The best memes are nonsense and I love ‘karma is a bitch’

The best thing about Vine — which has been dead now for over a year, and yet the wound still feels fresh, as every abysmal, boring, and rude day online rips the scab off anew — was the six-second time limit. The constraint forced an effervescent comedy style that was jarring, nonsensical, and constantly surprising. Nothing needed to make sense, and in fact it was nearly impossible to make it make sense, and all that mattered was timing and panache.

That legacy, thank goodness, lives on with the latest meme out of lip-synching app musical.ly, brought to you by dozens of creative Chinese teenagers.

Called the Karma’s a Bitch Challenge, the joke is both simple to explain and impossible to explain, similar in spirit to classic Vine entries like “back at it again at Krispy Kreme,” “wtf is a chonce,” and “SKITTLES.” Simply put: teens lip-synch to a sound clip from The CW’s Riverdale, a show that is, itself, non-stop delirious nonsense and an absolute joy to watch. The clip is of Veronica Lodge — played by new Hollywood “it girl” Camila Mendes — saying “karma is a bitch,” in response to some news about a horrific car accident. After that, the lip-synchers change their outfits, expressions, or makeup in some dramatic way and the audio cuts to a clip from Kreayshawn’s 2011 viral hit “Gucci Gucci.” It makes no sense at all and why should it? It’s fun to watch. Each entry is approximately 12 seconds of bliss — far more than any of us has been conditioned to expect on the internet on any given day.

The format and its primary reference are a match made in nonsense heaven. The CW’s Riverdale is a TV program so bizarre that a strip-tease set to a cover of the version of “Mad World” popularized by the 2001 cult film Donnie Darko is not even close to the most bizarre thing that has happened this season. It is a meme factory, and, like almost everything in the world aside from abandoned sentient diaries and political pages on Facebook, it is far more fun when you don’t question its logic.

Seriously, stop asking questions! Enjoy your 12 seconds while you can!

The song “Gucci Gucci” is often cited as the origin point of America’s misogynistic obsession with the idea of a “basic bitch,” but that context has no place here. “Karma is a bitch” is not a particularly interesting or kind thing to say, but that context has no place here. Context has no place here at all, and all you really need to enjoy this meme is your body’s natural chemicals. Let them do their thing.