--- title: It's Gonna Be May Meme With Justin Timberlake Is Inescapable description: The gag is a play off a moment in NSYNC's hit song "It's Gonna Be Me." canonical: https://time.com/4310271/its-gonna-be-may-justin-timberlake-nsync-meme/ author: Megan McCluskey article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-04-29T14:30:31.000Z article:modified_time: 2023-12-15T02:00:24.000Z og:title: There's No Escaping Justin Timberlake's 'It's Gonna Be May' Meme og:description: April showers bring May...memes og:url: https://time.com/4310271/its-gonna-be-may-justin-timberlake-nsync-meme/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: There's No Escaping Justin Timberlake's 'It's Gonna Be May' Meme twitter:description: April showers bring May...memes twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # 'It's Gonna Be May:' There's No Escaping This Justin Timberlake Meme  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Updated: Dec 15, 2023 2:00 AM UTCPublished: Apr 29, 2016 2:30 PM UTC  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Updated: Dec 15, 2023 2:00 AM UTCPublished: Apr 29, 2016 2:30 PM UTC It’s that time of the year again. The time when everyone on the Internet is confronted with a photo of [Justin Timberlake](http://time100.time.com/2013/04/18/time-100/slide/justin-timberlake/?iid=sr-link1) smiling and sporting his circa 2000 [ramen noodle hair](http://www.thegloss.com/2015/01/31/culture/justin-timberlake-birthday-nsync-hair-looks-like-ramen-noodles/). Of course, that picture also features a now-infamous caption: “[It’s gonna be May](http://time.com/3842186/justin-timberlake-nsync-its-gonna-be-may/?iid=sr-link1).” > [](https://twitter.com/KimBhasin/status/593818656049627136) For anyone who has somehow managed to avoid this meme since it [became popular in 2012](http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/its-gonna-be-may), the gag is a play off a moment in NSYNC’s hit “It’s Gonna Be Me” when J.T. sings the title lyric in a way that sounds like he’s announcing the start of a certain spring month. **Read More:** [These 2 Members of NSYNC Are Back in the Recording Studio Together](http://time.com/4229726/nsync-joey-fatone-chris-kirkpatrick-reunion-recording-studio/) While many have come to [loathe the joke](https://twitter.com/koreykuhl/status/593816712719372288?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw), the photo continues to go viral every April 30\. In fact, it has become so pervasive that even [President Barack Obama](http://time.com/84527/barack-obamas-facebook-page-joins-its-gonna-be-may-meme/) and Justin himself have gotten in on the action. > [](https://twitter.com/jtimberlake/status/726100939518545922) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4310271/its-gonna-be-may-justin-timberlake-nsync-meme/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4310271/its-gonna-be-may-justin-timberlake-nsync-meme/"},"headline":"'It's Gonna Be May:' There's No Escaping This Justin Timberlake Meme","datePublished":"2016-04-29T14:30:31.000Z","dateModified":"2023-12-15T02:00:24.000Z","description":"April showers bring May...memes","url":"https://time.com/4310271/its-gonna-be-may-justin-timberlake-nsync-meme/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Music","viral","Holidays","Justin Timberlake","memes"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Megan McCluskey","jobTitle":"Staff Writer","url":"https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4310271/its-gonna-be-may-justin-timberlake-nsync-meme/","name":"'It's Gonna Be May:' There's No Escaping This Justin Timberlake Meme"}}]}] ```