John Mayer Debate 2012: Who Won?
On Monday night (October 22), Idolator made history by hosting the first official John Mayer Debate on Twitter. Inspired by the divisive statements made in the In Defense Of John Mayer essay by our own Carl Williott, we opened up the floodgates and let members of the Twitterverse spar with our editor in a cyber battle for the ages. Relive the highlights from last night’s debate below, and then take to the polls to tell us who won: the Mayer haters or Team John. (Next year we’re totally going to get that CNN wavy-line thing.) Serving as moderator, Idolator started the debate with this opening question:
Is John Mayer just a Dave Matthews imitator?
However, we had already seen some Haterade thrown at JM earlier in the day. Including:
#JohnMayerDebate Obviously a jerk
— Marcus Aquino (@IamMarcus13) October 20, 2012
Rage continued to pour from @nseeya with this response:
@idolator have you seen that guy’s guitar faces? BOOM, debate over! PS you suck #JohnMayerDebate
— Nicole Sia (@nseeya) October 23, 2012
But Carl made this case:
@nseeya @idolator U see douchery, I see a man consumed by the music. I’d rather watch that than Lana Del Rey moping around. #johnmayerdebate — Carl Williott (@cwilliott) October 23, 2012
@laniesa chimed in with:
@cwilliott is John Mayer a DMB imitator? yes. look at his band size farm5.static.flickr.com/4065/430410756… #johnmayerdebate — Laniesa Shafer (@laniesa) October 23, 2012
Carl ended that round by firing back with:
@laniesa Ah, but then what about his totally rockin 3-man outfit, the John Mayer Trio? There’s no Dave Matthews Trio! #johnmayerdebate — Carl Williott (@cwilliott) October 23, 2012
Question 2 brought us the topic of Taylor Swift. Is John really “presumptuous” to think that “Dear John” is about him? Madeline’s tweet wasn’t pro or against John per se, but it was definitely anti-Taylor
@idolator Tay’s lyrics are straight out her 7th grade diary so the guy in Dear John was prob a 12 yr old with braces & acne #johnmayerdebate — Madeline Roth (@MadelineRoth1) October 23, 2012
Kyle played the “He Should Know Better” card:
@cwilliott @idolator alright, swift is 22 now and john mayer is 35. he should be the mature one about things #JohnMayerDebate — Kyle Sudges ⚓ (@kylesudges) October 23, 2012
And this Mayer fan girl retorted with:
@kylesudges @cwilliott @idolator However she is a grown woman as well…don’t you think she needs to be mature too. #johnmayerdebate — Love John (@mayer_girl) October 23, 2012
Carl’s stance? He ended up siding with Madeline on this one:
@madelineroth1 @idolator I think you just solved the “Dear John” mystery, for realz. #johnmayerdebate
— Carl Williott (@cwilliott) October 23, 2012
We turned up the controversy even more with our next question: John called Jessica Simpson “sexual napalm”… Does that make him a jerk?
Carlos came out swinging — against JSimp:
@idolator @jessicasimpson That’s been her best review in years on anything she’s done.
— Carlos Diaz (@CarlosDiazB) October 23, 2012
Laniesa also sided with Mayer:
@idolator @cwilliott i wish my sex was rated like that. it’s a COMPLIMENT! especially since she had this whole virgin image #johnmayerdebate — Laniesa Shafer (@laniesa) October 23, 2012
Maite was less understanding:
” #johnmayerdebate question 2: John called @jessicasimpson “sexual napalm”… Does that make him a jerk?”Yes,He is pathetic.Attention seeker — maiteletsoalo (@mmadifemo) October 23, 2012
Carl stood firm, summing up his platform with:
@idolator @jessicasimpson The great thing about that comment is it makes absolutely no sense, but you know exactly what he meant. — Carl Williott (@cwilliott) October 23, 2012
Which brought us to our fourth question of the night: Is John witty or just annoying. Please explain your stance. Jamie got things rolling with:
@idolator I think he’s witty. He sees things as is and if people don’t like it, then up theirs. #johnmayerdebate — Jamie Victoria (@gotabaddesire) October 23, 2012
And Love John echoed her opinion:
@idolator I believe in his interviews he shows his witty side. He always has advice for his audience, so I don’t see that as annoying. — Love John (@mayer_girl) October 23, 2012
But Jillyrh made a valid point:
@idolator Annoying. i.e., “say what you need to say” 74 times in one song? How about write some lyrics?#johnmayerdebate
— jillyrh (@jillyrh) October 23, 2012
Carl’s POV?:
@laniesa @idolator In a perfect world, his song lyrics would be as batsh*t insane as his interview transcripts. #johnmayerdebate
— Carl Williott (@cwilliott) October 23, 2012
And:
@ilireb @idolator Wouldn’t you rather have that than a media-trained celeb who gives robotic answers? #johnmayerdebate — Carl Williott (@cwilliott) October 23, 2012
We finally wrapped up the evening with what is perhaps the most important question of all: John’s guitar faces, seriously what is up with them? Sonya clearly held no punches with this response:
@cwilliott I think this more or less sums it up. #johnmayerdebate @idolatorlockerz.com/s/255347890 — Sonya Li (@sonyasaurus) October 23, 2012
But Cherri reacted with:
@idolator look. The man is GOOD with his fingers. His face can do whatever it wants. #johnmayerdebate
— cherriLizabiff (@purplepleather) October 23, 2012
Jillyrh, it seemed, could not agree less:
@idolator He wants to be like Prince when he grows up.Not gonna happen. =)#johnmayerdebate
— jillyrh (@jillyrh) October 23, 2012
Carl stuck to his guns, explaining:
@idolator I said to @nseeya & @sonyali, it just means dude’s possessed by the tune-age. Need more of that from musicians #johnmayerdebate
— Carl Williott (@cwilliott) October 23, 2012
Then he left us with this final thought as his closing statement:
@idolator I’d like to thank all the master debaters for sparring tonight. In closing: Don’t hate the Mayer, hate the game! #johnmayerdebate
— Carl Williott (@cwilliott) October 23, 2012
Now for the moment of truth: Who won the debate? Vote for the winner below. Polls will be open until Friday, October 26.
[poll id=”1652″]