Vice President JD Vance may be the second most powerful man in the world, but he apparently thinks the viral memes about him are first-class funny.
After President Donald Trump and the Vice President clashed with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Oval Office, a months-old meme about Vance suddenly took the internet by storm. The original meme depicted the Ohioan as a chubby four-year-old, sometimes crowned with a propeller hat.
One of the first memes to bring the joke into the Zelenskyy clash came from X user @TheMisterFrog. “YOU SHOULDA SAID PWEASE,” the February 28 meme parodizes, echoing similar remarks Vance made to Zelenskyy.
YOU SHOULDA SAID PWEASE pic.twitter.com/PixKbWKrUK
— Mr. Frog, (Road to Redemption Arc) (@TheMisterFrog) March 1, 2025
Reacting to the meme storm, Vance posted an edit of himself as Leonardo Decaprio in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, indicating that he recognized his likeness being spread around the internet.
— JD Vance (@JDVance) March 8, 2025
Some of the memes were elaborate. One, posted by Ryan James Girdusky, showed a Norman Rockwell painting edited to show Vance creating a self-portrait. “This one is actually legit,” Girdusky remarked.
This one is actually legit pic.twitter.com/NYnJ0HnLtj
— Ryan James Girdusky (@RyanGirdusky) March 8, 2025
Referencing Vance’s bestselling memoir, Hillbilly Elegy, an edit by X user, @William_E_Wolfe parodied both Vance and President John F Kennedy. “Ask not what your Hillbilly can do for you, ask what you can do for your Hillbilly,” it read.
Ask not what your Hillbilly can do for you, ask what you can do for your Hillbilly pic.twitter.com/FxnB2MWySS
— William Wolfe 🇺🇸 (@William_E_Wolfe) March 8, 2025
Another meme from @yalligatorgar showed Vance as MSNBC host Rachel Maddow.
Actually https://t.co/d5EfOXCrw4 pic.twitter.com/yzYPHd1FtZ
— Gator Gar (@yalligatorgar) March 8, 2025
Nodding toward the classic comedic film Airplane, @yalligatorgar later posted, “Shirley you can’t be JD Vance.”
Shirley you can’t be JD Vance. ✈️ pic.twitter.com/kpDlLS6iCa
— Gator Gar (@yalligatorgar) March 8, 2025
Some people worked the meme into recent historic episodes, such as the contentious removal and melting of Charlottesville‘s Robert E Lee statue.
This is my favorite so far. pic.twitter.com/lHeShYIt9w
— Tanner Cartwright(Nuance King) (@TanneriteCortez) March 7, 2025
Other users, such as Raw Egg Nationalist, saw more serious meanings behind the meme’s virality.
It's impossible to overstate the importance of these JD Vance edits. The MSM thinks it's harming the Vice President, when in actually fact it's making him an irresistible cultural force who will be voted president in four years' time by an unheralded popular landslide. pic.twitter.com/uriTUdGjZS
— RAW EGG NATIONALIST (@Babygravy9) March 8, 2025
Yet more people attempted to make the meme as silly as possible, editing every person in the Dirty Dancing movie poster to be JD Vance and redubbed it “Dirty Vancing.”
🎶 Be my, be my little JD 🎶 ❤️ pic.twitter.com/I45hcmJjsX
— Dumbass Photoshop (@DumbassPhotoshp) March 9, 2025
User Not Jerome Powell compiled the various iterations into a Mount Vancemore.
Mount Vancemore pic.twitter.com/AVpaPYSuE0
— Not Jerome Powell (@alifarhat79) March 8, 2025
Congressman Mike Collins (R-GA) apologized for the role some media outlets believe he had in creating this social media sensation. In early October 2024, just after Vance took the stage to debate his Democrat vice-presidential counterpart, Collins posted an image of an exceptionally chiseled Vance with a pronounced jawline and high cheekbones. Not realizing that this, too, was a reference to another burgeoning Chad JD Vance meme, media outlets ran with the story about Collins posting a “digitally altered photo” of the then-senator.
Gm. pic.twitter.com/Koe8f0uhnF
— Rep. Mike Collins (@RepMikeCollins) October 2, 2024
Posting a digest of headlines and news trimmings that attributed the starting of the snowball effect that resulted in this current cultural moment to Collins apologized to Vance, saying, “Dude, my bad.”
Dude, my bad. https://t.co/5Q8HVWVfEI pic.twitter.com/eCCeeUGhkl
— Rep. Mike Collins (@RepMikeCollins) March 8, 2025
For now, these meme-orable moments for Vice President JD Vance do not appear to be letting up anytime soon.