Vice President JD Vance has officially entered the Meme Hall of Fame. What began as a niche internet joke has spiraled into a full-blown cultural phenomenon, with Vance’s face stretched, squished, ballooned, and mashed into everything from a Teletubby to the Las Vegas Sphere. And now? He’s leaning in.
Adding to the meme frenzy, Vance recently posted an image referencing a meme of Rick Dalton, Leonardo DiCaprio’s character from Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, sitting with his feet up, pointing, and holding a beer. It’s a popular gesture meme online, often used for emphasis or humor. By sharing it, Vance likely played into the meme’s absurdity for a laugh or statement—no deeper political agenda here, just good ol’ internet weirdness.
The meme storm began after Vance’s fiery Oval Office exchange with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, where he demanded, “Have you said thank you once?” In mere hours, the internet latched onto the perceived petulance, birthing the ‘Pwease Guy’ meme—Vance’s face rendered comically round, pleading like a toddler denied his juice box. One of the most viral versions? A chubby-cheeked Vance uttering, “You have to say pwease and tank you, Mistow Zensky.”
Social media ran with it. Users turned Vance into a minion, a lollipop, and, somehow, Pennywise the Clown. A meme featuring a bloated Vance captioned, “Sir, you have to say pwease,” racked up millions of views. Others expressed genuine confusion, with one user admitting, “I have completely forgotten what JD Vance actually looks like.”
And what does the VP think? Turns out, he finds it hilarious.
According to journalist Julio Rosas of The Blaze, who traveled with Vance, “He’s seen the memes and thinks it’s a funny trend.” Then, in a move of digital-age brilliance, Vance himself joined the fun—posting a meme referencing It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia on X (formerly Twitter), proving that he’s a millennial who understands the internet’s golden rule: never let them know they got to you.
While many left-leaning users delight in using the memes to mock Vance’s loyalty to Trump, right-wing meme lords have flipped the script, treating ‘Pwease Guy’ as an ironic badge of honor. One particularly dedicated memer even minted an NFT based on the meme, which briefly hit a $20 million market cap before reality set in.
Meme expert Dave McNamee summed it up best: “It’s such an easy own. This is a guy who takes himself so seriously.” But Vance’s response—or rather, his refusal to be bothered—might be the ultimate power move. Instead of fighting the internet, he’s riding the wave.
In a world where politicians are often either mocked relentlessly or ignored entirely, JD Vance has landed in an oddly enviable position: a viral sensation who, for better or worse, owns the internet’s attention.
