Whatever Happened To Sweet Brown?

Kimberly Wilkins — better known to the world as Sweet Brown — was in the right place at the right time to become an internet sensation. When her apartment complex caught fire back in 2012, Sweet Brown theatrically recollected the chain of the events that followed in an interview with KFOR-TV, and in the process birthed her now famous line: "Ain't nobody got time for that!" It was enough to make her viral, garnering millions and millions of views on YouTube.

Surprisingly, the Oklahoma City resident never saw it coming. I didn't think it was gon' blow up like this, just by my character, how I look and my catchphrase," she said in a conversation with KAMR-TV."I didn't think people was gon' take it a far like that." Having that many people watching you is life-changing, and Sweet Brown rode the wave while it lasted. More than a decade has gone by since she became famous. What changed in her life? Keep scrolling to find out.

Business Insider reported that Sweet Brown's journey to fame all started in 2012, when "The Bob Rivers Show" took her now-infamous news clip and turned it into a song called "I Got Bronchitis." Not only was the show using her own catchphrases without her prior knowledge, they also sampled her clips, reusing both her voice and her likeness.

Sweet Brown filed a lawsuit, claiming "The Bob Rivers Show" was making a profit from her despite her never giving consent for the clip to be used — even though the radio station claimed that she had. Brown was looking for $15 million in damages, but even from the outset, her claims against Apple, at least, were doubtful. Since Apple removed the song immediately after the complaint was filed, they were protected by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, and that just left the radio show itself.

Six months after news of the lawsuit broke, NewsOK reported that the charges were dismissed. At the time, they said that it was done without prejudice — which meant the suit could be refiled — because Brown failed to provide documents to the court when asked. There are no other details on the contents of the requested documents, but the dismissal came after her lawyers removed themselves from the case and left her and her co-complainant, Sparkell Adams, to fend for themselves.

Despite the hiccups with the lawsuit, Sweet Brown made the most of her popularity after she went viral by starring in a series of local television commercials. Among the things that she did find time for were video advertisements for an attorney named Brian Loncar; getting her toothache fixed by Shortline Dental; and pitching in on an advertisement for 18002SellHomes.

They were all small, local commercials, but Sweet Brown's popularity as an internet sensation clearly had some impact: the now-deleted original commercial for 18002SellHomes gained more than half a million views since it was posted to YouTube on May 12, 2012; she helped Shortline Dental amass more than 8 million views since their commercial was posted on February 6, 2013; and even though her commercial for the attorney — posted February 27, 2013 — lags with only 90,000 views as of this writing, that's still not too shabby for a local commercial. Cleary, people got time for that!

In January 2016, Sweet Brown got behind the wheel of a Lamborghini Gallardo at a Texan car dealership, and going by the hundreds of thousands of YouTube viewers glued to the screen, people had time for that, too.

On October 9, 2012, Sweet Brown got the chance to redeem herself, as it were, when she appeared on an episode of Comedy Central's "Tosh.0." She was the feature of the Season 4 Web Redemption segment, during which she passed along what she'd learned from her claim to fame: fire safety. Sweet Brown first extinguished flames on a burning Daniel Tosh, then got surrounded by a bunch of firemen in the nude, before having an in-depth interview about her background and growing popularity at the time.

For a segment that was called "Sweet Brown's Urban Fire Safety Tips, she was dressed in a pretty convincing superhero costume. Sweet Brown had one mission: putting an end to a whole series of fire hazards because, of course, "Ain't nobody got time for that."

She reenacted her viral line at the end of every interception as she stopped kids who were wasting water out of a fire hydrant, put out a fire as two homeless people were warming themselves, poured a bucket of water on a public smoker and took things a bit too far by interrupting two gamers. 

There's not too many people who can say that they've been played by someone as famous as Queen Latifah, and that's exactly what happened to Sweet Brown — thanks to Jimmy Kimmel. In 2014, Kimmel managed to assemble a massively impressive cast of actors to present their take on what would happen if some of the biggest viral videos got turned into serious motion pictures. For her part, Sweet Brown (Queen Latifah) counseled a young Barack Obama to run for president, and when asked why, she declined to answer and said, of course, "Ain't nobody got time for that." The real-life Sweet Brown was also an enthusiastic Obama supporter. Ahead of the 2012 general elections, she shared that she'd be casting a vote in favor of the former POTUS in an interview with Blog Talk Radio.

On "Jimmy Kimmel Live!," she showed up to interrupt a Matt Damon sketch with her famous line, adding fuel to a longstanding Damon-Kimmel rivalry. It was a year after Damon had taken over Kimmel's show, and no late-night host worth his salt forgets something like that.

In addition to the star-studded acts, Sweet Brown also got a mention by none other than Beyoncé. When Extra was interviewing the pop star and asked about the power outage that followed her Super Bowl halftime show, the response was a viral video-inspired, "Lord Jesus, it's a fire!" (via 97.9 The Box).

