Musician Justin Timberlake is seen in a stock photo on June 18, 2024 in Sag Harbor, New York. … [+]
Justin Timberlake's recent arrest inspired a meme echoing the conversation between Timberlake and the arresting officer, with social media commentators poking fun at the pop star.
The online mockery marks how Timberlake, once dubbed the “King of Pop”, has plummeted in the public eye.
Why was Justin Timberlake arrested?
Justin Timberlake was arrested for driving while intoxicated on Tuesday, June 18. In a sign of the times, the police officer who arrested Timberlake was too young to recognize the pop star.
An anonymous Page Six source claims the two shared an exchange that seems almost scripted, with Timberlake muttering that his arrest was going to “ruin the tour.” The officer asked, “What tour?” Timberlake replied, “The world tour.”
Timberlake was referring to The Forget Tomorrow World Tour, which marks the pop star's first world tour in five years; it had to be something like a comeback.
According to NBC News, Timberlake refused to take a chemical test, and the officer who stopped him claims the singer had “a strong odor of alcohol on his breath.”
Timberlake told officers he only consumed one martini. Sources with knowledge of the night told The Daily Beast that the martini in question was a Vesper, which an insider described as “all alcohol” without “no mixer.”
One commenter compared Timberlake's arrest to a scene from Netflix Bojack Horsemanan animated comedy about a once beloved actor plagued by addiction problems and emotional dysfunction, his former fame proving a major obstacle to rehabilitation.
Timberlake's arrest inspires many memes
Justin Timberlake's drunken-eyed shot sparked an instant meme on social media, with commenters using the image as shorthand for despair and hopelessness.
However, the bleakness of the 'world tour' quote proved even more appealing, with commentators posting the now-iconic exchange on funny and dramatic movie scenes.
Others found a way to insert the quote into references and lines.
That's really the extent of it: the meme is still kind of a copy-and-paste joke, with little signs of mutation or evolution. Some commenters even found the meme to be over the top and annoying, stale from the moment it was cooked up.
However, it's pretty telling that much of the internet seems to be enjoying Timberlake's dramatic fall from grace.
Why does the internet dislike Justin Timberlake?
In the early 2000s, during the height of Timberlake's fame, the singer's breakup with Britney Spears became a messy public spectacle, with Timberland using its “Cry Me A River” music video to hint that Spears had cheated on him.
Spears' public shaming by the media and fans is well documented by now, but the release of Spears' book, “The Woman in Me,” completely changed the narrative.
In the book, Spears claimed that Timberlake was a serial cheater during their time together and that he had pressured her into an abortion after she became pregnant.
Timberland has also come under fire for its role in “Nipplegate,” a publicity stunt during the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show in which it exposed Janet Jackson's breast. The stunt caused great controversy and led to the public embarrassment of Jackson, whose career suffered greatly as a result.
Timberlake, on the other hand, suffered no consequences, and during the height of the backlash, the pop star never spoke up to defend Jackson.
In 2021, as criticism of Timberlake began spreading across the Internet and beyond, the singer posted a vague apology to Jackson and Spears on Instagram, writing that he “deeply regrets the moments in my life that my actions contributed to to the problem, where I spoke out of place, or did not speak what was right.”
Hours after Timberlake's recent arrest, eagle-eyed fans noticed that Britney Spears posted a photo of a cocktail party on Instagram, a celebration of her Las Vegas vacation. Some interpreted the post as a jab at Timberlake, as the post was captioned:
“It's the little things.”
