Posted in: HBO, Max, Opinion, TV, TV | Tagged: JD Vance, John Oliver, kamala harris, Last Week Tonight, opinion, trump

Last Week Tonight: Oliver on Why JD Vance/Couch Story Caught Fire

Last Week Tonight's John Oliver shared why he believes the JD Vance/couch story caught fire and a great joke about loose change in couches.

Published Mon, 29 Jul 2024 10:07:09 -0500

by Ray Flook

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As a media society, we've been trying for decades to figure out how an "urban legend" can gain so much traction across the pop culture landscape, even in the face of facts that are pretty much sitting there, ready to be checked out. We're seeing a perfect example of that right now with Republican POTUS nominee and convicted felon Donald Trump's vice-presidential running mate, J.D. Vance. If you've checked out all of the reminders of Vance's past comments that social media has shared with us since he was first announced, there is literally a "Golden Corral"-worth of options to go after him for. But it seems having sex with his couch isn't one of them – despite a whole lot of folks claiming that he admits to that in his memoir, Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis. Though it actually wasn't in the book, that didn't keep the "urban legend" of it from blowing up big-time – and HBO's Last Week Tonight with John Oliver host John Oliver thinks he understands why.

"It is not in his book, but I think the reason it spreads so fast might be that A, nobody read that fucking book, and B, it was incredibly easy to believe because if you ask me to draw a man that fucks his couch, 10 times out of 10, I'm drawing this guy. If you ask me to play 'Two Truths and a Lie' with this man before he even opens his mouth, I shout, 'The truth is he fucks his couch!' I've never seen someone with more couch-fucker energy," Oliver shared during the latest edition of his Emmy Awad-winning news/commentary show. "He looks like he watched the Tom Cruise-Oprah interview and was jealous of Tom's shoes. If you told me that his first celebrity crush was the plastic sofa from 'Everybody Loves Raymond,' I'd believe you without question. If you told me the reason you find coins in between couch cushions is because J.D. Vance always leaves a tip, I'd be like, yeah, yeah, that sounds right."

From there, Oliver showed how the "urban legend" caught the attention of international media and how the Associated Press had a rollercoaster relationship with the story. First, AP posted a story debunking the story ("No, J.D. Vance Did Not Have Sex with a Couch")- only to then pull the story, with the reasoning being that it wasn't put through the standard editing process." The move wasn't a surprise to Oliver, simply from the perspective of basic investigative journalism standards. "The reason I know that is we care a lot about facts and precise phrasing on this show. So I can tell you, you can't say J.D. Vance didn't have sex with a couch definitively. You can say that he didn't write about doing that in his book because that is provable, but that's not the same as asserting he never fucked a couch, especially because he hasn't officially denied it."

Looking to take matters into their own hands, Oliver revealed that the "Last Week Tonight" team reached out to Vance's camp for a direct response to whether or not the nominee "ever had sex with a couch." The late-night host added that they were hung up on ("Which is, and this is critical, not a 'no,' is it?") and that efforts at a follow-up via texts and emails weren't responded to. As Oliver sees it, this is all part of an election cycle that's moving faster and more random than ever before – weird things have happened and are going to keep happening. "The news is moving so fast right now; the RNC was only last week, it was only two weeks ago that Trump was shot, and there are so many variables between here and November. We don't know who Harris' VP pick will be. We don't know which candidate will maintain momentum. The race is impossible to predict. But…until he tells us otherwise, I'm gonna assume that J.D. Vance fucked a couch," he added.

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