GTA 5 actors show behind the scenes of ‘Lamar roasts Franklin’ meme IRL remake

The voice actors of Franklin and Lamar from GTA 5 gave us an inside look at just how much work went into making the IRL version of their famous meme with a behind-the-scenes look.

“Lamar roasts Franklin” is one of the most memorable scenes from Grand Theft Auto 5. After a story mission, Lamar takes no mercy on what he calls Fraklin’s “ol’ yee-yee ass haircut.”

Even though GTA 5 and the joke itself came out in 2013, there’s a good chance you’ve seen some version or another of it popping up on your YouTube recommended vids, Twitter feed, or other social media recently, as it’s apparently going through a bit of a renaissance to start off 2021 (just search “Lamar roasts Franklin” on YouTube and you’ll see what we mean).

Why exactly this scene has exploded in popularity recently is anyone’s guess, but it didn’t take long at all for Shawn Fonteno (who plays Franklin) and Gerald ‘Slink’ Johnson (voice of Lamar) to act it out themselves IRL to get in on the trend.

Darth Vader roasting Franklin might be entertaining, but we’d say that the real people who played the characters actually living out the scene is one of the best versions yet. A lot of people seem to agree since the clip was viewed over a million times on the first day of being posted alone.

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The fact that the actors were able to get together with a crew and film the scene is a feat on its own, especially considering current events going on, but it’s also impressive they were able to basically perfectly recreate the scene in just over five takes — down to the every last in-game movement.

We have to give it to Slink and Fonteno here, they both knock it out of the park with their timing and delivery. This isn’t a surprise since they probably went through a few takes making the game, but still, it’s been close to a decade since that happened.

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To really appreciate how much the IRL recreation sticks to the in-game version, just take a look at this comparison video. The two are so spot on, the audio tracks basically synch up at a couple of different points.

While GTA fans might still have a while to wait around for the next installment in the series, at least we have the dynamic duo of Franklin and Lamar working hard to give us content until then.