These initiatives were the answer to the clever debate taunt, "where's the beef?" But they also resisted media insistence on sound-bite compression.
As Hannah and Chuck keep moving together, from the foyer to the living room to the kitchen to the bedroom, they have a clever debate, one that is not merely about sexual assault but about fame, money, literary ethics, and the benefits and dangers of the Internet.
The people who deem themselves clever and form debating societies in which to inform each other of this fact.
Because a full rewrite and ratification of the EU treaties is impossible before Mr Cameron's deadline, the Conservatives' finest minds are debating clever alternatives.
But I'm too late: Richard Mabey says something really clever and the debate moves on.
My Princeton colleague Larry Bartels sums it up as follows: "Objective economic conditions — not clever television ads, debate performances, or the other ephemera of day-to-day campaigning — are the single most important influence upon an incumbent president's prospects for re-election".
More commonly, voters (and comedy writers) recall vice-presidential debates for clever or amusing flourishes that proved less consequential.
Steve McBrearty wrote that our cover "is like Romney's performance in the debate itself — clever, creative, punchy, but a total misrepresentation of what actually occurred".
The answer was debated with clever comedy, on cable news shows, by daytime talk show hosts, and it became the ubiquitous topic on social media.
They are unlikely to be shaken loose by any debate performance or clever television ad.
