History Main / CavemenVsAstronautsDebate

This is when a SeinfeldianConversation becomes SeriousBusiness. When it happens in RealLife—[=YouTube=] comments in particular are full of these—it will usually be because the combatants are people with an extremely fragile sense of self worth, and they view their opinion as a source of validation. In other words, they think that if they're wrong (or if someone else disagrees with them) about whether Franchise/SpiderMan's costume is made of nylon or spandex, it lessens their inherent degree of value as a human being.

* In ''VideoGame/Persona5Royal'', the siblings Justine and Caroline argue about whether jellyfish are better than killer whales, which indicates their precociousness and [[AnimalMotifs respective personalities]]. Then they demand that the "prisoner" they're escorting give his opinion. [[MortonsFork No option ends well.]]

* A whole post about the subject of Academic debates, but the winner are Creator/EdgarAllanPoe scholars and the [[https://imgur.com/gallery/lnOAS story about]] why [[PunctuatedForEmphasis WE! DO NOT! TALK! ABOUT! THE ORANGUTAN!]]
* An up and coming one seems to be "is water wet, or does water make things wet."
* In 2018, "Is a hot dog a sandwich?" became an object of deeply heated debate on twitter.

* The {{Creator/Syfy}} reality show ''Opposite Worlds'' was ostensibly designed to put the debate to the test, with one team living in harsh caveman conditions (including needing to make fire to cook their food and keep warm) and the other living in relative comfort in NextSundayAD

* Subverted in [[http://www.joyceandwalky.com/d/20100109.html this Joyce and Walky strip,]] where Sal assumes the argument going on is about a stupid subject but it's really about serious philosophical questions.

-->"You realise we've spent more time planning an imaginary bearfight than we did planning our home insurance."
-->"Please. An imaginary ''shark''fight."

--->'''Sideshow Mel''': Maraschino isn't even a kind of cherry! It's a way of preserving them!

** In the pilot they had a debate over which Hollywood movie had the most sweat in it. Candidates included ''Body Heat'', ''Film/{{Aliens}}'' and ''Film/BenHur''. ("The boys in the galley were sweating like pigs.") Diane's fiance suggested ''Film/CoolHandLuke''.

** Raj and Leonard once debated over which were more powerful--zombies or mummies. Leonard won the debate by calling in InsufferableGenius Sheldon, who quickly decimated Raj's argument.

* The entirety of the internet. It doesn't matter if you're on Website/YouTube, Wiki/TVTropes, Website/ThatGuyWithTheGlasses, or even on argument central- that is, Website/FourChan- you will always, somehow, somewhere for some reason find a group of people arguing over the most inane, insane, and stupidest things imaginable.
** On a ''VideoGame/RuleOfRose'' [[http://ruleofroseconfessions.tumblr.com/post/60781285059/it-really-pisses-me-off-when-people-draw fan blog]] someone wrote a 75-word paragraph explaining why a character's dress was ''objectively'' grey and anyone who thought it was green angered him.

** In "The Bakersfield Expedition," Penny, Amy, and Bernadette decide to read a single comic book to try and understand why their boyfriends ([[MyFriendsAndZoidberg and Raj]]) are so obsessed with them. They read an issue of ''Thor'', and at first deride the comic as stupid and the boys' arguing over minor details as a complete waste of time. As an example, Penny sarcastically refers to Thor's hammer as "so heavy that no one else can lift it"...[[NotSoDifferent which leads the girls to start debating whether the hammer is heavy or magical]]. By the end of the episode, they're tearing through every Thor comic that Leonard and Sheldon own and fiercely arguing over minutia in them.

** In the pilot they had a debate over which Hollywood movie had the most sweat in it. Candidates included ''Body Heat'', ''Film/{{Aliens}}'' and ''Film/BenHur'' ("The boys in the galley were sweating like pigs.") Diane's fiance suggested ''Film/CoolHandLuke''.

* The ''Series/{{Angel}}'' episode "[[Recap/AngelS05E15AHoleInTheWorld A Hole in the World]]" is the TropeNamer. Wesley walks in on Spike and Angel after they've spent 40 minutes shouting at each other about who would win in a fight between cavemen and astronauts. Pretty soon everyone in the show is getting in on the act; it's all [[IronicEcho built up to]] the episode's WhamLine: [[spoiler: "[[RuleOfSymbolism cavemen win,]] ''of course'' the cavemen win", [[FamousLastWords one character's last words]]]].

[[/folder]]

** The question has since been answered in "''Flash: Rebirth''" #3:
-->'''Flash:''' You can't stop me.
-->'''Superman:''' [[ContinuityNod I've raced you before, Barry]]. I've even won some of those races.
-->'''Flash:''' [[IAmNotLeftHanded Those were for]] '''[[IAmNotLeftHanded charity,]]''' [[IAmNotLeftHanded Clark.]]
-->(''Cue Flash kicking into second gear and leaving Superman in the dust'')

* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/Sealab2021'', the entire crew of Sealab get caught up in an argument about the hypothetical possibility of transferring their minds into robot bodies. So caught up that they don't notice that all of Sealab's safety systems are catastrophically failing.
** Who cares, Pod 6 was full of jerks anyway.

* One episode of ''Series/NinjaTurtlesTheNextMutation'' saw an argument between Raph and Mickey. Raph claimed Batman could beat Superman, while Mikey argued the reverse.

