JD Vance's Stance On Dating Apps Has The Internet Reigniting The Biggest Rumor About Him

It's weird to think that we live in a time where anyone can just go on Twitter (sorry, we mean X) and cyberbully the Vice President. But here we are. One of JD Vance's most obnoxious Donald Trump-like qualities is his tendency to pick fights online. But this seems to backfire more often than not. Vance had barely recovered from the internet ripping him to shreds over his message to Pope Leo XIV before the VP's stance on dating apps had commenters reigniting the biggest rumor about him.

Speaking to The New York Times, Vance opined that "dating apps are probably more destructive than we fully appreciate. I think part of it is technology has just for some reason made it harder for young men and young women to communicate with each other in the same way. Our young men and women just aren't dating, and if they're not dating, they're not getting married, they're not starting families." These comments prompted X users to bring up the wild (though debunked) rumor that Vance had once been intimate with the cushions of a couch.

"Of course [Vance doesn't want people to use dating apps, he] would rather they all go just f**k their couches like he did," one individual wrote. "He wants them to date the couch instead?" another added. A separate user got especially abstract with the joke, simply sharing a GIF from "South Park" that shows Eric Cartman lounging on a couch.

The JD Vance couch rumor first surfaced in July 2024, amid that year's presidential election cycle. "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," an X user wrote, misattributing the anecdote to Vance's 2016 memoir, "Hillbilly Elegy." At the time, the user seemed to make it clear they were joking, replying to their own post with a screenshot from the children's TV show "Arthur" where the character Buster says, "You really think someone would do that? Just go on the internet, and tell lies?"

That didn't stop the internet from taking the joke and running with it. It became such a prevalent meme that the Associated Press put out a fact-check article titled, "No, JD Vance Did Not Have Sex With a Couch." However, the article was soon taken down, with an AP spokesperson telling Semafor media editor Max Tani that the article hadn't been properly vetted, further muddying the waters.

The joke ended up transcending the online sphere entirely. Actor Haley Joel Osment referenced the meme in a "Jimmy Kimmel Live" parody skit where he played Vance. Even Democratic VP nominee Tim Walz got a shot in during a campaign speech. "I can't wait to debate the guy — that is, if he's willing to get off the couch and show up. See what I did there?" Walz said.