What is the May joke with Justin Timberlake? Origins of iconic meme explained as singer pokes fun at himself 

On April 30, 2024, singer, songwriter, and actor Justin Timberlake took to his Instagram to share a video captioned “It’s gonna be...,” in which TikTok influencer @umgabi asked, “What’s a word you pronounced incorrectly one time, and it still haunts you to this day?”

The former NSYNC member responded by quipping, “Um…’ Me.’” He was referring to the band’s 2000 hit song It’s Gonna Be Me, and how he seemingly pronounced ‘Me’ as ‘May,’ which resulted in an everlasting “It’s Gonna Be May” joke over the years.

In 2023, during a semi-reunion of the band, Justin Timberlake explained how he didn’t sing ‘Me’ as ‘May’ in the original version of the song but later changed it at the request of the song’s producers.

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Exploring the origin story of Justin Timberlake’s 'It’s Gonna Be May' meme

In 2000, NYSNC released its second studio album, No Strings Attached, which comprised the song It’s Gonna Be Me, made popular by the band’s lead singer, Justin Timberlake. The multiple-time Grammy Award winner enunciated the word ‘Me’ in the titular line as ‘May,’ which fans often used as a joke until 2012, when it spawned a meme fest.

According to a 2016 E! News article, the debut version of the meme appeared on the social media platform Tumblr on April 30, 2012. It was a calendar showing a smiling photo of Timberlake with the words “It’s Gonna Be May” written as if announcing the onset of the fifth month to the world.

Since then, every year, on April end, the internet has been flooded with the meme, with various versions of the original being circulated. NSYNC, too, joined the fest and recognized the jokes by sharing them on its social media.

Not only that, but a few years back, the boy band officially acknowledged the meme on its YouTube channel and even temporarily renamed it as It’s Gonna Be Me (It’s Gonna Be May – Official Video).

In September 2023, after 13 years of the song’s release, Justin Timberlake finally explained why he sang ‘Me’ as ‘May.’ As part of NSYNC’s reunion show Hot Ones, the 43-year-old said that initially, he used ‘Me’ the way it was intended but was later asked to sing it as ‘May’ by one of the producers.

However, his former bandmate JC Chasez intervened, saying that the producers and songwriters, including Max Martin, Andreas Carlsson, and Rami Yacoub, were all Swedish, whose English had accents.

Interestingly, during a recent interview with People Magazine, NSYNC member Joey Fatone mentioned how “every once in a while, one of us will find a good one [meme], and we’ll send it on the group text.”

He also recalled how, when the song was released, the “It’s Gonna Be May” joke “wasn’t even a thing” until much later, when it became a hilarious annual online tradition.

Fatone also remembered that once he found a meme where Justin was dressed as a Night’s Watch from Game of Thrones, which he found wild and unusual and passed on to him.

The Singing Bee host also explained how Max Martin “came up with the idea of saying, ‘It’s Gonna Be May’” as “It’s Gonna Be Me” didn’t sound “good to the ear.”

“But we never knew that it was going to take off and become its own thing. And every year you get crazy stuff. But it's hilarious. And we might as well embrace it,” he noted.

Justin Timberlake, who left the band decades ago, reunited with Joey Fatone, Lance Bass, JC Chasez, and Chris Kirkpatrick during his Los Angeles concert last month. They performed the iconic meme-worthy song onstage and debuted their brand-new song, Paradise.