Boy meets Election

  

 As the nation's foremost high school geopolitical expert of our time, I absolutely love election episodes in TV shows, and the Boy Meets World Season 2 Episode 15 election episode is a classic. It pits Cory Matthews against Minkus for 7th grade class president. Shawn nominates Cory, who initially declines emphatically in a speech but then pivots to championing the "hard-working STUDENTS," ultimately accepting the nomination while dramatically holding the American flag. Right after, Shawn declares himself campaign manager, and the two quickly film campaign ads, rallying actors to support Cory just minutes post-nomination to demonstrate his strong backing. Unfortunately, they couldn't get Topanga to deliver her lines, though Shawn apologizes for the "misogynistic" dialogue. 

    Later, at home, Eric embarrasses Cory in one of the ads and even kills off their parents on screen, reasoning that it boosts polling by making Cory seem more independent. During a classroom press conference, Cory and Shawn start mocking Meese as a "curve breaker," and Cory swings momentum by promising five-day weekends—starting the week on Tuesday with optional Mondays. However, the opposition counters by bringing out a girl named Paula, who reveals that Shawn once said girls were "icky," forcing Shawn to step down from the campaign. With only Cory and Minkus left, Cory's dad lectures him the day before the big debate. At the debate, Shawn suddenly nominates himself as a third-party candidate (seriously, who even nominated him?), leading to a chaotic exchange of insults. Eventually, Shawn and Cory team up to bully Minkus off the stage, after which both Cory and Shawn resign, paving the way for Topanga to become the presumptive nominee.

What was that??? Cory had run a near-flawless campaign right up until he fired Shawn. Politically speaking, firing him was actually the smart move—the voters came across as fickle and, quite frankly, stupid, not knowing what they wanted, so Cory could easily win them back. His outrageous fake promises topped Minkus's false ones anyway. But Cory failed to realize that Shawn had tons of dirt on him; though Shawn didn't leak it, he did launch a third-party run. Luckily, friendship won out in the end—but then Cory just drops out? Why? If I were Cory, I'd have stayed in the race, knowing Shawn would probably forgive me. I might even pretend to fire him for appearances while keeping him close. Would I fire my best friend to win an election? 

"I would fire my best friend to win an election."

— TheTechBoy

      In this hypothetical, heck yes! Cory could have redeemed everything right from the debate stage by appointing the far more popular and charismatic Shawn as his VP—after all, Paula was Shawn's running mate, so clearly no one cared about his childhood "girls are icky" comment anymore, especially since he claimed they had cooties. Cory had the perfect opening to reunite the ticket and cruise to victory, but he blew it!