Hilarious ‘this is going to ruin the tour’ memes flood internet following Justin Timberlake arrest
Justin Timberlake’s alleged response to his arrest has gone (very) viral (X: PopCrave)
Justin Timberlake’s reported response to being arrested has triggered a wave of memes and reactions: and they’re pretty damn funny.
“Mirrors” singer Justin Timberlake was arrested on a charge of driving while intoxicated (DWI) in New York state on Tuesday (18 June), and while rumours swirled around whether poppers or pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) was in his bloodstream (the answer was no), the arrest has also sparked a wave of memes.
Timberlake is believed to have said: “This is going to ruin the tour” to the policeman who arrested him, an officer who, it seems, was too young to recognise the former boyband star.
According to a source who spoke to Page Six: “Justin said under his breath, ‘This is going to ruin the tour’. The cop replied, ‘What tour?’ Justin said, ‘The world tour’.”
Timberlake has been promoting his sixth album with the Forget Tomorrow world tour.
“Saying ‘this is going to ruin the tour’ after every minor inconvenience I have from now on,” one X/Twitter user wrote, with another adding: “This is going to ruin the tour, I whisper when my [holiday] request gets denied.”
Characters from fact and fiction have also been having their world tours ruined by being inserted into the meme format, including Gandalf, Nicholas Galitzine and Anne Hathaway in The Idea of You and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory‘s Augustus Gloop.
Some X users have attributed the phrase to even minor misfortunes that befall them, including not getting Chappell Roan tickets and having to “cut down on em dashes” in their writing.
In a statement given to Variety, the Sag Harbor police department said: “[Timberlake] was observed operating a 2025 BMW southbound on Madison Street, failing to stop at a duly posted stop sign and failing to maintain his lane of travel.
“A traffic stop was initiated by a police officer and upon investigation it was determined that Mr Timberlake was operating his vehicle in an intoxicated condition.”
Timberlake’s lawyer, Edward Burke, told Us Weekly: “The charge was a single count because he refused the breath test.”
He went on to tell news agency PA: “I look forward to vigorously defending Mr Timberlake. I will have a lot to say at the appropriate time but am currently awaiting full discovery from the district attorney’s office.”
In the state of New York, penalties for charges related to driving while intoxicated include up to a year in jail, a $1,000 (£790) fine and the suspension of a driver’s licence for at least six months, according to the BBC.
