The Woman in Me | Did The Simpsons predict a portion of Britney Spears’ memoir about Justin Timberlake?

The Simpsons seem to have a knack for predicting the future, be it how we consume media through to their claims there would be a President Trump, right down to the frightening ascent down an escalator at Trump Towers years before anyone considered him a political entity. The release of Britney Spears’ bombshell memoir, ‘The Woman In Me,’ and the litany of comments about her relationship with Justin Timberlake, was a joke in an episode of The Simpsons actually a cheeky wink at JT’s demeanour during the height of N*SYNC?

The episode in question in ‘New Kids on the Blecch,’ the fourteenth episode of the twelfth season of the long-running animated comedy, when Bart and his schoolyard friends form a boy band with the ulterior motive of recruiting younger people into the navy. N*SYNC were the guest stars of the show, portraying themselves and delivering the Springfield boyband with a gift basket.

Justin Timberlake’s character for the most part was portrayed as throwing a chaka (surf up/hang loose) hand symbol and basically saying ‘word’ for most of his dialogue. It felt just like a throwaway joke, but a portion of Britney Spears’ book, ‘The Woman in Me,’ might add a little more strength to the joke being a knowing wink to the entertainment industry.

Spears recalled a time that “[Justin's] band *NSYNC was what people back then called 'so pimp.' They were white boys, but they loved hip-hop. To me, that's what separated them from the Backstreet Boys, who seemed very conscious to position themselves as a white group."

“One day, [Justin] and I were in New York, going to parts of town that I'd never been to before. "Walking our way was a guy wearing a huge blinged-out medallion. He was flanked by two giant security guards. [Justin] got all excited and said so loud, 'Oh yeah. Fo' shizz. Fo' shizz. Ginuwine what’s up homie?’"

"After Ginuwine walked away, Felicia did an impression of [Justin], 'Oh yeah. Fo' shizz. Fo' shizz. Ginuwine…' [Justin] wasn't even embarrassed. He just took it and looked at her like, 'F**k you.'"

Could that repeated piece of dialogue therefore be a shot at Justin Timberlake’s apparent attempt behind the scenes to try and further the idea that he was, in his mind, more of a rap talent that the pop star many came to regard Timberlake and N*SYNC as? It does seem odd that of all the dialogue The Simpsons used from Timberlake’s appearance, his uttering ‘word’ was used one too many times for it not to be of some significance.