Vice President JD Vance has ignited controversy after admitting he laughed at a viral meme that linked his wife, the late Pope Francis, and a debunked sexual rumor from his memoir.
The uproar stems from a 2023 viral post on X (formerly Twitter) shortly after Donald Trump announced Vance as his running mate. The post falsely claimed that Vance admitted to having a sexual encounter with his couch in his bestselling memoir Hillbilly Elegy.
While the rumor was quickly debunked, the referenced pages in fact described Vance’s early days at Ohio State University, the bizarre allegation sparked a wave of internet memes targeting the vice president.
In a recent appearance on The Katie Miller Podcast, Vance was asked to name his favorite meme about himself. His answer raised eyebrows.
“So my favorite meme was, and this is very inappropriate, but maybe it’s not too soon but you know there was the whole thing about how I was into couches and right after the Pope died, did you see this one? There was just a meme of the Pope, Usha and a couch,” Vance said.
“The whole thing about how I was into couches.”
JD Vance says his favorite meme involved a couch, his wife Usha, and the Pope.
So weird pic.twitter.com/39IwW7v5tY
— Republicans against Trump (@RpsAgainstTrump) August 11, 2025The meme in question appears to be a spin on the internet’s “F—, Marry, Kill” joke format. “’Couch, Usha, Pope’ -JD Vance when asked ‘F—, Marry, Kill,’” an X user wrote following Pope Francis’ death in April, just a day after meeting Vance.
Vance admitted the joke caught him off guard. “It like took me a second to get it and then when I got I was like, ‘Man, that’s pretty good. That’s pretty good.’”
He went on to suggest the meme may have been created by someone from his own political side. “In fact, I like to think the left isn’t very good at memeing. So, my hope is that a right-winger came up with that because that was a very funny meme,” Vance added.
Reactions online were sharply divided. Critics labeled the vice president’s remarks distasteful, with one writing: “He is one sick weirdo.” Another said, “What a repulsive human being,” while a third questioned, “Is this real or AI? If not then we have a real weirdo in line for the presidency.”
Others took a lighter view, suggesting Vance was simply showing he could laugh at himself. “To be fair, he is being a good sport about this,” one user commented. Another noted, “Least he laughed at himself. Ten million years Trump would never come close to doing that.” A third wrote, “Not weird, funny. Him and the president have a great sense of humor.”
The incident adds to a string of headline-making moments for Vance, who has recently been in the spotlight for deflecting blame in the Jeffrey Epstein controversy, instead pointing the finger at “Democrat billionaires.”
Whether viewed as lighthearted self-awareness or poor judgment, Vance’s reaction to the meme has once again fueled debate over the boundaries of political humor in the digital age.
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