‘Riverdale’ Quote Launches a New Meme Among Chinese Teens

Leave it to Riverdale to be the inspiration for one of the strangest and most creative memes coming out of China.

Chinese teenagers have taken a line from the Riverdale season two episode “Chapter Nineteen: Death Proof” and created the Karma’s a Bitch Challenge. In the challenge meme, teens lip-sync to a clip of Veronica Lodge (Camila Mendes) saying “karma’s a bitch” while looking absolutely as plain as possible. Then Kreayshawn’s “Gucci Gucci” comes on and there’s a quick transition — often a jacket or a blanket being pulled in front of the teen’s face — only to reveal a fierce and dramatic transformation of the previously plain teen. The entire challenge takes about 12 seconds in terms of video time and are being shared on Weibo, though based on some of the transformations there clearly is quite a bit of time that goes into planning them.

Buzzfeed’s Kassy Cho is being credited with discovering the meme late last week and the majority of the ones going viral have been shared from her Twitter account. As for the clip the meme references, it’s near the end of “Chapter Nineteen: Death Proof,” when the Hermione Lodge (Marisol Nichols) receives a phone call that their so-called-friends, the St. Clair’s, have been in a car accident and while everyone survived, Nick suffered serious injuries that will take months to heal. Considering that Nick attempted to sexually assault both Cheryl Blossom (Madelaine Petsch) and Veronica in the episode, we know that the accident probably really wasn’t such an accident — we also know that Nick later claims it was a skiing accident, but that’s not that important for the purposes of the meme — so when the camera pans to Veronica, she smugly responds “karma’s a bitch.” It’s a fierce scene and a fierce moment, making it perfect for a fierce meme.

The meme is wildly popular in China, featuring everything from impressive makeup transformations, hilarious cosplay, and even groups pulling off the challenge. There’s even been at least one response meme from Ireland taking it to the next, hilarious level. We think Veronica would approve.

Read on for some of the best “Karma’s a Bitch Challenge memes.

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Riverdale airs Wednesday at 8/7c on The CW.

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