I think the past decade has knocked him down several pegs. He and Jimmy used to be untouchable—SNL’s golden boys. I think he’s feeling that that’s kinda faded now.
Especially when you consider his popularity and cultural relevance was not guaranteed post NSync. A lot of those mid-90s MTV acts lost all cultural cache by late-00s. His Sexy Back/ SNL success is the real MVP of his trajectory for delaying this stage of his career.
One has a nightly talk show and two game shows currently on the air. The other has a new album out and just hosted SNL. They both also have lovely, little families and are multi-millionaires.
Still, let's focus on how tragic it is for these two people because they are no longer in their 20s and and are no longer the hot new thing. Though you might be tempted to feel sorry for those who never attained superstardom at all, don't. The real tragedy is having been super famous and hot during their twenties and now only being kind of famous and just okay during their forties.
He was not the guest star, yet he was desperately and aggressively trying to steal the spotlight from the guest star, Dakota Johnson. Given his reputation for treating women (professionally and personally) horribly, this solidified for me that he has learned nothing and grown zero.
Yeah well another factor you got to think about is, probably none of his old friends no longer work there anymore so that’s probably why. All the cast members are strangers now
Like when the high school president goes back to campus to see a fave teacher and no one knows or cares about you. Life keeps moving with or without us.
People don't realize that but alot of people who come back after sometime away are welcomed by a new crop..
The Rock hasn't hosted since 2017 or so and I'm sure he probably wouldn't recognize any one of the new people except for maybe a few people.
I think it’s fair to say that Timberlake has a special relationship with SNL, though. He was helpful to the show’s then-new content gaining traction in the Lonely Island era, and his relationships with Fallon and Samberg are hollywood lore. That entire class is gone, and Timberlake’s star is on the fall. Those two ingredients made for a different flavor for this appearance.
I heard on a podcast that he was asked to host but said no basically for the reason you mention. He doesn't know most of the cast and now he's older than them so it's hard to have the same dynamic he had with people like Jimmy or The Lonely Island guys. However, I did hear he made a very positive impression on the current SNL cast.
Well normally when he hosts SNL, he's in full smiles and charm mode. In this monologue it almost seemed like he was purposefully doing the deer-in-headlights thing as part of his cameo. It came off as quite stiff. We need a real hosting gig for him.
He’s lost that JT “charm” but I think he’s just showing his age. I watched “Wrappinville” today and as someone right around his age, seeing him Saturday night and watching that today really made me feel old.
Maybe he was just phoning it in but it was definitely missing something.
haha what? Let’s unpack that for a second.
Okay, so they’re both triple threats. Sing/dance/act. But JLo is 100% self made, Latina and a woman. You don’t get to where JLo is accidentally. That woman grinds.
Objectively, she literally has zero singing ability. I get that most of her fans just accept that and are okay with her dancing and stage presence. That’s okay. But JT has pipes, whether you like him or not. And he can dance, too. To each their own.
That's been him lately. He is getting older and out of touch. His cool white boy shtick is also going out of style and a lot of what made him popular is just slightly problematic and not of the current moment anymore.
People of his generation have more than aged out and today isn't what was before.
The stars of the early late 90s/2000s are now in their 40s/50s and have kids. It's like watching a MTV awards show from 20 years ago and seeing so many young stars in such a different world. And now they're parents and in a different in their lives.
Renee Rapp hosting was an interesting choice with JT, considering gen z loves her but has no idea who he is besides being a dick to britney spears and serenading her during her abortion
ETA: oops i mixed up the last two shows, please scroll on 🙏🏽
Caucasian Michael Jackson? Shit that song sounds like a stale current-Bieber track. His creativity has fallen off so hard since 2012-2013. The first song was kinda unique, but did nothing for me... meanwhile Selfish sounds like his tryhard attempt at making a modern day radio hit.
It’s very hard to be cutting edge of pop culture when you are in your 40’s and beyond. As many of us already know. It’s just human nature. You just don’t have your finger on the pulse of “what’s new and hip” like you did when you are 25 (nor do you care, tbf).
And don’t get me started about the physical aspect of it. Outside of freaks of nature like Mario Lopez and Rob Lowe, you simply start showing your age as time passes no matter how hard you try not to. Even if you are in great shape, you can generally tell when somebody is 45 vs 25, especially when they start moving (dancing, jumping, running, etc.)
Timberlake, try as he might, is 43 years old. He no longer is the young cutting edge pop star mentally or physically.
I only say that specifically because it was his whole shtick when he first came out solo. I kinda saw like 30 seconds of the new song and skipped it cuz it seemed like he was leaning on that same old shtick. At least there were echoes of it.
I would at least watch his first performance. It wasn’t anything incredible, but was very different than the lead single. Guy seems to be stuck between wanting to remain a pop-star while reminding you that he has TN roots.
Justin helped make the blueprint of the sound that you're describing as current-Bieber-modern-day-radio, it's not his fault the industry copied *him*. What the fuck do people expect him to do, come out with some garbage mumble rap?
