Sound quite similar to the Presidential debates in the USA, especially during the primaries.
“I am a patient person and I can tolerate a lot,” added Rezaie. “With these repetitive, discontinuous, short, one-to-three minute answers, the people are being harmed and the eight people up here are being insulted.”’
I agree w you, there are similarities. However, there were differences too. Most strikingly, all 8 Iranian candidates were equally humiliated, as opposed to here, where the Dem is enabled & the Republican is undercut. Also, all 8 Iranian candidates rebelled against the moderator, whereas here the Dem & the moderator stage a lovefest, & the GOPer submissively accepts the 2 against 1 format.
Finally, our debates, while admittedly weak in format, never descend to the Pictionary level:
“Eventually, the moderator had the good sense to switch gears:
Presenter: in respect to candidates who objected , we stop our short questions. We show you some pictures, we want to know your interpretation.
What proceeded was, as Esfandiari put it, “a presidential Rorschach test” where candidates were shown pictures including a ship (prompting candidate Hasan Rowhani to reasonably reference how international sanctions are hurting sea transport) and a patient recovering from surgery in a hospital (which launched candidate Mohammad Gharazi into a more tangential discussion of Iran’s obesity problem).”
http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2013/05/31/iranian_presidential_debate_pictures_quiz