In addition to making appearances on some small-time local television commercials, Sweet Brown also did some work as an official celebrity spokesperson, albeit briefly. Business Insider reported that she was hired by WePay, a small startup company that made her their spokesperson in February 2013. According to the publication, the company aimed to compete with giants like PayPal, and used Sweet Brown's catchphrase to try to emphasize just how much faster their service was compared to their competitors.

The viral video sensation was reportedly being formally represented by Sparkell Adams, who was also involved in her lawsuit against Apple. Unfortunately for her, her career as a company spokesperson seemed to be short-lived, as there were no more mentions of any more similar work in the years that followed. Nevertheless, Sweet Brown, who formerly worked in a daycare with a relative until she became famous, found other ways to capitalize on her fame.

Fame definitely has its perks, and for Sweet Brown, that's included an IMDb page with credits for appearances on TV shows, such as the miniseries "When Life Gives You Lemons." While she was in demand for simply being herself after stepping into the limelight, Brown's biggest credit is in Tyler Perry's "A Madea Christmas" — as herself.

When she spoke with the Grio about her experience with the director in 2013, it was a full year after the video that made her into a viral sensation. Asked about what it was like to get a debut on the big screen, Brown had nothing but good things to say about Perry. "Tyler is so awesome," she told reporter Chris Witherspoon. "He's just very awesome. I would love to work with him again. He just makes you feel at home."

They also talked a bit about a planned reality television show, which was going to be called "The Sweet Browns." At the time, the show was reportedly already in production, and she had also gotten a role in what was described as a female version of "The Hangover." Since the May 2014 interview, there's been no word on Sweet Brown's role in either project. It's safe to say that they fell by the wayside.

Like her film career, Sweet Brown's foray into merchandising foodstuffs seems to have fallen by the wayside, too. In 2013, she created the company Sweet Brown Foods LLC, and started a now-defunct Facebook page to promote what was going to be the Sweet Brown's Lord Jesus It's a Fire BBQ

The last post was in July 2013, though, and with only a handful of likes and a link to a web page that also no longer exists, it seems as though this was another business opportunity that was extinguished quickly. A glance at the page reveals there were only a few posts spanning several days, and the few likes they garnered seemed to indicate that people weren't as ready to jump on the BBQ sauce bandwagon as she might have hoped.

When Brown spoke with KAMR-TV in Amarillo, Texas, she had a whole host of projects that she was working on in addition to her BBQ sauce. She also pitched a clothing line, as well as an organization dedicated to fighting obesity, bullying, anxiety, postpartum depression, and everything else that people just didn't have time for. According to the interview, her sauce was due to hit shelves at Walmart and Kroger, and while there's little sign of it as of this writing, her intentions were pure. "I'm trying to use it for good," she said. "I'm not trying to do something crazy, I'm trying to put something positive out there."

In January 2013, former Black Eyed Peas rapper will.i.am released "#willpower," a 15-track album featuring star collaborators like Justin Bieber, Miley Cyrus, and Chris Brown. Before the album's release, Sweet Brown, who'd been trending for the better part of 2012, revealed that she'd worked with the "Scream & Shout" rapper. "Me and my son, we did a video a video with will.i.am.It's a new song that's coming out," she disclosed to Hot 97. "We did, like, a little special appearance of me reenacting of what I did on television."

Sweet Brown added that the rapper had reached out to her agent to set the collaboration up. The resulting encounter, she said, was pleasant and surreal, since she'd watched will.i.am on television one too many times."When I seen him in person, I'm like 'Wow!' I mean, he's [an] ordinary guy just like us, you know? And he's cool. He's very cool. I loved working with him," she shared. At the time of writing, Sweet Brown's project with will.i.am is yet to see the light of day.

In 2022, Sweet Brown's original interview turned a decade old. While a lot of time has passed, the phrase clearly still lives in the hearts of many internet users and applies to a ton of real-life scenarios."I really hope it doesn't snow this winter, cause ain't nobody got time for all that," one December 2023 tweet read, while another simply recounted Sweet Brown's tagline. "If you can love me out loud, and publicly, we ain't gon work...nobody got time for that," a different X (formerly Twitter) user wrote on 24, December 2023.

It's clear that there's still some love out there for Sweet Brown, given her numbers on YouTube. In her interview with KAMR-TV, she said that her favorite version of the video was the Autotune Remix, and it seems to be the internet's favorite version, too, having garnered 70 million views as of January 2024. Many autotune remixes have cropped up since, and each has commanded a viewership of between 60,000 to 23 million.

While most of her ambitious projects sadly fell through, Sweet Brown is still on X (formerly Twitter), albeit dormantly. At the time of writing, her final post on the social media platform — about hacking — dates back to December 2016. On her profile, there is still contact information for anyone who is interested in booking her for an appearance, but given the lack of activity, it's difficult to tell just what's going on in Sweet Brown's world these days. Her Instagram handle with a following in the neighborhood of 16,000 remains private.

Although much of her life changed after finding fame, it's possible Sweet Brown could still be the girl next door after all. According to a December 2012 interview with HOT 97, she never moved out of the place that made her a household name. "I'm still in the same apartment...same old Sweet," she told the radio station."It ain't gon' change."