J.D. Vance Couch Cushion Story Hoax

About

JD Vance Couch Cushion Story Hoax, also known as J. D. Vance Hillbilly Elegy Latex Glove Masturbation, refers to a viral piece of misinformation stating that United States Senator J.D. Vance, currently the running mate of Donald Trump in the 2024 U.S. Presidential Election, masturbated by humping two couch cushions into a latex glove and that he'd written about the experience in his memoir, Hillbilly Elegy. The story was made up by Twitter / X user @rickrudescalves in July 2024 and spread widely on social media, which led to news publications uncritically repeating the hoax story as fact. In the following weeks, Trump and Vance supporters fabricated a fake story about Democratic Vice Presidential candidate Tim Walz, known as the Tim Walz Horse Semen Story Hoax. The Walz story was labeled cringe by many internet users who believed that the meme was forced and was trying too hard to deflect the Vance, couch memes and "Republicans Are Weird" criticism.

Origin

On July 15th, 2024, Twitter user @rickrudescalves^[1] tweeted, "can't say for sure but he might be the first vp pick to have admitted in a ny times bestseller to fucking an inside-out latex glove shoved between two couch cushions (vance, 𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘣𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘨𝘺, pp. 179-181)." The tweet gained over 1.8 million views, 2,600 retweets and 35,000 likes in one week (shown below).

However, the story is completely made up and does not appear in Hillbilly Elegy. Twitter user @rickrudescalves^[2] signaled that he was joking when he followed up the tweet with the Go On The Internet and Tell Lies meme (shown below).

Spread

Though the story was made up, it spread widely on social media from people who were not aware it was a hoax. For example, on July 17th, 2024, Twitter user @wunderba666^[3] unironically tweeted the story as a criticism of Vance, gaining over 20 retweets and 30 likes in five days (shown below, left).

On July 21st, Twitter user @MeachemDr^[4] posted surprise upon learning the "fact" about Vance, gaining over 50 retweets and 200 likes in one day (shown below, right). On July 16th, the blog intomore^[5] posted about the story as though it were factual.

The story then led to memes and pranks on social media. On July 18th, 2024, an ad for "JD Vance's used couch" appeared on Craigslist,^[6] referencing the story (shown below, left). On July 19th, Redditor orbitalaction posted a GIF from It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia of Frank Reynolds emerging naked from a couch, joking that it's what emerged from Vance's couch after nine months. The joke gained over 400 points in /r/politicalhumor^[7] in three days (shown below, right).

AP Story / Retraction

On July 24th, 2024, the AP posted its own debunking of the claim, linking to a PDF of the book so that users could search for themselves if the story appeared in Hillbilly Elegy. However, they retracted the story because, according to a spokesperson, it "didn't go through our standard editing process." The retraction led to more jokes about the rumor being real.

Doctored Page

On July 25th, an image circulated online purporting to show that Vance wrote the "couch cushion story" on page 180 of the first edition hardcover release of Hillbilly Elegy (shown below).

Know Your Meme determined that the page is a hoax. CUNY Baruch College hosts a PDF of the 1st edition of Hillbilly Elegy, and in that PDF, the relevant passage actually reads:

Years later, I looked at my wedding party of six groomsmen and realized that every single one of them had, like me, grown up in a small Ohio town before leaving for Ohio State. To a man, all of them had found careers outside of their hometowns, and none of them had any interest in ever going back.

This is consistent with a photograph purportedly of page 180 of the first edition hardcover version of Hillbilly Elegy posted by Twitter user @Kifillang.

The doctored page appears to come from TikTok and Twitter user @FalconryFinance, who posted a video reading the doctored page on July 24th. He later admitted on Twitter that he had edited the page to include the passage.

@falconryfinance Replying to @andrewrhodes04 #greenscreen ♬ original sound – UAE Exotic Falconry & Finance

"Dolphin Woman" Twitter Search

On July 26th, 2024, Twitter users discovered a February 2024 moment when Vance tweeted a screenshot of a woman getting humped by a dolphin. In his screenshot, the words "woman" and "dolphin" are in bold letters, indicating that they were searched on Twitter. This led to further jokes that Vance was into dolphin sex.

Tim Walz Joke

At his first rally as the Democratic running mate, Tim Walz made a crack about the couch story, saying of J.D. Vance, "I can't wait to debate the guy… That is if he's willing to get off the couch and show up."

Walz: And I got to tell you, I can't wait to debate the guy. That is if he's willing to get off the couch and show up. pic.twitter.com/sz7qkFIFFg

— Acyn (@Acyn) August 6, 2024

The joke led to discourse online, as some right-leaning pundits expressed displeasure with the reference to a salacious hoax, causing left-leaning posters to recall many baseless lies and conspiracies pushed by right-wing politicians in the Donald Trump era.

Related Memes

Tim Walz Horse Semen Story Hoax

The Tim Walz Horse Semen Story Hoax refers to a fake story and internet hoax purporting that U.S. Vice Presidential candidate and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz once had his stomach pumped because he drank a gallon of horse semen. The rumor was spread by Donald Trump and J.D. Vance supporters in August 2024 as a memetic misinformation response to the J.D. Vance Couch Story, which organically came about. As Twitter / X users tried to spread the hoax, many people automatically didn't believe it and labeled the people spreading it cringe because it seemed like they were trying too hard to redirect the "Republicans Are Weird" criticism.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References