Justin Timberlake’s career in memes, from “It’s Gonna Be May” to his DWI photo


It’s always a cultural event when a celebrity is arrested, but often enough, people are willing to forgive someone who has starred in big movies, dazzled as a professional athlete, or recorded their favorite hit singles . Justin Timberlake, however, can no longer trade his history with ‘NSync or his peak as a solo artist to stay in the public’s good graces: when he was arrested and charged with drunk driving in the Hamptons early Tuesday morning, the resounding consensus on social media was that he deserved the embarrassment.

For what? Put this down to a very poor record with women. In recent years, commentators have reassessed the infamous “Nipplegate” scandal during the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show, when Janet Jackson took blame for a “wardrobe malfunction,” while Timberlake , who had ripped off part of his costume and exposed his chest, kept his career more or less on track. Last year, Britney Spears’ memoir The woman in me made the accusation that Timberlake cheated on her during their relationship, after Timberlake released a famous song after the breakup, implying that She had been unfaithful. (Headlines about infidelities also tainted his relationship with now-wife Jessica Biel, although he denied them.)

While the turnaround against Timberlake may seem sudden, you can actually track his slide from “Prince of Pop” to persona non grata through the language of the 21st century masses – i.e. memes. Here, take a stroll through Timberlake’s last decade of viral content:

It will be in May

As early as 2012, Tumblr users joked about Timberlake’s vocals on the 2000 single “It’s Gonna Be Me”, from ‘NSync’s second album, No strings attached. When Timberlake sings the title of the song, he emphasizes the word “me” to make it sound more like “can.” Therefore, towards the end of April, you could post an image of Timberlake with the text “It’s Gonna Be May” to announce the month to come. It was the kind of light-hearted, Impact-font image macro that made sense in a more innocent time, when Barack Obama was headed for re-election (his communications team got in on the joke in 2014) and that Timberlake wasn’t “problematic” or “canceled” – terms that are not yet endemic to social media. It was a bit of premature Y2K nostalgia based on a familiar face and misheard lyrics, the kind of positive PR you just can’t buy. The fact that this meme was nowhere to be found over the past few springs shows you how far Timberlake has fallen.

The man of the woods

In 2018, Timberlake released his first album in five years, after being certified back-to-back platinum. 20/20 experience records of 2013. He reported that this new version, The man of the woods, would be a major departure from his club-friendly sound, playing on his Memphis roots while exploring blues and country. The pivot sparked surprise and sarcasm among listeners who sensed a cheap new image after a hiatus that Timberlake partially devoted to producing the soundtrack for Trolls, and his new lumberjack aesthetic threw a million shots at trying to have a Mumford & Sons era. The headlines were brutal, especially because Timberlake also appeared in Woody Allen’s 2017 film. Wonderful wheel, which was created with the takeoff of the #MeToo movement. The man of the woods debuted at number one, and it still went platinum – but it took three years. Clearly, its downward trend was already beginning.

Child Super Bowl selfie

The week The man of the woods came out, Timberlake headlined the Super Bow LII halftime show, which may have helped sales, but reminded everyone that Janet Jackson had faded from the spotlight after their ill-fated 2004 performance ushered in a wave of misogyny and puritanical outrage. Luckily for him, a spontaneous interaction with a kid in the crowd turned out to be the show’s winning viral moment. Timberlake posed with seventh grader Ryan McKenna as he took a selfie of them together, although it was McKenna who seemed somewhat flustered and looked down at his phone after the singer left who attracted the most attention. A plurality of memes suggested that young people didn’t care about or recognize Timberlake, and were perhaps Googling who he was. Timberlake took advantage of the meeting by calling in to chat when McKenna gave an interview on The Ellen DeGeneres Showyet the writing on the wall regarding its waning relevance was readable.

Let go of it (Empty). It’s cleaner

The social network (2010) is surely the best film Timberlake has ever made. Still, it’s a little puzzling that one of his most memorable lines didn’t really take off as a workable model until about 10 years ago. In the scene, Timberlake, as wily Napster co-founder Sean Parker, advises future Facebook billionaire Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) to change the website’s name: “Drop the ‘the.’ Just “Facebook”. It’s cleaner. Zuck marvels at the branding genius of the man who would briefly become president of the social media company and acquire his own stake in it. In online remixes, however, Parker’s ideas seem like the obviously stupid and superficial epiphanies of an arrogant idiot with little to contribute, hinting at how we’ve come to identify Timberlake with an opportunistic gimmick. The circle even came full circle with Facebook’s widely mocked move to “Meta.” If Timberlake’s acting career had survived, this association wouldn’t be so damning. Instead, it’s a deal-breaker.

Kick your feet

After performing at Pharrell Williams’ “Something in the Water” music festival in the summer of 2022, Timberlake was forced to do what no artist ever wants to do: apologize to an entire city. His misstep, so to speak, was an attempted homage to the famous go-go music of Washington, D.C. and a dance style born from its bouncy funk rhythms – Beat Ya Feet. Alas, Timberlake’s stilted interpretation of the moves caused serious offense and left some wondering when he got so far back. Footwork has been roasted as everything from Riverdance to Hokey Pokey to the “Silver Spring Shuffle” and Timberlake’s response on Instagram Story, in which he jokingly blamed the khakis he wore for the show , did not endear him to those inclined to see him. like everything failed. The cool factor he enjoyed in the early 2010s had visibly expired.

Arrest, photo and light world tour

By the time Timberlake was arrested this week, the fix was there. Critics were disappointed with her sixth studio album, Everything I thought it was, released in April, and the music did nothing to stop the degradation of her reputation, wildly accelerated by Spears’ candid recollections of their time together in her book. Timberlake also seemed to recognize the impact his arrest would have on the world tour he began two months ago in Vancouver, telling a police officer too young to recognize him (another humiliation) that it would “ruin” his tour schedule. concerts. (“What tour?” “The World Tour” will go down in history as one of the most serious accidental burns of all time.) Almost no one observed the incident on social media without rejoicing at its misery, speculating that he had danced during field sobriety tests. , or marveling at the quality of his photo. These comments were met with an avalanche of claims that it was karmic payback for a history of bad behavior. Ultimately, Timberlake had no one to defend him, which is a tough place to be for someone who makes a living off his popularity. If he wants redemption, he has quite a hill to climb.

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