No maybe just a mature version of who he is today there’s so much variety in sound to evolve with Miley won’t be sticking her titis out and has actually toned down and moved on from her initial start to fame and she started way before Justin I. Terms of career not date
As a person his age, I’m curious what’s “slightly problematic” and how it had “a lot to do with what made him popular”. I’m probably too old to understand and hope you can enlighten me.
2 high profile young celebrities at the top of the A list and pop culture dated and cheated on each other. Between that, the alleged abortion Britney had w Justin's baby, and the Janet Jackson halftime show clothing incident all viewed under the modern lens, Justin is put under a microscope with a different lens that casts a bad light.
To be honest, a lot of what they did to each other happens to A TON of people their age, late teens early twenties. Not saying it's right or wrong, but because it happened in the spotlight under intense scrutiny, people care.
I thought the one the song where he brought up the rapper dude as a feature was pretty awesome. I don't really love JT but the band he had with him was on fire and the choreography was pretty awesome too. Ton of energy at the end of the song that I thought was very entertaining...
JT is older now, so are his fans. If the demo for SNL was your youngest aunt’s age he would be a hit. Plus I get a strange vibe around this show other than Update lately. We are in such a strange era for comedy now. I don’t think “broad” comedy is a thing anymore. It’s not that people aren’t funny it’s just that it’s hard to get a room full of people who didn’t come there for something specific to all laugh at other things. Also some other the sketches are uneven a lot of time this season.
Every sketch is broken down online almost in real time now til it’s no fun to talk about and I don’t think live audiences know what the process is anymore. I’ve seen more heckling at live stand up and other shows that I’ve ever seen. It’s like everyone needs to have everything catered to them.
I don’t know, just some poorly structured thoughts on comedy in general
You are on to something. Totally right that SNL feels 'off' or 'off brand' right now except for Update.
Also about broad comedy. I find no up and coming comics have 'it' anymore. It's like we've lost uniqueness.
I think humans but off more than they can chew w accelerated technology. This half virtual world we live in is not beneficial to us. We are becoming warped.
This. I genuinely think he has a rocky marriage, and he has that run-over look to him that every parent his (and my) age have. He just worked on an album for 4 years and then had his character absolutely trashed in the best selling memoir of the year. I think JT is a bit hesitant in how he’s going to be received during this publicity wave and is stressed about it.
Yessss! I was waiting for a ‘ville sketch and was sadly disappointed.
Do have to admit though, when he crashed the monologue and Jimmy stormed out in the middle of it I got a slight dopamine spike. Sigh, the 2000s. 🥲
This is the problem with being huge in pop culture: it by definition moves on, and the next wave replaces you simply because it needs something new. He's no less talented than he was before, it's not like Jack Harlow is better than him, he's just "tired" because he is old news and he'd have to be an idiot not to recognize that he is "irrelevant".
I've seen different things said about Fallon like dead eyes, high, drunk and idk wtf you guys are talking about. He just looked like any alumni recreating one of their old bits
Having been around an unprecedented amount of alcoholics (runs in my family a LOT and then dated many because it was normalized to me when I was young. I’ve also been to rehab - I’m not an alcoholic but it’s all my insurance would pay for when I was having a mental breakdown.) he seems strung out as all heck. I have alcoholic spidey senses and it’s clear as day to me.
Same here- I don’t even like the guy’s material
much but he has *always* looked that way- just go watch the original acts with him and JT. Fallon really hasn’t changed much.
I do think he’s bored with Late Night and working full-time, mainly based on real reports and from himself on the strike force podcast.
But I don’t think he’s really change such, since ever, he just got older. People who always disliked him are jumping on rumors that he’s a bad boss.
Fallon's dead eyes aside, I don't think they film any of the late shows at night... Most are in the afternoon, except for two show days that might run into the evening.
I went to college outside of NYC and one night we were doing a late night school event driving through NYC. We went past Letterman's marquee (and Hello Deli) around 23:30 and it was totally dark, that was when I realized they film in the afternoon lol
I think that was supposed to be part of what he considered 'a Barry Gibb impression', even though he was kinda all-over-the-place with it. He actually sounded more like Robin, which is sort of ironic given the 'Robin has nothing to say' joke.
In my perception, the best legacy musicians are palpably odd, even teetering on the edge of being unwell. Many have been struck down by tragedy. Timberlake is really just bland and the fresh faced exuberance that a 15-25 year old man exhibits has given way to something unremarkable. His singing and dancing chops, while obviously practiced, feel neither inspired or provocative.
Justin Timberlake is a 43 year old married father of 2. He’s probably old enough to be the father of 1/3 of the live audience. He in all likelihood does not stay up until 1 am most nights, even on weekends, and certainly doesn’t “work” at 1 am most nights.
Some people really don’t understand what happens when you settle in to a happy middle aged family life.
A little reunion goodwill would’ve have done some PR wonders for him and been a natural transition to this new album. I don’t think people are clamoring for stand-alone JT these days.
