I read the best story on Dlisted (original source uproxx) yesterday. You remember Ashton Kutcher’s Punk’d? And one of the best episodes was when Ashton played Justin Timberlake? JT came home to find government employees taking over his home because he hadn’t paid his taxes. He started crying. He sat on a stoop and started crying.
It was the best. It was not his best moment. Afterwards he claimed he was stoned and paranoid. OK.
So Dax Shepard was one of the actors involved in that roll. And he recently gave an interview explaining how all that went down. Shepard has a temper and, at the time, was prone to getting into fights. Ashton warned him that he would have to check that in this job. But…what happens when a Boy Bander wants to go?
“As Ashton and I became friends, he said, ‘You know, you can’t, if someone gets physical with you, you’re just going to have to take it, which weirdly enough … definitely the most famous bit on the show in all the years was the Punk’ing of Justin Timberlake. What made it so viral, I guess, was that he had cried at one point in it.
And at the end of that bit, when Ashton comes out [and says], ‘You’re on Punk’d’ blah blah blah, and everyone is celebrating … the bit is over, the cameras are off, and [Timberlake] keeps saying, ‘Yeah, man. I was about to f*cking punch you. And I was like, “Hmm mmm, alright.’
‘Dude, I was for real man, I was about to f**king punch you out,’ [Timberlake continued].
And I’m like, OK, that’s number two. I’m thinking how many times can I hear this dude in his golf outfit — he was wearing a golf outfit — tell me he can punch me out before I’m just not going to be able to handle it?
And God Bless Ashton. He goes, ‘When were you going to punch him? Before or after you were crying?’
I love that so much I read it twice. And I almost liked Ashton Kutcher by the end of it.
But doesn’t that remind you of another Justin? Another little prick who fronts like he’s all big and bad when he’s safe and surrounded by his bodyguards and his money?
Exactly. Bieber. In that moment, in 2003, Justin Timberlake skulked around like a Bieber.
The year after? Just a few months later? In 2004? He pulled Janet Jackson’s chest flap off at the Super Bowl, then tucked his dick away and let her eat all the sh-t for it. That’s who he was …then. He was That Guy.
Still?
Well, if you think he changed, maybe you think Bieber can change.
I’ll remind you though that just two years ago, and a full 9 years after he tried to throw his dick around at Dax Shephard, JT and Shriners Hospitals for Children (a children’s charity!) broke up because, as the tournament chairman said at the time:
“Justin's a wonderful person. But we tried everything we could to get him more involved with our kids and the hospitals. But it seemed that when the TV cameras weren't on, he disappeared."
