Keke Palmer didn’t research after becoming a viral meme when she didn’t know who former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney was in an interview.
When she took the Vanity Fair lie detector test in 2019, the “Nope” actress was asked if her character on the TV show “True Jackson” VP was a better vice president than Cheney and was given a picture to look at.
Keke admitted she didn’t recognize the politician and went viral on social media for saying, “I don’t know who this man is. I mean, he could be walking down the street, I wouldn’t know a thing. Sorry to this man.”
The moment spawned the “Sorry to this man” meme, and Keke admitted in a new interview with Vanity Fair that the viral moment didn’t inspire her to read up on Cheney.
“I didn’t even honestly do the research. I left him where he was at. I hate to say that. I really did,” she said. “Everybody was like, ‘It was Dick Cheney!’ And I’m like, ‘Still means nothing.’ The way people were coming up to me, telling me who he was, it seemed like he wasn’t worth me doing the research on.”
Keke also shared how becoming a meme makes her feel seen.
“When those viral moments happen, and people are saying, ‘Oh, my gosh, that’s so me,’ I’m really happy that they are seeing me outside of their perception of what my life is and just seeing me as a normal person, whether it’s somebody that reminds them of their sister, their brother, their friend. It really touches me.”