You know that feeling of secondhand embarrassment you get when you watch someone say or do something on TV and you just want to change the channel immediately? That’s what many felt when they watched Vice President JD Vance hold up his middle finger at an Ohio Republican Party dinner in Ohio, reported HuffPost. As Vance spoke on stage, he mentioned how “pink-haired people” throw up their middle fingers at him and other members of the Republican party. And, he quipped, he takes this to mean that he and others in his party are actually “No. 1.”
The result of Vance’s would-be joke is crickets. Well, not literally. But out of everyone in the entire room, based on videos that surfaced of the event, only a few cheered on his joke about being flipped the bird numerous times by more left-leaning Americans. For many, it is, in a word, cringe. And, instead of having people laugh with him while trying to seem like a cool vice president, Vance had them laughing at him all over social media.
Vance: All the pink haired people throw up this sign
— Acyn (@Acyn) June 25, 2025
*holds up middle finger*
I think that means we’re number 1 right? pic.twitter.com/afo5vAHvQu
JD Vance’s joke has kind of made him the joke to some.
In a clip from the event that was shared on X (formerly Twitter), Vance appears to try to resonate with some of the edgier supporters in the audience. It fell flat.
“In Washington, DC, they have this thing where, I think it means ‘we’re No. 1’ in Washington, DC,” he said, before holding up his middle finger. He left it up as he continued without the thunderous applause he seemed to have expected. “But all the pink-haired people throw up this sign and I think that means we’re No. 1, right?”
Despite Vance’s best efforts to poke fun at being the target of many a flipped bird in Washington, DC, his joke wasn’t all that well-received at the Ohio event.
Critics online had a lot to say.
On X, people have shared what they thought of Vance’s middle finger joke.
“I guess when Daddy drops the f bomb you gotta act like you’re really cool too,” someone commented on the video posted on X, in reference to Donald Trump saying the f-word on camera.
Someone else commented: “Most classless admin in history. I’ve known drunken frat boys with more decorum.”
Elsewhere on X, someone wrote: “I don’t really wanna feign outrage about a politician sticking up the middle finger tbh because that kind of pearl clutching rhetoric died the first time Trump got elected. I do however absolutely want to drag JD Vance for being a cringe manbaby who way overhyped the gesture.”
“JD Vance being the first millennial vice president is making sure millennials never beat the cringe allegations,” someone else wrote.
While many who oppose Vance, Trump, and their shared political views, their real issue is with Vance seemingly taking pleasure in throwing up the middle finger under the apparent guise that it will make him relatable. Instead, it brought more attention from others who already view the vice president as pretty cringe.
