The JD Vance couch story is fake, but the memes are real
The JD Vance couch meme references a false rumor claiming that Trump’s VP pick had sex with a latex glove shoved between sofa cushions. The rumor was started by a Twitter user and spread quickly across social media (for obvious reasons) until it was debunked by Snopes and other fact-checking outlets.
Even though many people are now aware that the rumor isn’t true, the idea combined with the unpopularity of the potential future vice president among some U.S. voters continues to fuel the spread of one of the best JD Vance memes yet.
What is the JD Vance couch meme?
Since you dared to ask, all those memes mentioning Vance and a couch refer to a tweet by Twitter user @rickrudescalves that made a false claim about these subjects.
“Can’t say for sure but he might be the first VP pick to have admitted in a NY Times bestseller to f—ing an inside-out latex glove shoved between two couch cushions,” they wrote.
They followed this up with a citation from Vance’s 2016 memoir Hillbilly Elegy. However, the pages referenced make no mention of any kind of relationship Vance may have had with any piece of furniture.
Regardless, people jumped on the chance to make jokes about the U.S. Senator boinking a sofa, posting photos of dirty couches (and we mean that in more than one way), and using previous meme formats to suggest that Vance is a sofa fetishist.
Origins of the JD Vance couch meme
Although the original jokester set their account to private after the meme went viral, internet archives show the date of the tweet as July 15, 2024—just after former President Donald Trump announced that Vance was his choice for a running mate. Vance had been on Trump's shortlist for vice president for some time. Notably, this list did not include former VP Mike Pence after he and Trump had a falling out, so to speak.
Vance published the referenced source in June 2016, which helped him climb into his political career, although some folks from the same area or who feel they have a better claim to the word "hillbilly" have disputed the idea that Vance knows what it's like to grow up in poor rural country.
It remains unclear why this Twitter user decided to make this particular claim, but it may have been a random attempt to sow chaos. If so, mission accomplished. They reportedly followed the tweet up with a "go on the internet and tell lies" meme, but this did not slow the rumor's spread.
Spread of the JD Vance couch meme and consequent rumor debunking
Online rumors have a way of catching on no matter how ridiculous the content, as most users won't put in the effort to fact-check the claim. This Twitter account set up the JD Vance couch lovemaking claim particularly well with a fake citation. After all, the people who wanted to believe it were least likely to own a copy of Hillbilly Elegy.
As usual, the rumor was helped along by other Twitter users who confidently reposted the claim as fact, with some using the same page numbers from the book, including @wunderba666 on July 18. The false claim was further helped along by popular pundit, internet personality, and reply guy Ed Krassenstein.
"Don’t tell me that Kamala Harris isn’t qualified for her job," Krassenstein wrote. "While Harris was locking up murderers and robbers as San Francisco Assistant DA, JD Vance was busy fornicating with inside-out latex gloves shoved between couch cushions. (Look it up!)"
Even those who are savvy enough to recognize a false rumor when they see one spread the jokes because sometimes, it's just too funny to ignore. By July 23, the meme was popular enough to earn a Snopes entry labeling the claim as categorically false.
Examples
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