JD Vance Makes ‘Joke’ About Democrats & No One Is Laughing

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What to Know

01 JD Vance's joke about Democrats wasn't all that clever to some.
02 He has made ill-timed jokes before.
03 Most of JD Vance's critics still aren't impressed with his attempt at humor.

Someone needs to tell JD Vance that trying to make jokes to a crowd, especially when those jokes are at the expense of Democrats, is never going to work for him. In a clip that was shared on X (formerly Twitter) from the 2026 IAFF Legislative Conference, Vance makes a joke about the bright lights on-stage and how Democrats might be to blame.

The response? A small smattering of laughs from the crowd, but not much more. Clearly, Vance thought he ate with that one, and it wouldn’t be the first time Vance made a joke about Democrats and thought he was incredibly clever in doing so. He has also tried to make jokes about the six-seven trend and about his own meme, but let’s face it. Humor is not his strong suit, no matter how many times he tries. And he does try hard.

JD Vance really thought he did something with his Democrat joke.

In the clip from the conference, Vance takes the podium on-stage and jokes about how bright the lights are that are shining on him. 

“I can’t see any of you because these spotlights are glaring bright,” he says in the clip. “The person who runs these spotlights must be a Democrat because I cannot see a single person in that crowd.” Har har har.

Except, after the polite laughter from a handful of people in the audience, that’s it. I’m not entirely convinced that laughter wasn’t just a laugh track that someone edited in after. Alright, maybe not. Vance does have plenty of supporters who follow him regardless of who he is at his core. But after the video was posted to X, some of Vance’s came out with their own jokes at his expense.

“Could be they all left when the lights came on,” one user commented on the X post.

Someone else replied to the X post with, “It’s hard to make lame jokes when you’re a smug condescending phoney.”

Even for those who don’t totally oppose Trump and claim that the president has charisma, even in some small way, Vance is lacking in that department too. And his corny joke about Democrats being incompetent is just another strike against him for those who already couldn’t stand the guy.

“I want to say there’s no way you can be this big of a pathetic loser and win an election, but Trump is the president of the country again so who knows?” An X user replied to the post.

JD Vance’s attempts at jokes never quite land.

In a resurfaced video of Vance at an appearance during his run for Senate, he makes fun of Kamala Harris. He almost sounds like he’s doing a stand-up bit when he delivers a so-called punchline of Harris’s nickname allegedly being “Cackala” because “she cackles.” No one laughs in the video, because, as we already covered, Vance is no comedian.

During Donald Trump’s campaign in 2024, Vance made a joke about Harris stealing all of Trump’s outfit choices and even adopting his ‘Make America Great Again’ slogan because she was doing so poorly, according to him. Spoiler alert: no one laughed at that joke either.

His critics think he’s more of a try-hard than anything at this point.

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

There’s a difference between trying hard and being a try-hard. According to plenty of Vance’s critics, he is the latter, and no one wants him to forget it. In addition to people straight up calling Vance a try-hard on social media, many have been quick to point out specific reasons they think he tries and fails to be cool, funny, and suave.

“JD Vance is a soft bodied disrespectful beta b—h who thinks he’s hanging w/ the cool jocks,” someone posted on X. Someone else labeled him as “JD Vance, the try-hard who needs to try harder.”

READ NEXT: JD Vance’s Mom Says She’s ‘Not Political’ & They ‘Don’t Agree on Everything’

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Chrissy Bobic