It's April 29. Which means May 1 is right around the corner. And you know what that means...
The memes. The "It's Gonna Be May" memes. They're coming.
You know the ones. You've probably seen them every single April 30 for the past three or four years. They look like this:
Or this:
Basically any photo or GIF of Justin Timberlake looking kind of creepy has been used as an "It's Gonna Be May" meme. If you don't know the origin of the meme, then that means you aren't aware of ‘N SYNC's smash hit "It's Gonna Be Me" and that means you are a lost soul floating aimlessly through the world without a boyband anchor. Let us be your salvation.
You remember that sales record Adele smashed in 2015 with her album 25? She beat the record for most album sales in one week. The album that held that record previously was ‘N SYNC for 2000's No Strings Attached, aka one of the most important album of the early aughts of all time.
The second single off that album was "It's Gonna Be Me," and JT sings that phrase in the chorus in a way that makes it sound like he's shouting "It's gonna be May!" Then one fateful day in 2012, a Tumblr user posted a picture of a calendar featuring a smiling photo of Timberlake on April 30 with that very sentence. It was a whole new way to announce to the world that May was coming. The meme caught fire.
And since then, that image has been basically the only thing on the Internet every time April comes to an end.
We went on a rant last year about how this meme has to be put to sleep. Because we all know what happens when the Internet really, really loves something. They will repost and spread it around until they've killed the funny thing. And that's what happened in 2015.
Now it's 2016. We were hoping that we'd see less of the meme since according to Internet Rule #802, memes have a shelf life of 4 years. So as silly as it is and as infrequently as it's used, maybe it's time we start the moving on process with "It's Gonna Be May."
Nope. Not happening this year. Because Justin Timberlake himself had to go and tweet about it on Friday!
And that's when the floodgates opened.
@jtimberlake pic.twitter.com/Ouf7flVyDh
— #PillowTalk (@JoBrosAnd1D) April 29, 2016
@jtimberlake pic.twitter.com/CMfsICqExZ
— Candi (@candi_jt_lover) April 29, 2016
@jtimberlake pic.twitter.com/DbJEHksAWu
— KMAC (@KalaKitts2) April 29, 2016
@jtimberlake yes, Justin.. #ItsGonnaBeMay ???? pic.twitter.com/ZzE7HR7n11
— Darling Nikki (@miss_lady_diva) April 29, 2016
@jtimberlake haha! You're right! pic.twitter.com/QSwAIu7hPR
— Jackie (@missjackieee) April 29, 2016
@jtimberlake pic.twitter.com/OO07tRlNjo
— sarah fenlon (@sarahgirlxo) April 29, 2016
@jtimberlake ;)))) pic.twitter.com/88gfs3xH8S
— neesa asyura (@NeesaMahfuz) April 29, 2016
Damn you, Timberlake! DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU'VE DONE?!
Whatever, it's fine. When it comes to ridiculous memes, this is one of the better ones. It can stick around for one more year. But come 2017, we need to have a serious discussion about retiring it. Now if you'll excuse us, we need to go listen to No Strings Attached and weep for the breakup of 'N SYNC for the 93rd time.