Usher has finally given his thoughts on the 'watch this' meme

Usher inadvertently provided the internet with perhaps one of the most entertaining memes this year - and now the man himself has revealed his thoughts on becoming a viral sensation.

Twitter dropped the first episode of its new series called “Behind the Memes," (a spin-off of its "Behind the Tweets" videos) which takes a look at viral memes and also chats with the creator or source of the trend, and Usher was their inaugural guest.

The Yeah! singer's meme moment originated from his Tiny Desk Concert where he played some of his classic tunes as part of Black Music Month celebrations on the YouTube channel.

Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter

More specifically it was at the beginning of the track 'Confessions Part II', Usher says the lyrics "Watch this," and on this occasion, as he bounced along to the music, he opened his fingers that were over his eyes as he whispered, “Watch this."

Usher's delivery of this line, caused himself and the audience to laugh, as well as the internet too where people got creative with the clip which was a surprise to the singer.

"I was blown away. I was shocked," Usher said in the episode. "I was in Los Angeles somewhere. [People told me], ‘Yo, you know you’re going viral?’ And I’m like, ‘It’s good, right?’ And they were like, ‘No, no it’s good.'"

"I saw more people doing what I had done and it just kept going and going. And I’m like, ‘Wow, this is amazing. This is something special."

Like most viral trends, the 43-year-old noted how he "didn’t plan it" but rather it "just happened," and while he wasn't sure what inspired the move, he did give credit to music legend Prince.

"It could have been Prince,” he said. "Somebody speculated that Prince had done something like this before. I don’t know, but I do know that I felt like that was the right thing to do at that moment."

Given the abundance of memes, this clip created - from the kid acting up, winning at UNO, the stomach struggle of being lactose intolerant - Usher revealed which particular one was his favourite.

"I think it’s pretty funny when they talk about what Jesus said when he turned water to wine," he said as the tweet itself then appeared which read: "Jesus after he took the five loaves and two fish."

Of course, to mark the occasion of Usher's "Behind the Meme" episode, Twitter created a customer emoji to appear when people use the hashtags #Usher and #WatchThis.

Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.