Justin Timberlake May joke: Meaning of meme as it trends on social media 2023
Every April, a meme featuring Justin Timberlake goes viral on the Internet. This has become a pre-May tradition that has taken over Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram, among other social media platforms. As it does every year, the “It’s gonna be May” meme has returned, leaving many to wonder what it means.
Most memes depict a youthful Justin Timberlake with lyrics from the 2000-released NSYNC song It’s Gonna Be Me. Justin Timberlake, JC Chasez, Lance Bass, Joey Fatone, and Chris Kirkpatrick comprised the ensemble.
With the emergence of the meme in 2000, many users began sharing Timberlake’s “It’s Gonna Be May” photo, simply because in the song he mispronounced “me” as “may.”
According to Know Your Meme, the viral meme gained popularity in March 2012 when a Tumblr blog posted an image of a calendar opened to April with a portrait of Justin Bieber and the caption “It’s Gonna Be May.”
In addition to sharing GIFs, people also share 5-second recordings of Justin Timberlake singing:
Justin Timberlake’s quip about May goes viral as Internet users welcome the new month.
People share memes and GIFs of Justin Timberlake with the famous caption as the meme has become a fixture of internet culture, reappearing every April. Here are some of the funniest and most original “It’s Gonna Be May” parodies that have recently appeared on social media platforms.
In 2020, Justin Timberlake shared the jest on Twitter.
The popularity of the jest has grown so much over the years that it reached the artist a few years ago. In 2020, the singer himself shared the meme during the pandemic. He used a photo of himself donning a face mask with the caption “It’s Going to Be May”
In an interview conducted in 2016, he was asked if he was aware of the jest and what caused him to pronounce “me” as “may.” In response, he stated that the co-writer of the composition instructed him to sing the line in that manner.
