For the most part, in today’s America, it’s easy being the kind of person who’s only dimly aware a newspaper even has a front page. Post up in the kitchen at a party and go on at length about the Fast and the Furious franchise and the ladies flock. Try getting into a conversation about guerrilla tactics in North Waziristan and everyone forgets to tell you that they’ve gone up on the roof ’cause someone brought fireworks. But every four years, at least for a few months, the “stuff that doesn’t matter” gets decisively shoved to the side for the “stuff that does matter,” and all anyone can talk about is the presidential election.

(For the record: A lot of times the “stuff that doesn’t matter” really does matter, and the “stuff that does matter” really doesn’t matter. And sometimes when you win or lose, you actually tie.)

Things have gotten particularly fascinating recently — secret video footage being smuggled out of a home owned by a guy who occasionally throws sex parties?! That means us political dilettantes really are in a bind. So how can we enter the conversation? Through the middle part of the “stuff that doesn’t matter”/”stuff that matters” Venn diagram, of course. And now occupying that space alongside The Daily Show and SNL — it’s The Rumble in the Air-Conditioned Auditorium 2012, a debate between Jon Stewart and Bill O’Reilly.

It goes down in D.C. on October 6, and you can watch a live stream for $4.95. Here’s Stewart, previewing the bout:

And here’s O’Reilly’s video:

Should be good, as the two have a history together. Here are the two of them, jovially sparring about Common’s visit to the White House.

Stewart: “You know I got mad love for you. That’s a rap phrase.”
O’Reilly: “I got it.”