Let’s be honest: The cat and dog memes from the debate are hilarious

In the grand scheme of racist things that Donald Trump has said, this is pretty up there. For whatever reason, the latest fear-mongering claim about immigrants is that they are stealing pets and eating them. Trump couldn’t leave it as just a racist internet rumor, either.

We had to suffer through a presidential debate where one person had one brain cell working in overtime and the other one was Vice President Kamala Harris. Trump parroted the racist rumor he’d seen online about Haitian immigrants in Ohio. The rumor seems to have started over a story of a woman named Allexis Ferrell getting arrested for killing and eating a cat in front of her neighbors in an entirely different town in Ohio.

That has now spiraled into Trump, his running mate J.D. Vance, Elon Musk, and other Republicans claiming that an influx of Haitian immigrants in Springfield are stealing cats and dogs. “They’re eating the dogs, the people that came in, they’re eating the cats,” Trump said during the debate, when he was asked about immigration. “They’re eating the pets of the people that live there, and this is what’s happening in our country, and it’s a shame.”

As ridiculous as the entire situation is, just showing the Republican Party’s racist beliefs, it has led to some pretty great tweets making fun of the idea of stealing and eating cats and dogs.

There were lots of jokes about The Simpsons.

It was easy to draw the connection to The Simpsons since the show takes place in a fictional town of Springfield, but there were plenty of other pop culture references that made the cut, like famed cat eater Alf putting a pet cat in some bread.

Moments like this make social media fun

The entire debate was perfect for me, a fan of Parks and Recreation, because it … quite literally had some of the same moments from the debate episode when Leslie Knope was running for City Council. Literally Bobby Newport saying, “I guess my thoughts on abortion are, you know, let’s just all have a good time,” was Trump’s approach to the abortion debate.

But it did mean that there was a moment for everything that happened at the debate. Like Jennifer Barkley calling Leslie Knope a puppy killer.

The real MVP of this election season has been pictures of Selina Meyer from the HBO series Veep. She really has a moment for everything but the best use of a Selina meme is just putting up her laughing nervously any time Trump … well, speaks.

So, to review: No, Haitian immigrants are not stealing pets and eating them in Ohio. Racism is, clearly, alive and well in Springfield, though. Instead, what is happening is that Donald Trump and his cronies are using a racist lie about people eating pets as a scare tactic to get people to vote Republican.