It all started with a tweet about a couch. Within hours of Donald Trump announcing the Ohio senator JD Vance as his running mate in the presidential race, a rather lurid accusation cropped up on social media.

The user of a since-deleted X account wrote last month, “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 fake page citation from Vance’s bestselling memoir Hillbilly Elegy lent credibility to what turned out to be a baseless claim, as detailed in a now-removed fact check from the Associated Press. Soon, the internet was awash in memes mocking Vance’s relationship with various pieces of furniture. “I did not have sectional relations,” one X user joked, paraphrasing Bill Clinton’s infamous quote about his extramarital affair. Another user added: “Who hasn’t been excited by the thrill of the chaise?”

Even Kamala Harris’s newly launched presidential campaign appeared to get in on the fun, tweeting: “JD Vance does not couch his hatred for women.”

  • MudMan@fedia.io
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    40
    arrow-down
    5
    ·
    3 months ago

    Beyond anything else, I think we can agree that’s a heck of a headline. British press style is extremely annoying, but every now and then something clicks and makes you wonder if it’s all worthy (it isn’t).

    • SirSamuel@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      3 months ago

      I strongly recommend the book The Truth by Terry Pratchett. He does a send up of the press in general and there are so many puns. Like this gem:

      Cut-Me-Own-Throat Dibbler, Ankh-Morpork’s most enterprisingly unsuccessful businessman, peered at William over the top of his portable sausage-cooking tray. Snowflakes hissed in the congealing fat.

      William sighed. ‘You’re out late, Mr Dibbler,’ he said politely.

      ‘Ah, Mr Word. Times is hard in the hot sausage trade,’ said Dibbler.

      ‘Can’t make both ends meat, eh?’ said William. He couldn’t have stopped himself for a hundred dollars and a shipload of figs.