitter handle @GOPDebateBell