Refinery29: The Gag Is, 2020 Isn’t Ready For Keke Palmer
October 4, 2018
She was in the C-suite on Nickelodeon, and now she’s saying good morning to America every day. Keke Palmer isn’t 2019’s breakout star. She’s the new decade’s next powerhouse.
Keke Palmer knew she was being set up when a photo of former vice president Dick Cheney was placed in front of her during a lie detector test for Vanity Fair. But she had no idea her reaction would go viral.
“I knew I was getting tricked. I’m like, I don’t know who that is,” she says. “Even if they had the name next to the photo I would’ve been like, Who the hell?”
Palmer’s reaction spread across the internet faster than a Kardashian Christmas photo. She unknowingly gifted us with the perfect response for every possible situation, from political to personal to pop cultural. Before she knew it, her face — and now infamous phrase — was everywhere. And while seeing herself on screens, both small and large, isn’t foreign to the 26-year-old from Robbins, IL, it catapulted her to a whole new level of stardom.