Lance Bass teases Justin Timberlake with 'It's Gonna Be May' meme, an NSYNC fan favorite
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Lance Bass is joining in on the “It’s Gonna Be May” Day festivities.
The NSYNC alum posted a TikTok poking fun Tuesday at his former bandmate Justin Timberlake, whose mispronunciation of the word “me” in the 2000 hit “It’s Gonna Be Me” birthed a meme that's now 12 years old.
Read more: Has the Justin Timberlake 'It's Gonna Be May' meme passed its expiration date? May-be
In the video, a pink-haired Bass passes a love note to husband Michael Turchin, who is eating ramen.
“Michael, roses are red, April is gray, but when you wake up tomorrow,” Turchin reads as the infamous track fades in. The camera pans up to Bass, who now sports hair made of what looks like ramen — parodying young Timberlake’s blond curls — and lip-syncs the notorious "May" line.
The video ends with Turchin staring in confusion at his bowl, now empty, and Bass smugly swaying to the pop melody.
“POV: your friend mispronounces a word once and now it’s a national holiday. Happy #itsgonnabemay Day!,” Bass captioned his video.
Read more: N*SYNC reunites at Justin Timberlake's solo show in L.A.
A couple hours later, Timberlake rang in the holiday himself, posting on Instagram a video he originally shared on TikTok in September. In it, he stitches a video prompt from TikTok user @umgabi, who asked viewers, “What’s a word you pronounced incorrectly one time and it still haunts you to this day?”
“Um, me,” Timberlake responds with a concessive nod.
(For what it's worth, @umgabi said in her original TikTok that her mistake was with the word "stalemate," which she thought was Spanish and rendered in four syllables instead of two. But "It's Gonna Be STAH·leh·mah·teh" isn't quite as catchy as "It's Gonna Be May.")
It isn’t the first time Timberlake has acknowledged the meme. In 2021, he paid tribute to its originator, Kianna Davis. Back in 2012, Davis pasted a picture of the boy band's leading man at the end of the April page on her wall calendar, accompanied by the words, “It’s Gonna Be.”
Read more: Justin Timberlake is a man out of time on 'Everything I Thought It Was'
“I just did it to make like 10 of my NSYNC friends laugh, Davis told the Athletic last week. “I wasn’t trying to go viral or anything like that.”
Nonetheless, “It’s Gonna Be May” has been written into NSYNC lore, and every year brings new meme iterations.
As for Davis, the Athletic reported that she has been featured on Bass’ podcast and was personally invited to a Timberlake concert in Memphis — though she has yet to meet the now-solo performer himself.
Perhaps that is soon to change, as she plans to attend the Raleigh stop on the Forget Tomorrow World Tour — which JT kicked off Monday in Vancouver. And Mr. May himself posted a recap of the opening show Tuesday on Instagram.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
