Justin Timberlake is taking a trip down memory lane—right back to the moment he squeezed himself into a skin-tight leotard and tried to convince Beyoncé that this was, in fact, a good idea.
The 44-year-old pop icon recently appeared in the Peacock documentary Ladies & Gentleman… 50 Years of SNL Music, where he reminisced about one of Saturday Night Live’s most legendary sketches. You know, the one where he, Andy Samberg, and Bobby Moynihan stuffed themselves into black spandex and attempted to dance alongside the actual Queen Bey in a 2008 parody of “Single Ladies.”
And, as it turns out, Beyoncé was not immediately on board with the whole “three grown men flailing in unitards” concept.
According to Justin, Andy came to him with the idea, courtesy of Bobby Moynihan’s genius brain. “Andy was like, ‘Bobby has this amazing idea. You, me, and him as Beyoncé’s backup dancers in ‘Single Ladies.’’”
Naturally, Justin had the one burning question any sane man would have before committing to this level of ridiculousness: “Full leotard?”
To which Andy, without hesitation, replied, “Oh yeah.”
At that moment, Justin knew two things:
1. This was going to be absolutely unhinged.
2. He was 100% in.
But before the world could witness Justin attempting to strut in heels, there was just one tiny problem: convincing Beyoncé to be a part of it.
“She was very polite,” Justin recalled. “But when I say polite, I mean she was internally screaming. She was hesitant. And when I say hesitant, I mean she was not having it.”
Apparently, the global superstar was not immediately sold on the idea of three dudes aggressively ruining her choreography on live television. But Justin, being the committed chaos agent he is, took it upon himself to sell her on the vision.
And by “sell her on the vision,” he meant walking straight into her dressing room wearing a full leotard, heels, and sheer determination.
“I threw off the robe, put my hands on my hips, and just stood there,” Justin said. “She took one look at me and went, ‘NO YOU DIDN’T.’”
Oh, but he did. And the rest is SNL history.