Why is JD Vance being mocked with couch memes?

November may still feel like some time away, but the memes surrounding the US presidential election – to quote a more musical meme – don’t stop coming (NSFW pun very much not intended).

Vice president Kamala Harris’ campaign to succeed Joe Biden and take the top job has leant into the hype surrounding Charli XCX’s new album brat, there's fake claims Biden is in a hospice, and Donald Trump’s vice presidential running mate JD Vance has been hit by an unfortunate - and false - rumour involving a glove and a couch (or if you’re from the UK, a sofa).

The Ohio senator, who has already made headlines for claiming Britain is an “Islamist country” and that Democrats would say it’s “racist” to drink Mountain Dew, is still facing countless memes and jokes about “f***ing an inside-out latex glove shoved between two couch cushions”.

According to the factchecking website Snopes and meme directory KnowYourMeme, the false claim was made by Twitter/X user @rickrudescalves on 15 July, the same day Trump announced the 39-year-old as his running mate.

In the tweet – no longer public as the account has gone ‘private’ with protected tweets – the individual wrote: “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.”

He then provides a fake reference for the claim as pages 179 to 181 of Vance’s 2016 memoir Hillbilly Elegy, which was turned into a Netflix movie in 2020 starring Amy Adams and Glenn Close.

And thus, the memes flowed:

Except, in case it wasn’t obvious, it’s not true.

We’ve checked the book, and while the word “couch” does appear on nine separate pages, nothing sexually explicit involving the piece of furniture is described there – although something equally as shocking involving a sofa (which is mentioned in the book) is an anecdote involving his mum allegedly pouring lighter fluid on his father and setting him alight after he came home drunk.

Indeed, it’s been reported that the aforementioned Twitter/X user believed to have started this rumour followed-up his viral tweet with the ‘go on the internet and tell lies’ meme from the beloved animated children’s series, Arthur.

In the scene from the PBS show, the character Buster expresses disbelief and says: “You really think someone would do that, just go on the internet and tell lies?”

Oh, Buster, how naïve you are…

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