‘Weird’ JD Vance Is a Surprise Hit on TikTok Thanks to Comedian Samuel Wiles

Donald Trump’s vice presidential pick JD Vance officially joined TikTok on Aug. 1 with an awkward promotional post for a right-wing hard seltzer brand. Days later, Vance’s brand of cringe and “childless cat lady” comments were already blowing up on the platform—but it was all thanks to a parody account by comedian Samuel Wiles.

According to Wiles—who mostly does stand up comedy in Los Angeles, and bears a striking resemblance to Vance—he fell into doing an impression of the GOP vice presidential nominee by “accident.” But when he “instantly” realized how much they look alike, it was game on.

“I’m always kind of clocking guys with big round heads and beards in media,” said Wiles, who is 37-years-old to Vance’s 40 years. “The fact that we both have light eyes and kind of high school teacher-speaking voices was a bonus coincidence.”

Since his first Vance impression video hit TikTok on Aug. 7, Wiles has become a reliable chronicler of the Ohio senator’s social stumbles on the campaign trail.

As Vance—caked in eyeliner—Wiles addressed asking about Swiss cheese in South Philly as the “swing state snafu.” He poked fun at Vance wearing a flannel in scorching heat to visit the U.S.-Mexico border in Arizona. And most recently, Wiles took aim at the pet-eating in Ohio conspiracy peddled by Trump during Tuesday’s debate.

“The vile Democrats have said that my platform is disconnected from the interests of real people,” said Wiles channeling Vance in the video. “Well, that’s not true and its mean to say,” he added, before reading some “real constituent letters from real people” to support the conspiracy.

“Dear future VP Vance, a Haitian illegal broke into my house and ate my dog between two slices of Wonder Bread,” reads Wiles in a deadpan Vance impression. Wiles continued, “He was wearing nothing but a cape and a sinister top hat. He escaped on a skateboard powered by dark magic.”

Wiles said he was on a flight when the Vance ideas started coming to him as he was thinking about the veepstakes. He thought about, “How much I don’t like JD Vance but also how awful it would be to be him. I started writing down stuff I thought he would say because I thought I could talk about it as stand-up, but then I wrote for like 90 minutes straight. It was so easy.”

Like many Americans, Wiles said he knew Vance as an author before he became a politician. “I read Hillbilly Elegy when it came out. I remember liking it while I was reading it,” said Wiles. “Then putting it down and going, ‘Oh wait, what an a–hole.’ Then when he became an outright conservative media figure that seemed really logical.”

So far, Trump nor Vance’s campaign camp has responded to Wiles’ impression. “I hope they don’t. I don’t know if JD has the ability anymore to ingest why my impression of him is funny at this point,” said Wiles. “I wonder if his soul is in the sunken place watching his body say these awful things.”

Meanwhile, Wiles, who has a comedy special coming out on Aspecialthing Records, said he plans to keep taking his Vance impression to new lows.

“It will never not be funny to me that he’s a huge fraud and no one likes him! He doesn’t even get the benefit of the weird lying,” said Wiles. “His life would be so much easier if he could be honest, but there are so many layers he can’t have an honest moment now.”

As for what makes a good Vance impression, Wiles said he similarity to Vance does most of the work… and also mascara.

“My fiancé works in beauty and did my eyeliner for the first round of videos, and we kind of both realized it needed to look worse,” he said. “So now I just get the $3 Wet N Wild from Walgreens and mash it into my eyes on my own.”

He added, “Shout out to Walgreens.”