@PlasmaBallin Do we resolve now, or do we see if Teddy rises from the dead, repels the 22nd amendment, and wins a write in campaign before 7pm tonight?

@PlasmaBallin where is themanifold poll?

@3d https://manifold.markets/PlasmaBallin/who-won-epic-rap-battles-of-history

@Ziddletwix thank you!

The most recent rap battle with more than 50M views is Teddy Roosevelt vs Winston Churchill from 7 years ago.

I did the official count using the lyrics posted here: https://genius.com/Epic-rap-battles-of-history-donald-trump-vs-kamala-harris-lyrics

I edited them slightly to write out the numbers as words and remove repeated letters in drawn out expressions, as I said I would do. And I didn't include the intro, outtro or verse headers.

There were 1326 letters from the first half of the alphabet and 1245 from the second half.

This is the Python function I used to count them:

def character_counter(string):
    first = 0
    second = 0
    for c in string:
        num = ord(c)
        if num in range(65,78) or num in range(97,110):
            first += 1
        elif num in range(78,91) or num in range(110,123):
            second += 1
    print(f"First half: {first}")
    print(f"Second half: {second}")

Here's the poll:

Interpretation tossup. Does the ad rap count?

@Quroe No, I already said below that only the words that come between the intro and the outtro count.

Interpretation tossup. Eating dogs mentioned, but I don't think "Haiti" was mentioned.

@Quroe Yeah, I'm going to say it doesn't count as mentioning Haiti. If he had specifically said, "Haitians are eating dogs, then it would count," but just claiming that someone is doing it doesn't really count as mentioning the country that they come from. It would be like saying that mentioning me counts as mentioning the U.S. because I come from the U.S.

@PlasmaBallin Abe Lincoln appears in the video ad. This is an interpretation tossup.

@Quroe I'm going to say that doesn't count, since it's not actually part of the rap battle. Also, it seems that everyone who bet after the video came out agrees with this interpretation since the probability went down.

We have "Nice Peter will play Joe Biden at 67%" and "Abraham Lincoln makes an appearance" at 62%. But Abe Lincoln has been played by Nice Peter every time he's appeared. Who will play him this time if not Nice Peter? Or do people think Nice Peter will take on two roles?

It's confirmed:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMu5gPmKp5av0QCAajKTMhw/community?lb=UgkxNR8FyeNmsUM4CKU1mRNGfkfqJvgAP_Ut

Good news: It seems they are planning on making it:

https://www.reddit.com/r/ERB/comments/1fybgev/yep_we_are_getting_trump_vs_harris/

Argument against this: It's possible that neither Trump nor Harris win the rap battle (e.g., Abraham Lincoln could appear, and win the poll for the winner).

Also, I should make a clarification that if the poll ends in a tie, then I'll resolve to % if one of the tied options is the winner. E.g., if Trump and Harris tie, then it will resolve to 50% if either of them win. In a three-way, it would resolve to 33%, etc.

I looked up "Epic Rap Battles Harris v Trump" to see if there was any news about plans for making the episode. I didn't find any news, but I did find a reddit post where this was the top comment:

So seems like I'm not the only one who had that idea.

For reference, if the second thing happens (TheIntrepid's suggestion), that would not be enough to count for this option.

@Rolledupaces does it have to be a speaking appearance

@jBosc No. If the character appears, that’s enough

@Odoacre Is this answer meant to include someone talking about a bratwurst?

As long as they spell it brat, I guess?

@Odoacre Will numbers be assumed to be written out? For example, would it be "59" or "fifty-nine"?

Good question, I guess whatever makes it easier to process the count, in general my natural approach would be to ignore digits, however if the official transcript (assuming it exists) uses numbers spelt out as words then we would use that.

Good luck parsing it out if it's an "Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeepic Rap Battle of Historyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!" 😆

I would count numbers as being in word form. I was planning not to include the introduction or the outro, though, only the lyrics of the rap itself.

To make my previous comment more direct, if the introducer prolongs the pronunciation of "Epic Rap Battles of History" like he sometimes does, will we be using the closed caption transcript from the YouTube video? Or will we be using the standard spelling non-strung-out version of the words? Or will we refer to some other reference like a Shazam lyrics transcript?

@Quroe

I think that, to make it consistent with the results that I would have to use if there's not an official transcript, I will count any prolonging of words by drawing out a sound as still being the normal spelling of the word.

But I am planning not to include the announcer saying "Epic Rap Battles of History" at the beginning as part of the lyrics anyway.

After doing more research, music sites that post the lyrics (like YouTube Music) seem to start the lyrics after the announcer says "Begin!" and not include any of his intro. They also tend to not include the "Who won? Who's next? You decide!" outro. Basically, the announcer is totally excluded.

I'm on board with your interpretation.