‘No, JD Vance did not have sex with a couch’ : How A Joke Turned Into Trending Topic And Was Fact-Checked
What the JD Vance couch jokes say about social media this election season
A joke post on the social media platform X with a false claim about Republican Vice Presidential candidate JD Vance exploded on the internet and late night television over the last week.
The episode is an example of the ease with which falsehoods framed as jokes can take off in our current information environment, and points to the limits of X’s current content moderation policies when it comes to slowing the spread of false information.
What is the couch joke?
Mr Walz’s comment referred to a story that spread like wildfire on social media after being first shared on X by user @rickrudescalves on July 15 (later deleted). “Can’t say for sure but he might be the first vp pick to have admitted in a ny times bestseller to f an inside-out latex glove shoved between two couch cushions.”
Why can’t outlets firmly deny the couch allegations?
The story was swiftly debunked by The Associated Press in a fact-checking piece titles ‘No, JD Vance did not have sex with a couch’, but later retracted it prompting a barrage of memes on social media.
Tim Walz, named by US Democrat presidential nominee as her running mate, took a brutal swipe at his Republican opponent JD Vance over a baseless, but much-shared claim that Trump’s vice president pick admitted to having sex with a couch in his memoir. At a Democratic Party rally in Philadephia, with Ms Harris by his side, Mr Walz joked, “I can’t wait to debate the guy… that is, if he’s willing to get off the couch and show up.” The comment drew roars of laughter from the thousands of listening party supporters.
Tim Walz Sneaks in a ‘Couch’ Dig at J.D. Vance in Philly Speech
Tim Walz, speaking to an audience Tuesday for the first time as Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate, made a sly reference to an embarrassing storyline regarding his Republican counterpart, Sen. J.D. Vance, and a couch.
Joining Harris in Philadelphia, the Minnesota governor told the crowd to an uproar of laughter: “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.”
What was found on JD Vance’s Venmo?
Most of Vance’s transactions on Venmo were private or mundane, but his friends list on the app revealed some high-profile and controversial people he may be connected to, Wired reported.
Friends lists are auto-populated on the app, which is owned by PayPal and used to send money electronically, by users’ phone contacts. That means Vance’s Venmo friends are likely people who were in his cellphone contacts list when he first joined the platform in 2016, not people with whom he has necessarily shared transactions. The app also allows users to send and receive money to people not on their friends list.
The author of the viral joke post about JD Vance having sex with a couch breaks his silence
The American electorate is fully in the grip of Couch Discourse.
On July 15, shortly after former President Donald Trump announced Sen. JD Vance would be joining his ticket, the X user @rickrudescalves posted a joke: “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).”
Needless to say, pages 179 through 181 of “Hillbilly Elegy” are not devoted to an account of Vance’s couch surfing, and there’s no evidence that he’s ever done anything to a couch other than sit on one.
Still, a lot of people found it funny. @rickrudescalves hid the post within a week of publishing it, but the couch joke had already left an impression.