Justin Timberlake May joke: Meaning behind the meme explored as it trends on social media platforms

Every year in the month of April, a meme featuring Justin Timberlake goes viral online. This has now become a pre-May ritual, which has taken Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, and several other social media platforms by storm. Like every year, the "It’s gonna be May" meme is back again, and people are wondering what it means.

Most of the memes see a young Timberlake with some lyrics from the NSYNC song, It's Gonna Be Me, which was released in 2000. The band consisted of Justin Timberlake, JC Chasez, Lance Bass, Joey Fatone, and Chris Kirkpatrick.

With the meme emerging in 2000, many users started sharing Timberlake's picture saying "It’s Gonna Be May," simply because in the song, he pronounced "me" as "may."

As per Know Your Meme, the viral meme became popular in March 2012, when a Tumblr blog shared an image of a calendar opened to April, with an attached picture of Justin and a caption that read "It's Gonna Be May."

Not just GIFs, people also share short 5-second clips of Justin Timberlake, where he is heard singing:

Justin Timberlake's May joke goes viral as netizens welcome the new month

As the meme has become a staple of internet culture, resurfacing every April, people share memes and GIFs of Timberlake with the famous caption. Here are some of the funniest and most creative "It's Gonna Be May" memes that have emerged on social media platforms recently.

Justin Timberlake shared the joke on Twitter in 2020

The joke has become so popular over the years that it reached the artist as well a few years ago. The singer himself shared the meme during the pandemic in 2020. He used a picture of himself wearing a face mask and the text of the image read, "It's Gonna Be May."

Back in 2016, he was asked in an interview if he knew about the joke and what made him pronounce "me" in a way in which it sounded like "may." To this, he responded by claiming that the song's co-writer directed him to sing the line in that particular way.

Apart from Justin, various other celebrities and former President Obama also shared a picture back in 2014 with the same caption.

The song has become extremely popular and has garnered more than 177 million views on YouTube in the last 13 years.

About the author

Srishti is a celebrity trends writer at SK POP holding a Bachelor's degree in Journalism. She has always been passionate about writing and has 7 years of experience in the field, having previously worked at Catch News and News18 India.

She believes it is crucial to conduct in-depth research on any topic she covers, and aims to write authentic and error-free content. She also ensures she eliminates any information that is not verified to provide readers with top-notch and accurate articles.

Srishti admires Beyoncé for her vocal skills and also appreciates the kindness with which she treats her fans. She also thinks it is commendable that the artist is involved in social work and prioritizes giving back to the community.

FRIENDS has been her favorite series since she was in school, so she would love to be part of the iconic sitcom if she could lay hands on a time machine, and interact with the lead stars if she could.

When Srishti is not busy reading and writing about the latest developments in the industry, she enjoys playing badminton, swimming, and painting.

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