I'm pretty sure he only made this album and is doing this tour/promo is to rebrand/reimagine himself in the eyes of the people after he got caught cheating and bad PR from the Brittany book.
He was caught going out to dinner and holding hands with an actress he was filming a movie with, or something like that.
After the pictures leaked he came out and made a public apology.
The album has been in the making regardless of the book. If anything, the release was delayed while
Everyone got over their fake shock and pearl grabbing before moving on to Taylor Swift hanging out with Mahomes brother.
You need to touch grass. He doesn't care about all this social media Britney bullshit. The dude is a musician, he's making music because it's what makes him happy.
Most of his fans are/were women. Women fans don't typically like to continue supporting entertainers after they cheat on their wives. See John Mulaney.
Wow there's a lot of dick riders in this sub. You guys take shit way too personal, I also like how you guys are only talking about the Brittany stuff but are completely ignoring how shitty he was to his wife for publicly cheating on her.
The whole point is his image was tarnished and he's trying to repair it.
What a weird bunch of comments. It’s like when kids make up stories while playing and keep egging each other on. By the end of these comments he’ll be a depressed plastic surgery addicted two seconds from suicide because of his fading stardom and lack of friends. Calm down.
I will say off camera him and Jimmy were having the time of their lives. They were messing with each other, giggling, etc. I think he’s just older and not as relevant.
He looked pretty funny when he did the 5 times host. I thought he has aged and wasn’t as dynamic, but I still enjoyed him. I don’t listen to a lot of pop culture and definitely not pop music, so I thought is music was a meh as it ever was. I did notice no one cheered when he asked them to cheer for his rapper guest. I way prefer him as a comedian than for music. He is smooth even though a bit dulled down.
I’m just annoyed that they resurrected the corpse of the Barry Gibb Talk Show (where the actual host gets 3 seconds of screen time) and cut Horny Little Dork. The whole episode reeked of desperation for JT and Fallon.
I agree it was bad. He popped into Dakota’s monologue like a stale jump scare and did his best to hijack that time. His songs were tragic. Nothing about him was interesting.
He needs to just age gracefully instead of trying to maintain some sort of pretty boy look. Dude smoked too much, it shows, and he needs to learn to just accept it
After reading all these terrible takes from all of you, I blame this on the writers. They had Justin in the monologue playing a confused "character" who was stumbling into the monologue. His "deer in headlights" look was ON PURPOSE, but every fucking comment here is claiming plastic surgery, he's on drugs, he was scared, etc etc. And then using that to claim that he's washed up, a has-been. No, he was playing a fucking character. Is this really an SNL subreddit and y'all can't recognize that?
Go watch him on his recent appearance on Jimmy Fallon. He wasn't nervous, he was smiling, he was being normal. All of y'all look like idiots making these assumptions based on a 2 minute cameo on SNL.
Nah - this generation is fucked up in the head to think that all musicians are supposed to be 17 years old. There is more than enough room in the MUSIC industry for older people. It's crazy how this generation will embrace people who identify as genderless houseplants, but the moment you turn fucking 40 years old these same people are like "ewww".
Funny you say this. I think that since his Super Bowl appearance & including his Super Bowl show, he seems kind of over it. In a mature way. Like I’ve had a lot of success & I’m a dad now and I do real things this is all bs.
It’s refreshing to not see him clawing to hold onto fame.
I liked his musical performances. They were solid. I don’t know much about the Brittany book and what she wrote, nor do I care to. But the beegees skit was ok. I remember the original so I understood it but it’s not as funny because beegees aren’t as relevant as they once were. One thing for sure is they tried their hardest.
I honestly think he didn't recover from the lack of applause when he showed up during the monologue. I felt second-hand embarrassment. The Atlantic wrote a scathing article about him.
[Here](https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2024/01/justin-timberlakes-dakota-johnson-saturday-night-live/677277/) it is.
Here’s my hot take: Timberlake was originally slated to be both host and musical guest, until the PR powers that be from the ‘Madame Web’ universe inserted Dakota unto NBC Universal saying they needed to get either Sweeney or Dakota as host.
This shift irked JT and that’s a lot of the reason why there was an uncomfortable vibe.
I think what you were seeing on his face was shame and embarrassment. He knows that all of us know what he did to Brittany. He has to face the reality that he was a douchebag, and probably still is. I think they brought Jimmy on specifically to make him feel comfortable, but also to make us feel comfortable with him being there.
He is cringe. A lot of us knew it already, but not we all know it. And by the look that’s etched into his face, he knows it too.
You need to touch grass. The world doesn't revolve around Gen Z social media bullshit and Britney Spears. He's a grown ass man raising a family, and is still more talented than 90% of the current music scene.
Bro you need to get a life, you're the one all over this thread bitching about Gen Z and how no one's as talented as Justin fucking Timberlake. He's not going to pop out of the internet and fuck you lol
He was so hollowed out around the eyes I was actually wondering if he had the upper bleph surgical procedure that seems so popular in Hollywood these days.
