In a depressing sign of the times, in today’s Supreme Court confirmation hearing Judge Neil Gorsuch was asked whether he’d rather fight one hundred duck-sized horses or one horse-sized duck. The question came by way of Senator Jeff Flake, who said he was passing along the question for his son. The horse-sized duck inside joke is widely associated with Reddit, where it became a popular query on the site’s AMAs. Seeing it posed to a judge who may be days away from being one of the most powerful members of government came as a surprise to those in the hearing.

After chuckling and admitting he was at a loss for words, Gorsuch ultimately passed on the question, and failed to offer up the obvious response: we’re doomed.