Tim Walz, who is running for vice president with the US Democrat presidential nominee, made a sharp joke about his Republican opponent JD Vance. This happened during a rally in Philadelphia, where Walz said, “I can’t wait to debate the guy… that is, if he’s willing to get off the couch and show up.” The audience burst into laughter.

The Couch Joke Explained

Walz’s joke was about a rumor that spread quickly on social media. It all started when a user on X (formerly Twitter), @rickrudescalves, posted on July 15 that JD Vance had admitted to having sex with a couch in his memoir. The post was later deleted.

Even though this story was proven false by The Associated Press, it was too late; it had already become a popular joke online. Searches for “JD Vance couch” became more popular than “Trump shooting” during the last week of July, and the trend is still going strong.

Walz Joins the Fun

At the rally, while discussing his own plans like fighting climate change and enforcing stricter gun control, Walz also took shots at Trump and Vance.

“These guys are just weird,” Walz said. He then pointed out how different his life is compared to Vance’s.

“Unlike JD, who studied at Yale, had his career funded by Silicon Valley billionaires, and then wrote a bestseller criticizing that same community, I grew up in the heartland,” Walz said.

Walz even shared a video of his joke with his 604,000 followers on X.

The Truth Behind the Joke

Rick, the user who made up the original post, told Business Insider that he is left-leaning politically and doesn’t work in politics. He said he made the joke because he doesn’t like Vance and thought it was funny. Rick wasn’t worried about being accused of spreading false information.

“I enjoyed thinking about how Vance’s team had to deal with this,” Rick said.