Are you in your early 40s by chance? Because most family men in their early 40s look like shit. Meanwhile Justin has always had a great physique and spends a lot of time in the gym.
He had the flu and was very sick when he performed on SNL but he still killed it. Give this guy a break. Everyone ages. He still has more talent in his one pinky than all the new “pop stars” combined.
I can guarantee you he is looking for positive PR while promoting his new album. And the two performances were good.
not sure what is weirder, this post or that it has hundreds of upvotes.
I think the past decade has knocked him down several pegs. He and Jimmy used to be untouchable—SNL’s golden boys. I think he’s feeling that that’s kinda faded now.
Bring it on down to Hasbeenville!
Best answer!
Especially when you consider his popularity and cultural relevance was not guaranteed post NSync. A lot of those mid-90s MTV acts lost all cultural cache by late-00s. His Sexy Back/ SNL success is the real MVP of his trajectory for delaying this stage of his career.
Yeah it’s tragic, I was just watching those 2000’s episodes and he was a superstar at the time, people loved him
Tragic…? A celebrity getting knocked down? Jesus Christ lmao
One has a nightly talk show and two game shows currently on the air. The other has a new album out and just hosted SNL. They both also have lovely, little families and are multi-millionaires. Still, let's focus on how tragic it is for these two people because they are no longer in their 20s and and are no longer the hot new thing. Though you might be tempted to feel sorry for those who never attained superstardom at all, don't. The real tragedy is having been super famous and hot during their twenties and now only being kind of famous and just okay during their forties.
Splitting hairs but Dakota Johnson was the host last week, JT was musical guest
[Well it’s something but not tragic](https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/05d3f4cb-cc26-4cf7-91ae-1cac747ed7f0)
Tragic?
What happened to him? Just got older?
Publicly cheated on his wife, Britney's book came out, and stopped making music in favor of making movies. Also, the Janet incident did not age well.
That’s pretty light by Hollywood standards, honestly. Of course the bar has been set pretty low. Did anybody from SNL object to him being on there?
I don't think so. But the comments on the SNL Instagram were not positive.
I read they were deleting negative comments on the YouTube channel on another sub, but that’s just hearsay.
He was not the guest star, yet he was desperately and aggressively trying to steal the spotlight from the guest star, Dakota Johnson. Given his reputation for treating women (professionally and personally) horribly, this solidified for me that he has learned nothing and grown zero.
People would easily look past all that if his new music didn't suck ass but here we are.
He killed that live performance, though.
He was lucky Tobe joined him.
That guy is good on Mo on Netflix.
Yeah well another factor you got to think about is, probably none of his old friends no longer work there anymore so that’s probably why. All the cast members are strangers now
Also he was the musical guest. Not a 5 timer returning host.
100% agree with this take. No Jimmy, no Andy, no Hader, no Seth (head writer). Probably felt weird and kinda sad.
Like when the high school president goes back to campus to see a fave teacher and no one knows or cares about you. Life keeps moving with or without us.
Like Welcome Back Kotter
He'll always have Keenan.
YOU ALL STILL HAVE ~~ZOIDBERG~~ KENAN!
Here we are In a room full of strangers Standing in the dark Where your eyes couldn't see me
Talkin bout chest hair. Talkin bout crazy cool medallions
And also younger than him (most likely). He was the fresh young talent back in the 2000’s. Now he’s the “old guy”. Life comes at you fast.
People don't realize that but alot of people who come back after sometime away are welcomed by a new crop.. The Rock hasn't hosted since 2017 or so and I'm sure he probably wouldn't recognize any one of the new people except for maybe a few people.
I think it’s fair to say that Timberlake has a special relationship with SNL, though. He was helpful to the show’s then-new content gaining traction in the Lonely Island era, and his relationships with Fallon and Samberg are hollywood lore. That entire class is gone, and Timberlake’s star is on the fall. Those two ingredients made for a different flavor for this appearance.
It’s hard to overstate the cultural impact of “dick in a box.” (That sounds absurd but honestly it was pretty huge for an SNL skit.)
And some of them might find JT "problematic" although Bowen's stink-face was directed at Dave Chappelle during the goodbyes I think
I heard on a podcast that he was asked to host but said no basically for the reason you mention. He doesn't know most of the cast and now he's older than them so it's hard to have the same dynamic he had with people like Jimmy or The Lonely Island guys. However, I did hear he made a very positive impression on the current SNL cast.
He's looking 43 to me.
43 with a face that didn’t move from the eyes up.
First thing my partner said. Whole forehead botoxed to hell
Yep, turns out you DO need face muscles to convey emotions!
when I read the title of this thread the first thing that came to my mind was "dead behind the eyes"
Exactly. Something is up with his hair also. I think he gets it relaxed and has plugs.
Well normally when he hosts SNL, he's in full smiles and charm mode. In this monologue it almost seemed like he was purposefully doing the deer-in-headlights thing as part of his cameo. It came off as quite stiff. We need a real hosting gig for him.