* Similarly, the makers of Jaffa Cakes went to court in the UK to prove that they are actually cakes, which aren't taxed in the UK, rather than biscuits which are (but only if they have chocolate on them: that means that they're considered luxury items—unlike cakes, apparently). No, it doesn't really make sense. The company managed to prove that Jaffa Cakes are indeed cakes by A: Showing that Jaffa Cakes, like other cakes, will go stale if left out (if they were biscuits they would go soft) and B: Making an extra large Jaffa Cake which was then served as a regular cake; this was easy enough to do, as Jaffa Cakes really are based on a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genoise Genoise]] recipe (a kind of sponge with a biscuity surface if cooked just so; it's also the base for [[Creator/MarcelProust madeleines]] and ladyfingers). That hasn't stopped debates raging up and down the country; tea and biscuits (or cakes) really are SeriousBusiness in Britain. As silly it looks for an average person, for multinational companies product classifications may translate to millions in taxes and customs. (This also led to the [[http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2305938/McVities-launches-The-Big-One-Jaffa-Cake-decades-beating-taxman-landmark-VAT-battle.html "Big One"]], a cake-sized Jaffa Cake you can buy.)

* The [[https://goo.gl/zJP5pe Latke-Hamantash Debate]], an AffectionateParody of [[JewsLoveToArgue Jewish religious arguments]], has been held every year at the University of Chicago since 1946.

* In video-game fandom circles, the debate of "if one billion lions were to face off against one of each Franchise/{{Pokemon}}, [[HypotheticalFightDebate which side would win]]" has sparked numerous heated arguments. Some argue that the Pokémon would win due to [[OlympusMons the existence of several godlike Pokémon with incredibly powerful abilities]] and the fact that Pokémon can control things like electricity and fire while lions cannot. Others argue that the lions would win due to the fact that, since there are only 896 Pokémon, the lions would have them beat by sheer force of numbers, and considering both this and the fact that lions hunt in groups, the lions would be able to ZergRush their Pokémon foes. This debate has even become sort of an inside joke in the Pokémon fandom, and the source of [[https://twitter.com/Jope_exe/status/1331672048976932869 many]] [[https://twitter.com/drprofpatches/status/1338425441049214977 memes]].

-->-— ''Series/{{Angel}}'', "A Hole in the World"

-->'''Britta:'''Will anyone back me up if I say this is ridiculous, or is it going to be [[NoodleIncident another Avatar situation]]?

* One ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'' book informs us that, when they were younger, Jake and Marco would spend entire afternoons arguing about whether or not cheese tastes yellow (Marco thought it tasted sorta green). Now that they're older, they have more serious, adult debates, like Who Would Win: Comicbook/SpiderMan or Franchise/{{Batman}}?

* In video-game fandom circles, the debate of "if one billion lions were to face off against one of each Franchise/{{Pokemon}}, which side would win" has sparked numerous heated arguments. Some argue that the Pokémon would win due to [[OlympusMons the existence of several godlike Pokémon with incredibly powerful abilities]] and the fact that Pokémon can control things like electricity and fire while lions cannot. Others argue that the lions would win due to the fact that, since there are only 896 Pokémon, the lions would have them beat by sheer force of numbers, and considering both this and the fact that lions hunt in groups, the lions would be able to ZergRush their Pokémon foes. This debate has even become sort of an inside joke in the Pokémon fandom, and the source of [[https://twitter.com/Jope_exe/status/1331672048976932869 many]] [[https://twitter.com/drprofpatches/status/1338425441049214977 memes]].

* In ''Film/CrimsonTide'', a fight ensues when one character said that the [[Creator/JackKirby Kirby]] ComicBook/SilverSurfer was the only true Silver Surfer, and that the Moebius Silver Surfer was shit.

* In ''Film/TheRundown'', Beck gets into a debate over whether Mike Tyson could take Muhammad Ali if they were both in their prime. Beck claimed Ali could take Tyson.

** In "The Bakersfield Expedition," Penny, Amy, and Bernadette decide to read a single comic book to try and understand why their boyfriends ([[MyFriendsAndZoidberg and Raj]]) are so obsessed with them. They read an issue of ''Thor'', and at first deride both the comic as stupid and the boys' arguing over minor details as a complete waste of time. As an example, Penny sarcastically refers to Thor's hammer as "so heavy that no one else can lift it"...[[NotSoDifferent which leads the girls to start debating whether the hammer is heavy or magical]]. By the end of the episode, they're tearing through every Thor comic that Leonard and Sheldon own and fiercely arguing over minutia in them.

* The ''Series/{{Angel}}'' episode "[[Recap/AngelS05E15AHoleInTheWorld A Hole in the World]]" is the TropeNamer. Wesley walks in on Spike and Angel after they've spent 40 minutes shouting at each other about who would win in a fight between cavemen and astronauts. Pretty soon every one in the show is getting in on the act; it's all [[IronicEcho built up to]] the episode's WhamLine: [[spoiler: "[[RuleOfSymbolism cavemen win,]] ''of course'' the cavemen win", [[FamousLastWords one character's last words]]]].

** In one SeinfeldianConversation opening segment, George asks Jerry [[NoPartyLikeADonnerParty who he'd eat first]] if he were stranded with him and Kramer and [[ComicallyMissingThePoint is actually offended]] when Jerry says he'd start with Kramer.
--->'''George:''' Well, I would eat you!

-->'''Mike:''' Hey, pal, you're not getting that space. I mean, I'll sleep in my car if I have to.\\

* The ''WebVideo/HardlyWorking'' skit "Mothra" had several of the characters being threatened by a predatory MothMenace and [[SkewedPriorities completely]] [[IgnoredEnemy losing focus on the problem]] in favor of arguing about whether it's technically classifiable as a monster or just a really, really big moth.