Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) referred to a crude sex joke based on a fake meme to make fun of rival Sen. JD Vance (R-OH) during a rally in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on Tuesday as Vice President Kamala Harris’s running mate.

“I can’t wait to debate the guy,” Walz said, to cheers. Then he added: “That is, if he’s willing to get off the couch and show up.”

The crowd roared with laughter.

“You see what I did there?” he said, clearly aware of the joke.

Tim Walz on JD Vance:

“I can’t wait to debate the guy…that is if he’s willing to get off the *couch* and show up.” pic.twitter.com/ajaaQJpkhD

— Yashar Ali (@yashar) August 6, 2024

The joke refers to a meme that claims Vance had sex with a couch, based on a fake citation from his memoir, Hillbilly Elegy.

Explaining the JD Vance couch meme pic.twitter.com/4ojamIDhYM

— Jack McGuire (@JackMacCFB) July 27, 2024

The meme was widely shared and repeated among “progressives” looking for something bad to say about Vance.

The author of the original hoax told Business Insider that the ease with which people believed his fake citation “hasn’t bolstered his faith in the critical-thinking skills of the electorate.”

Walz, supposedly bringing Midwest decency to the ticket, launched his campaign with a crude sexual joke — one based on deliberate misinformation.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of “”The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days,” available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of “The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency,” now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.