What’s up with the JD Vance couch memes? The TikTok trend, explained

You don’t need to be a social media sleuth to have come across the memes of JD Vance and his supposed encounters with couches.

The meme originated from the fertile soil of X on July 15, 2024, when a user with the handle @rickrudescalves decided to set the internet ablaze. The claim was that Vance, author of the bestselling memoir-turned-film Hillbilly Elegy, had allegedly confessed to an intimate encounter with a latex glove lodged between couch cushions in the book. And although Vance’s book contained no such escapade, that didn’t matter. The meme had already taken off on TikTok.

The viral explosion of the JD Vance couch memes

The JD Vance-couch meme’s absurdity fueled its first round of virality. People found humor in the incongruity of Vance — a conservative political figure — engaging in couch-related shenanigans. Within hours, retweets and likes multiplied at a fast rate. Vance had only recently been announced as Donald Trump’s vice presidential running mate at the time, which meant the public began reassessing everything he had ever put out into the world, including repeatedly slamming Trump in the past and his reference to Democrat presidential candidate Kamala Harris as a “miserable cat lady” in a 2021 interview.

“JD Vance Couch” then spread across the internet, including TikTok. A user going by “The Daily Show” joined the meme parade, sharing a video titled “J.D. Vance puts it where???” The clip featured Vance’s face superimposed on various couches, accompanied by cheeky captions and various “evidence.” This meme format went viral, with several accounts remixing Vance’s image with couch-related humor creating the hashtag #CouchGate trend that invited more users to contribute their own quirky takes.

One of the most viral videos came from TikTok user, “The Comments Section” who captioned the video with “JD Vance did WHAT to a couch?!” Their video featured a split screen: Vance’s stoic face on one side, while the user herself went through a list of viral couch memes on the other. 

Fact-checking and the AP’s dilemma

The Associated Press (AP) soon stepped in, determined to separate fact from fiction but it ultimately backfired. By the time the AP investigated the viral couch meme situation, it had already spread, but not quite as much as it did after they published their refutation article titled “No, J.D Vance Did Not Have Sex With A Couch.” Both the original tweet and the topic went viral again and triggered a second round of viral trending on TikTok. AP would later retract the article, citing that it did not pass their standards for editing and fact-checking.  

Despite knowing the truth, the meme persists, fueled by Vance’s unpopularity among certain voters. Weeks later, TikTok users still continue to playfully speculate about what other hidden proclivities the conservative VP candidate might have.