Between Donald Trump’s unhinged behavior at the first presidential debate and his nightmare news week, expectations for how he’d perform at the second debate were low.

My prediction for tonight's #debate: An apocalyptic disaster for Trump. — Matt Mackowiak (@MattMackowiak) October 10, 2016

Prediction: Trump is going to serious flounder and flop in this format. Just doesn't fit him. #debate — P.G. Sittenfeld (@PGSittenfeld) October 10, 2016

To recap: Trump spent the first debate babbling, lying and interrupting Democratic rival Hillary Clinton. Since then, he has faced a number of scandals, including a video that leaked on Friday showing the GOP nominee bragging about being able to sexually assault women because he’s famous.

So when he managed to get through Sunday night’s event without having a complete meltdown (or talking about his genitals again), many pundits, GOP supporters and viewers applauded him.

“The first 20 minutes, half hour, I thought Donald Trump was erratic and going off the rails and then I thought he turned it around to a degree,” Tapper said. “I think that he prosecuted the case against Hillary Clinton that was effective and stayed with the them about she has been in Washington for a long time, it’s all words, no action. And so, I thought this was a much better debate performance than his first debate performance. He may have staunched some of the bleeding that we’ve seen in his campaign in recent days.”

GOP pollster Frank Luntz congratulated Trump for not being “mean and nasty.” The hosts of the conservative talk radio show “Chicks On The Right,” praised Trump for discussing “issues.”

Trump is contrite enough and trying to move on to issues. I give him credit for that. — Chicks On The Right (@chicksonright) October 10, 2016

Trump surrogate Newt Gingrich said the GOP nominee was “more than holding his own.”

Trump is doing so well no Republican should ever again mentioning getting a new candidate. Trump is more than holding his own. — Newt Gingrich (@newtgingrich) October 10, 2016

Fox News contributor Guy Benson also applauded Trump for improving and CNN’s Maeve Reston said that the former reality TV star proved he could “pivot.”

Trump is doing a much better job of the pivot tonight. He is landing some of the attacks on Clinton that his advisors hoped. — Maeve Reston (@MaeveReston) October 10, 2016

He improved, exceeded expectations, decisively won several exchanges. She could have landed a death blow tonight and did not. #debate — Guy Benson (@guypbenson) October 10, 2016

It wasn’t just pundits, though. A CNN poll about the debate found that most viewers thought Trump did better than they expected he would.

63% in CNN poll say Trump beat their expectations, vs. 39% for Hillary. Though most say Hillary won, reflecting v. low Trump expectations. — Josh Barro (@jbarro) October 10, 2016

In the post-debate spin room, Brexit leader Nigel Farage offered the strangest praise of the night:

Nigel Farage says Donald Trump "was like a silverback gorilla" in the debate. "He dominated Hillary Clinton." https://t.co/MXDC9T4GzE — BuzzFeed News (@BuzzFeedNews) October 10, 2016

Perhaps the best analysis, however, came from “Parks and Recreation” creator Michael Schur (a.k.a. Ken Tremendous):

People are going to argue that Trump did a good job because he didn't literally shove Clinton to the ground and shit in his pants. — Ken Tremendous (@KenTremendous) October 10, 2016

Yep, that’s pretty much what happened.

Editor’s note: Donald Trump regularly incites political violence and is a serial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist, misogynist and birther who has repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims — 1.6 billion members of an entire religion — from entering the U.S.