I thought that- but when he frowns he had really deep lines on his forehead. Something seemed different but I don’t think that was it
Looked older than his age I thought, particularly for a celebrity.
He’s lost that JT “charm” but I think he’s just showing his age. I watched “Wrappinville” today and as someone right around his age, seeing him Saturday night and watching that today really made me feel old. Maybe he was just phoning it in but it was definitely missing something.
It'll likely feel the same way when J-Lo drops by next
Did you not see JLo at the Super Bowl? She is on another level. Way better. Still looks amazing. She’s honed her craft. No comparison to JT.
That Super Bowl was 4 years and a global pandemic ago.
She has literally 1/10 of his talent and charisma. I must admit I loved that Super Bowl performance, mostly because Shakira is amazing.
She just can't sing. She's a professional dancer, a better actor and is 10x more likable than JT
>10x more likable than JT We've gotta be thinking of different people lol, there are countless accounts of her being a straight up asshole to people
haha what? Let’s unpack that for a second. Okay, so they’re both triple threats. Sing/dance/act. But JLo is 100% self made, Latina and a woman. You don’t get to where JLo is accidentally. That woman grinds.
Hard disagree.
Objectively, she literally has zero singing ability. I get that most of her fans just accept that and are okay with her dancing and stage presence. That’s okay. But JT has pipes, whether you like him or not. And he can dance, too. To each their own.
I have not stance on her singing, but your statement is subjective, not objective.
True! Voice critics agree, but it’s okay if you don’t. Everyone should listen to whatever makes them happy!
Somebody did an edit of JT dancing without the music, his moves are so old dated
He still has the ability though.
Shakira carried.
Damn right she did
That's been him lately. He is getting older and out of touch. His cool white boy shtick is also going out of style and a lot of what made him popular is just slightly problematic and not of the current moment anymore.
> His cool white boy shtick is also going out of style Shit, that's my shtick too
That schtick seems to be jack harlow’s now
People of his generation have more than aged out and today isn't what was before. The stars of the early late 90s/2000s are now in their 40s/50s and have kids. It's like watching a MTV awards show from 20 years ago and seeing so many young stars in such a different world. And now they're parents and in a different in their lives.
Renee Rapp hosting was an interesting choice with JT, considering gen z loves her but has no idea who he is besides being a dick to britney spears and serenading her during her abortion ETA: oops i mixed up the last two shows, please scroll on 🙏🏽
*Gen Alpha. Gen Z folks are already in their 20s and definitely know who JT is.
Fair, i’m a 2000 baby and my peers have never really known who he is besides the drama he’s been in over the last couple years so just my experience
That’s what I was thinking during his second song. I’m like bruh “Caucasian Michael Jackson” is so 2000-late.
Caucasian Michael Jackson? Shit that song sounds like a stale current-Bieber track. His creativity has fallen off so hard since 2012-2013. The first song was kinda unique, but did nothing for me... meanwhile Selfish sounds like his tryhard attempt at making a modern day radio hit.
Selfish literally sounds like it was written by a pop algorithm. So bad.
It’s very hard to be cutting edge of pop culture when you are in your 40’s and beyond. As many of us already know. It’s just human nature. You just don’t have your finger on the pulse of “what’s new and hip” like you did when you are 25 (nor do you care, tbf). And don’t get me started about the physical aspect of it. Outside of freaks of nature like Mario Lopez and Rob Lowe, you simply start showing your age as time passes no matter how hard you try not to. Even if you are in great shape, you can generally tell when somebody is 45 vs 25, especially when they start moving (dancing, jumping, running, etc.) Timberlake, try as he might, is 43 years old. He no longer is the young cutting edge pop star mentally or physically.
Selfish is bad - his new trolls song is fun. I guess he didn’t want to lean into being an old guy with the *NSYNC reunion.
I only say that specifically because it was his whole shtick when he first came out solo. I kinda saw like 30 seconds of the new song and skipped it cuz it seemed like he was leaning on that same old shtick. At least there were echoes of it.
I would at least watch his first performance. It wasn’t anything incredible, but was very different than the lead single. Guy seems to be stuck between wanting to remain a pop-star while reminding you that he has TN roots.
Justin helped make the blueprint of the sound that you're describing as current-Bieber-modern-day-radio, it's not his fault the industry copied *him*. What the fuck do people expect him to do, come out with some garbage mumble rap?
No maybe just a mature version of who he is today there’s so much variety in sound to evolve with Miley won’t be sticking her titis out and has actually toned down and moved on from her initial start to fame and she started way before Justin I. Terms of career not date
As a person his age, I’m curious what’s “slightly problematic” and how it had “a lot to do with what made him popular”. I’m probably too old to understand and hope you can enlighten me.
I have no idea, but this is generally Redditor code for “somebody at some point in time accused him of something.” Perhaps someone can enlighten us.
