pence fly debate
© AFP via Getty ImagesAmbitious fly's two minutes of national fame
They were so worried about the coronavirus, they didn't consider pest control!

A regular black housefly became the unlikely star of Wednesday night's lone vice presidential debate in Utah when it made a home on Vice President Mike Pence's silver mane.

Pence didn't seem to notice the insect, which didn't appear to move, just sitting there on his head for 2 minutes and 9 seconds, as he debated his Democratic opponent, Sen. Kamala Harris, during the showdown in Salt Lake City.

The fly, which stood out starkly on Pence's bright white coif, immediately generated buzz on Twitter, with pundits telling USA Today moderator Susan Page that the American people needed to hear from Marty McFly.

"LET THE FLY SPEAK!" tweeted CNN reporter Omar Jimenez.

"Susan Page: Fly on Mike Pence's head, you have two minutes to respond," joked one parody account.

"I want to hear from the fly," added another user.
pence fly debate
© AFP via Getty ImagesAmbitious fly's two minutes of national fame
Within minutes, the fly had its own Twitter account, "FlyOnMikePence," which opened with a bunch of comedic tweets including, "I'm a pretty fly on a white guy" and "I just doo doo'd in this guys hair."

"That was awful," lamented another account purporting to be Pence's six-legged friend.

Eagle-eyed political pundits speculated that the bug was the same fly that landed on then-Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton's forehead during her presidential debate with Donald Trump in 2016.

"I'm the same fly from Hillary's face now on Mike Pence," one user wrote, sharing side-by-side pictures of the candidates.

While some pundits fact-checked the feverish political claims that Harris and Pence let fly, others committed themselves to counting how long the insect was sitting on Pence's head, since it didn't appear to bug him.

One tweet with footage of the imbroglio had racked up a whopping 830,000 views shortly before midnight.

Others politicized the unexpected drop-in, suggesting that the fly was a Democrat.

"Pence just got absolutely dominated by this fly," wrote Barstool Sports.

And others joked that contact tracing needed to be implemented after the fly came within six feet of Pence amid a growing cluster of coronavirus cases including the president himself.

"BREAKING: The fly that landed on Mike Pence's head has tested positive for coronavirus," joked Travis Allen.

"That fly has to quarantine immediately," added Mark Elliott.

Some even suggested that Pence wasn't winging it during his match-up with Harris.

"Did Vice President Mike Pence have a fly on his head feeding him answers during the debate," one user asked, referencing suggestions from the Trump campaign that Democratic nominee Joe Biden would debate the president with an earpiece.

With so many jokes flying around, Biden got in on the act, his account tweeting a picture of the former veep with a fly swatter and a fundraising appeal: "Pitch in $5 to help this campaign fly."

As fly jokes go, it's a shoo-in.