This study analyzes the 1995 television presidential debate between Lech Walesa and Aleksander Kwasniewski. We show that the debate's institutional nature was subverted by the former candidate's use of an informal register characterized by jocular tenor, use of marked forms of address, and disparaging metapragmatic comments. Walesa's casual style appeared to the other participants in the debate (his opponent, the journalists in the studio, the media, and the viewing public) as a bid to conduct the debate on his own terms, not as a "formal, public" event but as an "informal, personal" one. Such appropriation of the debate was resisted, and ultimately Walesa was held accountable for his actions and his style was judged nega-tively. According to the media reports of the election results, the negative perception of Walesa's debating style was largely responsible for tipping the electoral balance in favor of the other candidate.