Justin Timberlake's Super Bowl Halftime Show Selfie Kid — Teen boy in gray hoodie looking at his phone amid a crowd during the Super Bowl halftime show

Justin Timberlake's Super Bowl Halftime Show Selfie Kid

2018event / image macroclassic

Published November 9, 2026

During the Super Bowl LII halftime show on February 4th, 2018, a 13-year-old named Ryan McKenna was filmed glancing at his phone while Justin Timberlake sang inches away, kicking off a Twitter joke format where users paired the shot of the dazed boy with fake images of what he was supposedly looking at. Within hours he was identified as a Massachusetts seventh-grader, dubbed Selfie Kid, and booked on Good Morning America the next morning.

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Overview

The joke format built around Selfie Kid is a two-image pairing. On one side sits the broadcast still of Ryan McKenna staring at his phone while Justin Timberlake belts out "Can't Stop the Feeling" directly over his shoulder, and on the other side is an invented screenshot of what he could plausibly be looking at1. The humor lives in the mismatch between a once-in-a-lifetime celebrity encounter and the teenager's blank, slightly uncomfortable expression2.

Typical entries put a Google search for "Who is Justin Timberlake?" on the phone, or a text thread with a parent asking to be picked up early3. Other captions guessed at group chats, Fortnite notifications, or boredom-scrolling, all playing on the idea that McKenna was the only person on earth not fully engaged with the performance happening six inches from his face1. Mashable and other accounts framed him as a relatable "awkward tween" rather than the butt of the joke, which shaped the tone that carried across most entries3.

Origin & Background

Platform
Live TV (CBS Super Bowl LII broadcast) / Twitter (viral spread)
Date
2018

On February 4th, 2018, Justin Timberlake performed the Pepsi Super Bowl LII halftime show at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis. During the closing song "Can't Stop the Feeling," Timberlake walked off the stage into the standing-room crowd and spent nearly a minute singing next to a young boy who appeared to not know how to react1. At one point the boy raised his phone, seemingly to open the camera and take a selfie with the singer, which gave the format its name3.

Journalist Dave Mizutani identified the boy that same night as seventh-grader Ryan McKenna from Massachusetts, and People later interviewed him about the moment2. The meme format itself did not come from one creator but from a fast wave of Twitter users posting their own mock-up of McKenna's phone screen in the minutes after the shot aired live on CBS1.

How It Spread

The reaction started before Timberlake's set even finished. Mashable's tweet calling McKenna a "cool teen" who was "the best part of the halftime show" picked up over 2,500 retweets, and user @NathanMatisse's line about everyone being "this awkward #SuperBowl tween" circulated alongside it3.

The signature format arrived shortly after, when @JaimeMcCarty posted a mock-up of McKenna typing "Who is Justin Timberlake?" into Google, which drew more than 40,000 retweets and 108,000 likes3. @Galdytron's version imagined McKenna texting his dad "Can you pick me up? I'm scared," and gathered over 18,000 retweets3. Later that night, Good Morning America tweeted the actual selfie McKenna had taken, which drew around 5,900 retweets3.

Uproxx and People both wrote the moment up within hours, and Twitter's own Moments team collected the best jokes into a dedicated page42. McKenna went on Good Morning America the next morning to talk about the encounter, and People later reported that he gained roughly 8,000 Instagram followers off the appearance2.

Timeline

2018-02-04

Justin Timberlake performs the Super Bowl LII halftime show and sings next to Ryan McKenna during "Can't Stop the Feeling"[1].

2018-02-04

Mashable tweets about the "cool teen," and @JaimeMcCarty posts the Google search joke that gathers 40,000+ retweets[3].

2018-02-04

Journalist Dave Mizutani identifies the boy as Massachusetts seventh-grader Ryan McKenna[3].

2018-02-04

Good Morning America tweets the actual selfie McKenna took with Timberlake[3].

2018-02-05

McKenna appears live on Good Morning America and tells People he picked up roughly 8,000 new Instagram followers[2].

2018-02-05

Twitter Moments and Uproxx publish roundups of the Selfie Kid joke format[4][5].

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