The Vance Looking at Camera meme shows the Republican VP candidate locking eyes with viewers in a screenshot from the 2024 debate. The slight head tilt and smirk give it a very Jim from The Office vibe, conveying a message of “Can you believe this guy?”
Senator JD Vance gave this Jim office stare to the camera during the official debate against Governor Tim Walz leading up to this year’s presidential election. The event resulted in memes based on expressions made by both participants that night, and Republicans loved this one in particular.
What is the Vance Looking at Camera meme?
Like the meme from The Office, this one shows Vance looking into the camera in front of him while his head is turned toward Walz. He’s giving a bit of a smirk with his brow furrowed just slightly in an expression of skepticism mixed with self-satisfaction.
The haughty look has people calling it the “Vance side eye” and comparing it to “Millennial face.” Whatever you call it, it’s best paired with captions talking about what happens when those around you say something absurd or unfortunately predictable.
Right-wing social media accounts have enjoyed using the meme to mock Walz’s debate gaffe in which he said he’s befriended school shooters. The governor later explained that he meant to say he’d befriended the survivors and families of victims.
Meme origins
During the vice presidential debate on October 1, 2024, Vance gave looks like this to the camera several times as his rival gave his answers to questions posed by CBS moderators. Within the first half hour of the live event, Twitter user @itslinklauren posted the screenshot of the senator making one of these faces that would become the meme.
“JD Vance breaking the 4th wall anytime Walz talks has me chuckling,” he commented.
The tweet had fairly good traction, soon gaining over 600,000 views and 20,000 likes.
The Vance side eye spreads
A few variations of this screenshot appeared on social media platforms as the debate drew on, but Lauren’s soon dominated Twitter, most often with the CBS banner cropped out. It became particularly popular in right-wing spaces, though the left has attempted to appropriate it to attack Vance and his positions.
Others have used the meme for non-political jokes such as disputes on the readiness of tech products between different departments or non-verbally appealing to instructors when classmates should really stop talking.
TikTok’s Linkin Park variation
Meanwhile, the video social media site TikTok came up with its own variation of the Vance Millennial face meme, utilizing a clip of one of his side-eye moments to the Linkin Park track “What I’ve Done.”
@cheeseburger.walrus #fyp #meme #drunk #debate #jdvance #vanceglance #trump #viral #foryou ♬ original sound – Jake Donald Truitt
Videos captioned with quotes from people saying something that’s not believable show Vance looking into the camera at the precise moment that the single drops into the chorus on the word “done.”
TikTokers borrowed the sound for this meme from a video by @jake_ofall_trades posted on September 18, 2021, using the same timing to look into the camera.
Vance looking at camera meme examples
Related memes:
- A JD Vance meme for every American
- 19 of the funniest JD Vance couch memes
- All the best memes from the Walz-Vance debate
- The worried Tim Walz meme will be all of us on Election Day
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