Justin Timberlake Dressed Up Like Beyoncé to Convince Her to Do 2008 SNL Sketch

Justin Timberlake says that, in order to convince Beyoncé to participate in a now-legendary 2008 sketch on Saturday Night Live, he had to dress up like the superstar, leotard and all.

The sketch, which aired on the Nov. 18, 2008, episode hosted by Paul Rudd, depicted three “backup dancers,” played by Timberlake and SNL cast members Andy Samberg and Bobby Moynihan.

In the bit, Rudd played the director of Beyoncé’s “Single Ladies” music video, telling her he “hand-picked” the backup dancers, whom she hadn’t yet met.

“Oh look, don’t worry about the other dancers, B-Town,” Rudd says in the sketch. “These guys are pros.”

Timberlake, Samberg and Moynihan then make their entrance, each clad in a black leotard with tights and high heels.

“Hiiii, we’re the dancers,” they say, before the music is queued up and the routine begins.

As the song starts, Beyoncé begins her now-iconic dance, while the three men try to keep up.

Eventually, it comes to light that the men are Rudd’s stepsons, with his character saying, “My wife said I need to spend more time with them.”

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Timberlake, who has hosted SNL five times, told the story of how the sketch came to be in Questlove’s new documentary Ladies & Gentlemen… 50 Years of SNL Music, which premiered on NBC on Jan. 27 and is streaming now on Peacock.

According to Timberlake, it was Moynihan who had the idea for the sketch, which would take place while Rudd hosted and Beyoncé served as musical guest.

Timberlake had no plans to appear in the episode, until friend Samberg sent him a text, asking if he’d participate.

“He said Bobby Moynihan has this great idea for a sketch about you, me and him being Beyoncé’s background dancers that never made the cut,” Timberlake recounts in the documentary. “I was like ‘Full leotard’? And he’s like, ‘Yeah.’ I was like, ‘This is too funny. We have to do this.’ “

But Beyoncé herself wasn’t keen on the idea.

“She was very polite about it, but she was very hesitant. And when I say hesitant, I mean like, she was not having it,” Timberlake says. “I’m like: Does she know how funny this is gonna be? How beloved this whole moment will be?”

So, in a bid to convince her, Timberlake dressed up in the costume he and the others would be wearing.

“I put the leotard and the heels and the hose on and everything, and put a robe on,” he says. “I walked and knocked on her door, I threw the robe down and put my hands on my hips and she was like, ‘No you didn’t!’ ”

Speaking to David Spade and Dana Carvey on their Fly in the Wall podcast in 2024, Samberg said they encouraged Timberlake to be the one to ask her because “he’s very famous [and] she’s very famous so that would go better. And also it’s him being like, ‘I’m going to be in a leotard, we’re celebrating you.’ But she was delightful. She is such a sweet-hearted person, in my limited interaction with her. But that one was fun because we were like, there’s no way people are going to be mad at this.”

The rest, as they say, is history, with the sketch going on to delight audiences and become one of the most well-known to feature a musical guest.

Ladies & Gentlemen… 50 Years of SNL Music is available now on Peacock.