--- title: Justin Timberlake Surprised the Super Bowl Kid on Ellen description: The Philadelphia Eagles may have won the Super Bowl, but 13-year old Patriots fan Ryan McKenna won the Super Bowl halftime show. canonical: https://time.com/5139585/super-bowl-selfie-kid-justin-timberlake-on-ellen/ author: Melissa Locker article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-02-09T16:34:16.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:50:27.029Z og:title: Justin Timberlake Surprised the Super Bowl Selfie Kid Again og:description: The Super Bowl's biggest internet star and Justin Timberlake meet again og:url: https://time.com/5139585/super-bowl-selfie-kid-justin-timberlake-on-ellen/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte13f6e30454e67c0/698926ef86f68ecb136e838a/super-bowl-selfie-kid-on-ellen-justin-timberlake.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: super-bowl-selfie-kid-on-ellen-justin-timberlake og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Justin Timberlake Surprised the Super Bowl Selfie Kid Again twitter:description: The Super Bowl's biggest internet star and Justin Timberlake meet again twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte13f6e30454e67c0/698926ef86f68ecb136e838a/super-bowl-selfie-kid-on-ellen-justin-timberlake.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Justin Timberlake Surprised the Super Bowl Selfie Kid on _Ellen_ and It Got Emotional by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Feb 9, 2018 4:34 PM UTC  by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Feb 9, 2018 4:34 PM UTC The Philadelphia Eagles may have won the Super Bowl, but 13-year old Patriots fan [Ryan McKenna won](http://time.com/5133184/selfie-kid-justin-timberlake-super-bowl-halftime-show/?iid=sr-link5) the Super Bowl halftime show. While McKenna’s name may not be familiar, anyone who watched [Justin Timberlake’s halftime show](http://time.com/5133257/justin-timberlake-superbowl-outfit-meme/?iid=sr-link4) saw Timberlake take to the stands during his performance of “Can’t Stop the Feeling” and snap a selfie with a young man. That was McKenna who instantly rocketed to internet fame and spawned some of the [Super Bowl’s best memes](http://time.com/5133326/super-bowl-lii-memes/?iid=sr-link3) after his moment in the spotlight. Ellen DeGeneres invited McKenna onto her talk show to discuss his moment of fame and while he was there, [Timberlake](http://time.com/5132997/watch-justin-timberlake-full-halftime-show/?iid=sr-link6) called in to surprise him. “It’s nice to meet you finally,” Timberlake said on the phone with McKenna, as the seventh-grader started tearing up. DeGeneres asked how the selfie came to be and Timberlake joked, “I knew I wanted to end the show with ‘Can’t Stop the Feeling,’ just because I see how people respond to that song—and then cut to Ryan.” DeGeneres added that Timberlake should probably start sending the teen money, because they’re so connected now, but Timberlake had something better in mind. “I tell you what I want to do,” he said, “because it was so unexpected that you came down and because all of this has happened, I thought to myself I really wanna meet you properly.” Timberlake then invited McKenna and his family to come meet him backstage during his tour stop in Boston, which made McKenna tear up. So not only did he get backstage passes to meet Timberlake, but the NFL gave him a VIP experience to a Patriots home game next season, four tickets to a game, and four pre-game field passes. Watch the clip below. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5139585/super-bowl-selfie-kid-justin-timberlake-on-ellen/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5139585/super-bowl-selfie-kid-justin-timberlake-on-ellen/"},"headline":"Justin Timberlake Surprised the Super Bowl Selfie Kid on Ellen and It Got Emotional","datePublished":"2018-02-09T16:34:16.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:50:27.029Z","description":"The Philadelphia Eagles won the Super Bowl, but Ryan McKenna won the Super Bowl halftime show with a selfie","url":"https://time.com/5139585/super-bowl-selfie-kid-justin-timberlake-on-ellen/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Television","viral","Super Bowl topic","Justin Timberlake","The Ellen Degeneres Show"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte13f6e30454e67c0/698926ef86f68ecb136e838a/super-bowl-selfie-kid-on-ellen-justin-timberlake.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Melissa Locker","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte13f6e30454e67c0/698926ef86f68ecb136e838a/super-bowl-selfie-kid-on-ellen-justin-timberlake.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"super-bowl-selfie-kid-on-ellen-justin-timberlake","caption":"","creditText":"","representativeOfPage":true}],"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/5139585/super-bowl-selfie-kid-justin-timberlake-on-ellen/","name":"Justin Timberlake Surprised the Super Bowl Selfie Kid on Ellen and It Got Emotional"}}]}] ```