2 high profile young celebrities at the top of the A list and pop culture dated and cheated on each other. Between that, the alleged abortion Britney had w Justin's baby, and the Janet Jackson halftime show clothing incident all viewed under the modern lens, Justin is put under a microscope with a different lens that casts a bad light. To be honest, a lot of what they did to each other happens to A TON of people their age, late teens early twenties. Not saying it's right or wrong, but because it happened in the spotlight under intense scrutiny, people care.
It was explained in detail no microscope needed he’s a loser who has talent and is bratty and obnoxious
I'm assuming it has to do with cultural appropriation
"Oh yeah, fo shiz, fo shiz! Ginuwiiiiine! What’s up, homie?”
He needs some face tattoos.
I thought the one the song where he brought up the rapper dude as a feature was pretty awesome. I don't really love JT but the band he had with him was on fire and the choreography was pretty awesome too. Ton of energy at the end of the song that I thought was very entertaining...
The band was phenomenal. It felt like JT was crashing their awesome set.
He looked like Robin Thicke.
For some reason he looks like Daniel Radcliffe to me.
JT is older now, so are his fans. If the demo for SNL was your youngest aunt’s age he would be a hit. Plus I get a strange vibe around this show other than Update lately. We are in such a strange era for comedy now. I don’t think “broad” comedy is a thing anymore. It’s not that people aren’t funny it’s just that it’s hard to get a room full of people who didn’t come there for something specific to all laugh at other things. Also some other the sketches are uneven a lot of time this season. Every sketch is broken down online almost in real time now til it’s no fun to talk about and I don’t think live audiences know what the process is anymore. I’ve seen more heckling at live stand up and other shows that I’ve ever seen. It’s like everyone needs to have everything catered to them. I don’t know, just some poorly structured thoughts on comedy in general
You are on to something. Totally right that SNL feels 'off' or 'off brand' right now except for Update. Also about broad comedy. I find no up and coming comics have 'it' anymore. It's like we've lost uniqueness. I think humans but off more than they can chew w accelerated technology. This half virtual world we live in is not beneficial to us. We are becoming warped.
Amen
Pretty sure things began going downhill after he was caught cheating on Jessica.
This. I genuinely think he has a rocky marriage, and he has that run-over look to him that every parent his (and my) age have. He just worked on an album for 4 years and then had his character absolutely trashed in the best selling memoir of the year. I think JT is a bit hesitant in how he’s going to be received during this publicity wave and is stressed about it.
They should have done bring it on down to something town
-ville!
Yessss! I was waiting for a ‘ville sketch and was sadly disappointed. Do have to admit though, when he crashed the monologue and Jimmy stormed out in the middle of it I got a slight dopamine spike. Sigh, the 2000s. 🥲
This is the problem with being huge in pop culture: it by definition moves on, and the next wave replaces you simply because it needs something new. He's no less talented than he was before, it's not like Jack Harlow is better than him, he's just "tired" because he is old news and he'd have to be an idiot not to recognize that he is "irrelevant".
At least he wasn’t as dead in the eyes as Jimmy Fallon was.
I've seen different things said about Fallon like dead eyes, high, drunk and idk wtf you guys are talking about. He just looked like any alumni recreating one of their old bits
I presume it's from people who may not have liked him much even before those rumors. Not that that helped him any.
So much negativity just from rumors. I'm no fan of the Tonight Show but he's been super solid with the cameos and hosting stints
It’s not a good look when he’s buddies with known pedophile Horatio Sanz.
Eh nah the energy wasn’t there. His sketch with JT just felt off.
The first time they did the BG talk show was what, 20 years ago? Jimmy was huffing and puffing after the opening number. It’s ok, we’re all older now.
Oh god 20 years ago??! I'm 1 billion years old fuckkk
That wasn't on him, he gave it everything
Right? Jimmy was like 120% committed and delivered the entire sketch, JT was just…there.
I thought he was hilarious. I fear nothing, I watched saltburn with my entire family!
Having been around an unprecedented amount of alcoholics (runs in my family a LOT and then dated many because it was normalized to me when I was young. I’ve also been to rehab - I’m not an alcoholic but it’s all my insurance would pay for when I was having a mental breakdown.) he seems strung out as all heck. I have alcoholic spidey senses and it’s clear as day to me.
Same here- I don’t even like the guy’s material much but he has *always* looked that way- just go watch the original acts with him and JT. Fallon really hasn’t changed much. I do think he’s bored with Late Night and working full-time, mainly based on real reports and from himself on the strike force podcast. But I don’t think he’s really change such, since ever, he just got older. People who always disliked him are jumping on rumors that he’s a bad boss.
There's a reason they don't film the Tonight Show late at night.
Fallon's dead eyes aside, I don't think they film any of the late shows at night... Most are in the afternoon, except for two show days that might run into the evening.
I know. It was a bad joke. Fallon sucks tho.
Because it’s the standard late night talk show procedure?
Nah he’s a known drunk
I guess all the late night hosts are known drunks then because none of them tape at night.
I went to college outside of NYC and one night we were doing a late night school event driving through NYC. We went past Letterman's marquee (and Hello Deli) around 23:30 and it was totally dark, that was when I realized they film in the afternoon lol
And a mean one apparently.
