JD Vance edited into an iconic image of Kim Kardashian
X/Twitter
Edited images of Vice President JD Vance’s face have become so popular on X (Twitter) that users are collecting the warped edits like trading cards, inserting Vance into every image they can think of.
Distorted, surreal and downright hideous images of Vance have spread outside of X, entering the timelines of TikTok and Instagram, the sea of Vance edits re-edited into video compilations.
How Did The JD Vance Meme Begin?
The Vice President’s face has been subject to mock meme edits for several months, as political commentators used editing tools to exaggerate his features and create child-like caricatures.
These memes were originally sparked by a flattering edit made by Republican congressman Mike Collins of Georgia, who edited an official photo of Vance, making the Vice President as chiseled as a “chad” meme.
Many responded to this image by going in the opposite direction, editing JD Vance into a baby, or a child holding a lollipop, emphasizing Vance’s round features.
JD Vance Memes Became Popular After The Zelensky Meeting
The Vance edits exploded after a controversial meeting between President Donald Trump, JD Vance and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Several clips from the meeting went viral, one featuring Vance demanding that Zelensky thank the United States.
Immediately, X users began bringing back those distorted Vance edits, with captions quoting Vance’s “thank you” line, mangled with baby talk.
This inspired weirder Vance edits, with meme-makers constantly raising the bar, creating more unsettling and strange images, using the vice president’s face as a template for something of a shared art project.
Users seemed to be stretching their editing skills and experimenting with new face filters, even creating rotating 3D images of the Vice President—a surprising amount of creative energy has been ignited by the face of JD Vance.
Interestingly, this meme has been somewhat bipartisan, starting as a harsh mockery of Vance, but quickly embraced by Vance’s supporters as an endearing way to pay tribute to their Vice President.
The JD Vance Meme Evolves
Soon, the Vance memes started to move away from the flushed, puffy grotesques of old and trending towards straightforward inserts, with Vance’s likeness injected into iconic images, movie stills and classic memes.
Willy Wonka has provided a fair bit of inspiration, as Vance has appeared as an Oompa-Loompa and Violet Beauregard, who chewed Wonka’s experimental blueberry gum.
The original intent of the meme seems to have been forgotten, as political commentators from across the spectrum generate hundreds of Vance variants, like a take on Everything, Everywhere, All At Once or Rick and Morty, where everyone in the multiverse is JD Vance.
One user even posted a simple circle, the concept of a Vance edit stripped down to its underlying essence.
Some wondered if JD Vance had encountered the increasingly ubiquitous images, and others reckoned that the internet was going to give the vice president body dysmorphia.
Others joked that they had forgotten what JD Vance really looked like, his real face lost in the tsunami of edits that had flooded the timeline.
Eventually, U.S. marine Julio Rosas confirmed that Vance had seen the memes, and found them funny (which inspired one particularly surreal edit).
Finally, Vance himself officially acknowledged the meme by posting a Once Upon A Time In Hollywood edit, and some responded with a less flattering image.
With Vance joining in the fun, some declared the meme dead.
However, new Vance edits are still flooding the timeline, and they’re likely to reach a point of dizzying abstraction before the trend finally fades away.
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