Triumph the Insult Comic Dog finally caught up with Ted Cruz

Election day is finally here and Triumph the Insult Comic Dog got things started in a way only he could when he visited Ted Cruz and Beto O’Rourke in Texas.

You’ve seen and heard the ads. Read your Facebook feed. Watched all the late night clips. Yes, election day is finally here after years, months, and days of build up. If you think the entire process has been exhausting up to this point, then we may have the cure: Triumph the Insult Comic Dog.

There may be no better man on the street correspondent working in television today that Triumph. Whether it is outside of a Star Wars movie, a World Cup watch party, or President Trump’s inauguration, Triumph offers a ground-level perspective on everything ridiculous.

Triumph (AKA Robert Smigel) had a deeper foray into the world of politics during the 2016 presidential election. He had his own Emmy-nominated show Triumph’s Election Special 2016. The highlight of that was his efforts to engage with Republican candidate and Texas Senator Ted Cruz:

Cruz has been back in the news ahead of the midterm elections for his race against Democratic challenger Beto O’Rourke. Late night has been keeping an eye on the race as Cruz has become a popular target. Jimmy Kimmel provided Cruz with a potential campaign ad after the senator was forced to call his former bully President Trump for support.

So with Cruz out campaigning around Texas, it was the perfect opportunity for Triumph to take another shot at some one-on-one time. With Conan on hiatus until January, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert stepped up to give Triumph the platform he needed:

How admirable of Triumph to poop on both the liberal and conservative sides. It’s that sort of balance the country may need these days, right? But based on how each side handled things, that doesn’t seem likely.

The best response to Triumph is to smile and laugh along with his jokes. Attempting to engage with a professional comedian on insults is a mistake. Beto O’Rourke handled it well. He smiled, laughed, and played it straight. He comes off as a good sport and that’s all you can hope for.

Then we have Ted Cruz. It seems like he has been making an effort to be more “likable” and engaging with the people consistently calling him out. There was the Blobfish basketball challenge against Jimmy Kimmel. Now we see Cruz finally answering Triumph the Insult Comic Dog.

It’s clear that Cruz knew all about Triumph and his special from 2016. Cruz has had two years to prepare for his next encounter with Smigel’s puppet. And yet he still made the mistake of trying to get the upper hand on an insult and instead set up Triumph to poop on him. Rookie mistake, Ted.