How the unforgiving Twittersphere judged France's brutal presidential debate

In case you missed the mammoth debate on Wednesday night, Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen traded insults for 2.5 hours, after which Macron was deemed to be the "most convincing" by 64 percent of viewers, one survey found. 

But the best judges, as always, were on Twitter... where no one was spared (not even the moderators). 

Here are the highlights:

On Marine Le Pen:

This GIF went viral overnight. We're not sure exactly what Le Pen is playing at, but the tweeter below described it as "the flying saucer".

This tweeter suggested it was her "LSD moment". 

The tweeter below mocked Le Pen for not only making up information, as she was repeatedly accused of doing, but also for constantly blaming Macron for everything his Socialist government did when he was a minister.

"Le Pen: "Is the earth flat?". Macron: "No". Le Pen: "Yes it is, you flattened it when you were the Economy Minister.""

Others noted that Le Pen seemed to be avoiding any real policy talk in order to go on the offensive against Macron. 

While some tackled Le Pen's speech writing tactics...

"When you've printed out all the speeches from Francois Fillon, but then remember that they're useless in a debate," this tweet reads, referring to Le Pen's verbatim copying of a Fillon speech earlier this week. 

This one shows Le Pen's father Jean Marie and says "When you're searching for your daughter's dignity". 

Many tweeters took particular interest in the fact that Le Pen had so many files in front of her (Macron had none). 

This one says: "When you left all your revision to the last minute."

This tweet followed in the same line with a split pic of the pair showing Le Pen with files and Macron without.

"When you haven't revised for your baccalaureate and when you have," said the tweeter.

The tweeter below noted that the files were really starting to show (with a photoshopped picture, we should point out). 

On Emmanuel Macron

While Le Pen was by far the target of most of the Twitter missiles, Macron didn't escape. 

Many pointed out how many times he repeated the same words, with the tweeter below saying he sounded like a broken record. 

This tweeter wasn't impressed with either candidate.

While the debate was indeed fiery, many were captivated by the look Macron was giving Le Pen in the screenshot below. 

How about this? (Don't forget Macron is married to his high school teacher). 

And many were left intrigued when Macron said Le Pen's comments were nothing but "Poudre de Perlimpinpin" (or "fairy dust").

Here's a tweet showing Macron sprinkling Le Pen fairy dust along his arm, a reference to the Turkish chef Nusret Gökçe, better known as SaltBae, whose salt sprinkling antics recently swept the internet. Ok, let's move on now. 

And no, the two moderators weren't spared. 

The tweet below added a picture of the two political editors as part of a missing persons notice. "Alert! We are looking for these two journalists" it reads.

The tweeter below wasn't impressed by the moderators either. 

Nor was this tweeter.

But we'll leave the last word with those who noted that moderator Nathalie Saint-Cricq from France 2 had apparently lost control... or perhaps lost interest.