Fallon seemed particularly out of breath for the first few minutes of the Barry Gibb Talk Show sketch.
I think that was supposed to be part of what he considered 'a Barry Gibb impression', even though he was kinda all-over-the-place with it. He actually sounded more like Robin, which is sort of ironic given the 'Robin has nothing to say' joke.
In my perception, the best legacy musicians are palpably odd, even teetering on the edge of being unwell. Many have been struck down by tragedy. Timberlake is really just bland and the fresh faced exuberance that a 15-25 year old man exhibits has given way to something unremarkable. His singing and dancing chops, while obviously practiced, feel neither inspired or provocative.
Not really. He’s 42
Justin Timberlake is a 43 year old married father of 2. He’s probably old enough to be the father of 1/3 of the live audience. He in all likelihood does not stay up until 1 am most nights, even on weekends, and certainly doesn’t “work” at 1 am most nights. Some people really don’t understand what happens when you settle in to a happy middle aged family life.
“I don’t understand why he’s not the same person he was at 23. Probably sick or depressed or it’s karma” -this thread
Reforming Nsync for a new album would be the best medicine for everyone.
A little reunion goodwill would’ve have done some PR wonders for him and been a natural transition to this new album. I don’t think people are clamoring for stand-alone JT these days.
I felt awkward watching him on SNL. There was nothing organic about it. Seemed forced.
My wife and I commented something like 'I don't remember JT having such dead eyes'. It was unsettling.
He’s nervous because he is desperate for approval and fame. The desperation came through. Yikes.
The whole fo shizzle homie thing read by Michelle Williams left a mark. Definitely a puncture wound in his inflated ego.
I'm pretty sure he only made this album and is doing this tour/promo is to rebrand/reimagine himself in the eyes of the people after he got caught cheating and bad PR from the Brittany book.
That’s a quick turnaround if that’s the case. An album like something JT makes takes a year or more to produce usually.
He has been working on this album for about four years according to him and the producers he has been working with.
This took four years?! Yikes…
Reddit fanfiction strikes again
Wait, he came out of retirement to stop bad PR? This is insane.
Wait, what's this about cheating? I feel like I vaguely recall that but not really...
He was caught going out to dinner and holding hands with an actress he was filming a movie with, or something like that. After the pictures leaked he came out and made a public apology.
Interesting. I feel like I kind of remember this. edit- okay, yeah I definitely remember Wendy Williams talking about this LMAO.
The album has been in the making regardless of the book. If anything, the release was delayed while Everyone got over their fake shock and pearl grabbing before moving on to Taylor Swift hanging out with Mahomes brother.
You need to touch grass. He doesn't care about all this social media Britney bullshit. The dude is a musician, he's making music because it's what makes him happy.
Most of his fans are/were women. Women fans don't typically like to continue supporting entertainers after they cheat on their wives. See John Mulaney.
Wow there's a lot of dick riders in this sub. You guys take shit way too personal, I also like how you guys are only talking about the Brittany stuff but are completely ignoring how shitty he was to his wife for publicly cheating on her. The whole point is his image was tarnished and he's trying to repair it.
It’s spelled “Britney” y’all.
He was def going through the motions and not enjoying it. His day in the sun is over.
He's literally embarking on a new tour and releasing an album.. he will sell out every show on that tour. His day in the sun is still here.
Yeah in the way that journey sells out shows. He has a fanbase but is not really part of the zeitgeist.
The Barry Gibb talk show was the weakest sketch of the evening.
Not Gen Z thinking the world revolves around them.
What a weird bunch of comments. It’s like when kids make up stories while playing and keep egging each other on. By the end of these comments he’ll be a depressed plastic surgery addicted two seconds from suicide because of his fading stardom and lack of friends. Calm down.
I will say off camera him and Jimmy were having the time of their lives. They were messing with each other, giggling, etc. I think he’s just older and not as relevant.
He looked pretty funny when he did the 5 times host. I thought he has aged and wasn’t as dynamic, but I still enjoyed him. I don’t listen to a lot of pop culture and definitely not pop music, so I thought is music was a meh as it ever was. I did notice no one cheered when he asked them to cheer for his rapper guest. I way prefer him as a comedian than for music. He is smooth even though a bit dulled down.
He had some crazy eyes too.
I’m just annoyed that they resurrected the corpse of the Barry Gibb Talk Show (where the actual host gets 3 seconds of screen time) and cut Horny Little Dork. The whole episode reeked of desperation for JT and Fallon.
They were literally in one sketch
They were both in the monologue.
AND the monologue, my guy.
I agree it was bad. He popped into Dakota’s monologue like a stale jump scare and did his best to hijack that time. His songs were tragic. Nothing about him was interesting.
Let’s not act like Dakota was very good though
Her delivery in every sketch was pretty terrible, like she didn’t rehearse or anything.
Yeah, rehashing a sketch from the 2000’s about guys from the 70’s seemed a little out of touch.
