JD Vance cracks ill-timed couch gag during Nevada rally

When JD Vance, former US president Donald Trump’s vice presidential running mate for November’s election, continues to be associated with couch memes following an unsubstantiated Twitter/X rumour, the last thing the Ohio senator should probably do is mention the word in question during a rally in Nevada.

If you’re new to the online discourse (we envy you) then a tweet by the Twitter/X account @rickrudescalves on 15 July, the same day Trump announced the 39-year-old as his running mate, said: “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.”

'Rick' goes on to cite pages 179 and 181 of Vance’s 2016 memoir Hillbilly Elegy (made into a Netflix movie featuring Amy Adams and Glenn Close in 2020, sans couch intercourse) as the source of the claims, except the book and those exact pages make no mention of Vance getting intimate with a particular piece of furniture.

Rick has since spoken to Business Insider about the infamous post, saying he came up with the idea in a grocery store and views Vance from “a place of irreverence if not outright disrespect”.

What didn’t help matters for Vance was that both Snopes and the Associated Press (AP) published fact-checks of the rumours which – while helpfully explaining the origin of the meme and the lack of evidence behind it – only elevated the joke to new heights.

AP subsequently removing its fact-check wasn’t exactly ideal, either.

On the rumour’s popularity, Rick added: “I have really enjoyed thinking about his team and all of the idiots associated with him having to grapple with this. I think by the time the AP thing came out, I was talking to one of my sisters and saying, ‘Oh yeah, Trump is already calling him a couch-f***er.”

Vance, meanwhile, hasn’t directly addressed the claim, but Twitter/X users have seized upon the fact that he did say the word “couch” in a speech to supporters.

He told a crowd in Nevada on Tuesday: “I would call [my wife] up here to speak, but then I think I’d have to sleep on the couch tonight so… I’ll leave her alone.”

And, well, is it any surprise that the memes were reignited?

One account imagined what the couch made of it all:

While many were in disbelief:

It’s just the latest weird thing surrounding the vice presidential campaign of JD Vance, seeing as the Republican has also been mocked with dolphin memes.

The guy really can’t couch- sorry, catch – a break, can he?

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