Source: RB/Bauer-Griffin / Getty
Twitter’s ready to get behind some of the site’s most viral moments.
The social media company has launched the “Behind The Memes” content series so you can see the origin of some of your favorite jokes and the stories behind them.
First up in the new series is Usher, who racked up retweets and views when he took his talents to NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert and proved why he’s the King of R&B while he ran through stripped-down versions of his hits like “Superstar,” “You Make Me Wanna…,” and the 2001 hit “U Don’t Have to Call” during the performance.
His whispering of “watch this” before launching into “Confessions Part II” became a clip as people ran with the phrase to create their own meaning behind it, and Usher reveals how he felt when he found out it went viral.
“I was blown away. I was shocked. I was in Los Angeles somewhere. [People told me], ‘Yo, you know you’re going viral?’ And I’m like, ‘It’s good, right?’ And they were like, ‘No, no it’s good,’” Usher said while laughing. “I saw more people doing what I had done, and it just kept going and going. And I’m like, ‘Wow, this is amazing. This is something special.’”
The 43-year-old then admits that the adlib wasn’t planned, calling it a spur-of-the-moment thing before referencing The Purple One, Prince.
“I don’t know where the inspiration sometimes comes from. It could have been anything. It could have been Prince,” he said. “Somebody speculated that Prince had done something like this before. I don’t know, but I do know that I felt like that was the right thing to do at that moment.”
When asked which of the memes was his favorite, he says it was one of the many referencing the miracles of Jesus.
Check out some of our favorite memes from the moment below:
