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It appears that Justin Timberlake would very much like to recreate the circa-2007 moment when it seemed like he would become king of all media. In fact, Timberlake seems to be making a running joke out of his inability to recapture that old mojo. Timberlake has a new album and a tour to promote, and when he was on Dakota Johnson’s Saturday Night Live episode in January, the central monologue joke was all about how Timberlake was available for sketches if anyone needed him. Last night, Timberlake pulled something similar on Jimmy Kimmel Live.
Last night’s Kimmel episode was the first after Kimmel hosted Sunday night’s Oscars, and it was a star-studded show, with the Rock and Robert De Niro sitting for interviews. The episode started with Timberlake onstage, claiming that he was taking over for Kimmel because Kimmel was too hungover to host anything. Timberlake got off one Oscars joke — “I haven’t seen that many stars since Joey Fatone elbowed me in the face” — before Kimmel returned to the stage and said that he was fine to host. Timberlake: “Are you sure? I mean I had a whole monologue planned. I was gonna do a whole presidential debate rap battle where I play Trump and Biden.” The impressions that followed were supposed to be bad, I think, and they were indeed bad.
Later in the episode, Timberlake returned to the stage to perform. Timberlake’s new LP Everything I Thought It Was is out this week, and he’s already shared the singles “Selfish” and “Drown.” He also debuted the Tobe Nwigwe collab “Sanctified” on SNL. On last night’s Kimmel, Timberlake debuted “No Angels,” an uptempo track about how there ain’t no angels here on the dancefloor. Calvin Harris co-produced it, and it sounds a little like an AI version of a Justin Timberlake track. Below, watch the monologue and performance.
Everything I Thought It Was is out 3/15 on RCA.