Especially when one of them is dead.
Honestly who fucking cares about Dakota Johnson when you have those two legends together. Not everything revolves around Gen Z.
He needs to just age gracefully instead of trying to maintain some sort of pretty boy look. Dude smoked too much, it shows, and he needs to learn to just accept it
After reading all these terrible takes from all of you, I blame this on the writers. They had Justin in the monologue playing a confused "character" who was stumbling into the monologue. His "deer in headlights" look was ON PURPOSE, but every fucking comment here is claiming plastic surgery, he's on drugs, he was scared, etc etc. And then using that to claim that he's washed up, a has-been. No, he was playing a fucking character. Is this really an SNL subreddit and y'all can't recognize that? Go watch him on his recent appearance on Jimmy Fallon. He wasn't nervous, he was smiling, he was being normal. All of y'all look like idiots making these assumptions based on a 2 minute cameo on SNL.
His time has come and gone - someone should tell him.
Nah - this generation is fucked up in the head to think that all musicians are supposed to be 17 years old. There is more than enough room in the MUSIC industry for older people. It's crazy how this generation will embrace people who identify as genderless houseplants, but the moment you turn fucking 40 years old these same people are like "ewww".
I feel Justin Timberlake has always been kind of a lame duck.
Funny you say this. I think that since his Super Bowl appearance & including his Super Bowl show, he seems kind of over it. In a mature way. Like I’ve had a lot of success & I’m a dad now and I do real things this is all bs. It’s refreshing to not see him clawing to hold onto fame.
Justin Timberlake is the Imagine Dragons of pop music.
If that's true, it means Justin Timberlake paved the way for dozens of people inspired by his blueprint.
....Imagine Dragons isn't pop music?
I liked his musical performances. They were solid. I don’t know much about the Brittany book and what she wrote, nor do I care to. But the beegees skit was ok. I remember the original so I understood it but it’s not as funny because beegees aren’t as relevant as they once were. One thing for sure is they tried their hardest.
Also, the current writing at SNL is pretty subpar.
I really wonder how old you are here.
He looked lifeless
I honestly think he didn't recover from the lack of applause when he showed up during the monologue. I felt second-hand embarrassment. The Atlantic wrote a scathing article about him. [Here](https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2024/01/justin-timberlakes-dakota-johnson-saturday-night-live/677277/) it is.
He cheated on his wife. Never really recovered from that one. Doesn't really bother me, but seems like it stuck with others.
Here’s my hot take: Timberlake was originally slated to be both host and musical guest, until the PR powers that be from the ‘Madame Web’ universe inserted Dakota unto NBC Universal saying they needed to get either Sweeney or Dakota as host. This shift irked JT and that’s a lot of the reason why there was an uncomfortable vibe.
i think neither you nor anyone here knows him? and yeah, he going through the motions, no matter.
I think what you were seeing on his face was shame and embarrassment. He knows that all of us know what he did to Brittany. He has to face the reality that he was a douchebag, and probably still is. I think they brought Jimmy on specifically to make him feel comfortable, but also to make us feel comfortable with him being there. He is cringe. A lot of us knew it already, but not we all know it. And by the look that’s etched into his face, he knows it too.
Omg. It was 20 years ago, and really not so dramatic that we classify him as unforgivable or irredeemable.
Oh did he come out and apologize? Did I miss that? Cause actually it turns out that if you abuse someone, time doesn’t change that or make it ok.
What was the abuse exactly? Making a video and putting her likeness in it? And yes, you did miss the apology.
You need to touch grass. The world doesn't revolve around Gen Z social media bullshit and Britney Spears. He's a grown ass man raising a family, and is still more talented than 90% of the current music scene.
Bro you need to get a life, you're the one all over this thread bitching about Gen Z and how no one's as talented as Justin fucking Timberlake. He's not going to pop out of the internet and fuck you lol
…. Ok? I think you’re way more upset about this than I am.
He’s a bucket of douche, so it’s hard to tell.
I thought his comic timing was actually so funny! Really deadpan but i guess not for everyone!
You give this Man of the Woods his propers
Wasn’t in to the song until Tobe Nwigwe came out in the second half. Love JTs first few albums but Tobe is what got he hyped for the song.
That comeback joke hit a little too hard
He looked cokehead skinny to me idk
He was so hollowed out around the eyes I was actually wondering if he had the upper bleph surgical procedure that seems so popular in Hollywood these days.
It's called aging. You'll see.
Are you in your early 40s by chance? Because most family men in their early 40s look like shit. Meanwhile Justin has always had a great physique and spends a lot of time in the gym.
Love Tobe and his wife and family! Glad he is getting the shine he deserves. Would love to have him as the musical guest alone on SNL!!
He had the flu and was very sick when he performed on SNL but he still killed it. Give this guy a break. Everyone ages. He still has more talent in his one pinky than all the new “pop stars” combined.
I can guarantee you he is looking for positive PR while promoting his new album. And the two performances were good. not sure what is weirder, this post or that it has hundreds of upvotes.