About

Lord Have Mercy I'm Bout To Bust is a catchphrase taken from a viral video of actor Leslie Jordan saying, "Lord have mercy I'm about to bust" in reference to wanting to reveal an upcoming project he's working on. The video was posted to Instagram in March 2020 and went viral that year as an out-of-context reaction clip and TikTok sound based on the double-entendre of "bust" (slang for "ejaculate"). The meme saw an increase in interest in October 2022 when it was announced that Jordan died.

Origin

On March 4th, 2020, actor Leslie Jordan, known best for his role in Will & Grace, posted a video to Instagram^[1] (@thelesliejordan) where he says, "Lord have mercy I'm about to bust," then goes on to say how he wants to tell his followers about an upcoming project he's been hired for but can't because he doesn't want to get in trouble, revealing that he previously got in trouble for announcing the return of Will & Grace when he wasn't supposed to. The video gained over 449,000 views in two years.

On May 16th, a clip of Jordan saying the opening phrase was uploaded to YouTube^[2] without context, garnering over 4.3 million views in two years (shown below).

Spread

The clip spread over the course of 2020 as a reaction video and original sound on TikTok. On June 15th, 2020, TikToker^[3] @vlonekid2 posted the clip, garnering over 600,000 views in two years. The video's original sound inspired over 2,400 videos, including lip-dub skits (notable examples shown below). On December 8th, comedian Kurtis Connor commented on an IGN tweet^[4] about Spider-Man: No Way Home, "lord have mercy I’m bout to bust," garnering over 16,000 likes in two years.

The clip remained the most prevalent on TikTok over the following years, inspiring fancam edits and remixes using it. On July 22nd, 2021, TikToker^[5] @aepotah posted a Harry Potter fancam edit of Daniel Radcliffe using the clip, garnering over 216,000 views in a year (shown below).

Leslie Jordan's Death

On October 24th, 2022, it was reported that Leslie Jordan died in a car crash at age 67.^[6] Following the news, the meme saw an increase in search interest and use as people remembered Jordan online (examples shown below, left and right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References