About

Brie Larson Singing Nicki Minaj as Lesley Gore refers to a Saturday Night Live clip of actress Brie Larson impersonating 1960s singer Lesley Gore performing Nicki Minaj's part in her collaborative song with Big Sean, "Dance (A$$)." The clip has inspired multiple parodies on YouTube in the 2020s.

Origin

On May 7th, 2016, Brie Larson was a guest star on Saturday Night Live, where she performed in a sketch that featured her singing "Dance (A$$)" as Lesley Gore.^[1] An upload of the clip was posted on May 18th, 2016, by KeepOnRecord and has received over 1.7M views on YouTube as of December 12th, 2023.

Spread

The video began becoming a meme five years after it appeared online. On May 15th, 2021, almost 5 years after the initial upload, KeepOnRecord uploaded a new, 5-minute, looped version of the video that 1.9M views on YouTube in two and a half years (shown below).

Much of the viral spread and usage of the clip can be attributed to Brie Larson's subsequent role of Captain Marvel from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Many popular videos were made across YouTube and TikTok depicting the clip in various scenarios from the MCU. For example, on June 2nd, YouTuber Bryanthology used the clip in a Spider-Man parody, gaining over 1 million views in two and a half years (shown below, left). On May 18th, user Dilflover113 parodied the clip by inserting into a scene in Wandavision, gaining over 969,000 views in a similar time frame (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References