--- title: Ken Bone: Presidential Debate Star Spawns Memes description: Ken Bone has inspired a Brooklyn pizza special, a Halloween costume and, naturally, a sea of memes after Sunday's presidential debate. canonical: https://time.com/4526816/ken-bone-presidential-debate-memes/ author: Melissa Chan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-10-11T16:55:51.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-07T06:50:22.653Z og:title: 10 of the Best Ken Bone Memes on the Internet og:description: Ken Bone keeps on giving og:url: https://time.com/4526816/ken-bone-presidential-debate-memes/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8213df4b9a5f48b0/6988a97ecf40a89c26c451d9/ken-bone.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1887 og:image:height: 1061 og:image:alt: Candidates Hillary Clinton And Donald Trump Hold Second Presidential Debate At Washington University og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 10 of the Best Ken Bone Memes on the Internet twitter:description: Ken Bone keeps on giving twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8213df4b9a5f48b0/6988a97ecf40a89c26c451d9/ken-bone.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # 10 of the Best Ken Bone Memes on the Internet > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=fb8cd69a-d4e8-4c30-9143-eec2e41c63b3&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Debate Audience Member Ken Bones [Watch (HLS stream): Debate Audience Member Ken Bones](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/PZ66wgWb.m3u8) (0:13)  _Published 2016-10-10. During the heated clash of Sunday night’s presidential debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, an unexpected winner emerged._  by [Melissa Chan](https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/)  ## Melissa Chan Oct 11, 2016 4:55 PM UTC During the heated clash of Sunday night’s presidential debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, an unexpected winner emerged.  by [Melissa Chan](https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/)  ## Melissa Chan Oct 11, 2016 4:55 PM UTC [Ken Bone](http://time.com/4526309/ken-bone-jimmy-kimmel/), the latest [viral sensation](http://time.com/4525241/ken-bone-presidential-debate/), has inspired [pizza specials in Brooklyn](https://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20161011/williamsburg/ken-bone-presidential-debate-donald-trump-hillary-clinton-election), a Halloween costume and, naturally, a sea of memes after he rose to national prominence simply by asking a question during Sunday’s presidential debate. Americans seem to have been immediately drawn to his name, [red sweater](http://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/click?id=93xLBvPhAeE&subid=0&offerid=461347.1&type=10&tmpid=1701&RD%5FPARM1=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.jcpenney.com%2Fizod-durham-sweater%2Fprod.jump%3F&RD%5FPARM2=ppId%3Dppr5007133448&u1=TIMEkenbone) _(_[_buy here_](http://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/click?id=93xLBvPhAeE&subid=0&offerid=461347.1&type=10&tmpid=1701&RD%5FPARM1=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.jcpenney.com%2Fizod-durham-sweater%2Fprod.jump%3F&RD%5FPARM2=ppId%3Dppr5007133448&u1=TIMEkenbone)_)_, black-rimmed glasses and mustache. They were later taken by his charm after the married father appeared on several political and late-night talk shows. Here are 10 of the best memes involving the unlikely debate star: > [](https://twitter.com/Males%5FThoughts/status/785318190700081153) > [](https://twitter.com/horsedivorce/status/785306746529124358) > [](https://twitter.com/Ken%5FBone%5FMemes/status/785687524144480256) > [](https://twitter.com/Phil%5FFriend/status/785333147307089920) > [](https://twitter.com/TheKenBone/status/785319458566963200) > [](https://twitter.com/TheKenBone/status/785622566581010433) > [](https://twitter.com/VolpeShimoda/status/785315854086963204) > [](https://twitter.com/NickGallinger3/status/785313153139736576) > [](https://twitter.com/PokemonGoMeme12/status/785866612431810560) > [](https://twitter.com/DankMemes%5FONLY/status/785570944676954112) ## Transcript [00:00] What steps will your energy policy take to meet our energy [00:03] needs, while at the same time reminding environmentally [00:07] friendly and minimizing job loss for fossil power plant [00:10] workers. Mr. Trump, two minutes. Absolutely, I think it's [00:12] such a great question. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4526816/ken-bone-presidential-debate-memes/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4526816/ken-bone-presidential-debate-memes/"},"headline":"10 of the Best Ken Bone Memes on the Internet","datePublished":"2016-10-11T16:55:51.000Z","dateModified":"2026-10-07T06:50:22.653Z","description":"Ken Bone keeps on giving","url":"https://time.com/4526816/ken-bone-presidential-debate-memes/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Entertainment","viral"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8213df4b9a5f48b0/6988a97ecf40a89c26c451d9/ken-bone.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Melissa Chan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8213df4b9a5f48b0/6988a97ecf40a89c26c451d9/ken-bone.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Candidates Hillary Clinton And Donald Trump Hold Second Presidential Debate At Washington University","caption":"Ken Bone asks a question during the town hall debate at Washington University, on Oct. 9, 2016.","creditText":"Chip Somodevilla—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4526816/ken-bone-presidential-debate-memes/","name":"10 of the Best Ken Bone Memes on the Internet"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Debate Audience Member Ken Bones","description":"During the heated clash of Sunday night’s presidential debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, an unexpected winner emerged.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/PZ66wgWb/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2016-10-10T19:56:20.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/PZ66wgWb.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4526816/ken-bone-presidential-debate-memes/","duration":"PT13S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4526816/ken-bone-presidential-debate-memes/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```