Karma Is a Bitch

About

Karma Is a Bitch, also known as the Karma Is a Bitch Challenge, is a selfie
video fad in which participants lip sync the line "karma is a bitch" uttered by the character Veronica from the television show Riverdale before cutting to a striking slow-motion transformation shot, often using a costume, hair and makeup change accompanied by a seductive pose while the 2011 hip-hop song "Gucci Gucci" by Kreayshawn plays in the background. The videos, which are made using the Chinese video app Douyin, bear many similarities to the Don't Judge Me Challenge.

Origin

On November 15th, 2017, Season 2 Episode 6 of the show Riverdale was broadcast, in which the character Veronica can be heard uttering the line "karma is a bitch" after hearing about a tragic car accident (shown below).

In January 2018, users on the Chinese video app Douyin, similar to the English language app Musical.ly, began posting videos of themselves lip-syncing the Riverdale line before throwing a scarf in front of their face to initiate a radical transformation.^[1]

Spread

On January 23rd, YouTuber The Jing Productions uploaded a montage of "Karma Is a Bitch" challenge videos (shown below).

The following day, YouTuber Joker Z. uploaded a compilation of "Karma Is a Bitch" videos (shown below). The following day, Redditor GuessImStuckWithThis submitted the Joker Z. video to /r/videos,^[4] where it gained over 66,400 points (77% upvoted) and 4,400 comments in 24 hours. On January 25th, Ebaum's World^[5] posted the video, followed by 9gag^[6] the same day.

On January 26th, the tech news site Mashable^[3] published an article about the meme titled "'Karma's a bitch' challenge is the 'Riverdale' meme we've been waiting for." The same day, the news site Metro^[2] published an article titled "The karma is a bitch challenge is the hot new way to take down your enemies." Also on January 26th, Twitter BuzzFeed reporter Kassy Cho posted a thread highlighting her favorite examples of the video fad (shown below). That day, BuzzFeed^[7] published an article written by Cho titled "China's Latest Meme Is Called 'Karma's A Bitch' And It'll Be Your New Favorite Thing."

Search Interest

External References