"Karma Police"

Karma police, arrest this man He talks in myths He buzzes like a fridge He's like a detuned radio

Karma police, arrest this girl Her Hitler hairdo is Making me feel ill And we have crashed her party

This is what you get This is what you get This is what you get when you mess with us

Karma police I've given all I can It's not enough I've given all I can But we're still on the payroll

This is what you get This is what you get This is what you get when you mess with us

And for a minute there, I lost myself, I lost myself Phew, for a minute there, I lost myself, I lost myself

For a minute there, I lost myself, I lost myself Phew, for a minute there, I lost myself, I lost myself

This song is about fate and how it will always catch up with you. The theme of the song is portrayed very well in the video where a man is chased by a car which is then set on fire by the man. (Thanks, Craig - Blairgowrie, Scotland) : "Karma is important. The idea that something like karma exists makes me happy. It makes me smile. Karma Police is dedicated to everyone who works for a big firm. It's a song against bosses." (Thanks, Bertrand - Paris, France) While shooting the video, Yorke almost died of carbon monoxide poisoning from the car he was sitting in. (thanks, rob - Newport Beach, CA) Ed O'Brien, who supplied the closing wall of feedback said in an interview in Humo magazine: "When someone in the band behaved like an asshole, one of the others always said: 'The Karma Police is gonna get you.' I suppose it's about how your destiny depends on your deeds in a previous life, but you have to trust on something."

I think that this song and OK Computer in general allude to George Orwell's '1984'. The Karma Police would equal Oceania's thought police. Then there is the fitter, happier song on the CD which is influenced by some paragraph in 1984 where the party says Oceania's citizens are fitter, stronger, healthier etc.

I think karma is better understood as a general concept of "what goes around comes around." We are all one. Hurting other people is like hurting yourself. Nobody is above this. If you put negativity into society, other people probably are too, so expect some of it to come right back at you. If you are a nice respectful person, you'll probably have a nice group of friends to keep a buffer from all the shit in the world. But hey, I might be wrong.

I think the lyrics are specially directed to the men and women with a lot of power: the government people. The government "talk in Math͛s" (statistics), and by radio waves they keep the buzzing sound over and over, leaving us all freezed so we don't make a movement against them. And when we fight for our rights they throw over us the look like we're "crashing their party". They do that because they think they are the owners of all. Even if there's not a evident material force to make them pay what they're doing wrong, there's Karma for the good of all the subordinates which eventually will come material. Even we aren't free from going wrong and "for a minute there" we "lost" ourselves.

In my opinion this is the best song ever, it͛s about how everything comes around goes around, and that the karma police will get all of the people who upset you. It makes you think about how he can be mean now, but the karma police will get him later. And I think the "for a minute I lost myself" is when he realizes that he͛s being mean and has to stop.

It seems to me like the song is intentionally self-defeating in order to exaggerate the criticisms people make of others to the extent that they seem ridiculous. The first stanza demonstrates complaints that people have in reference to others. The second stanza then demonstrates how people are unwilling to accept blame for their own actions. it seems to suggest that despite his actions, society holds him down. Then, at the end of the song he realizes how easy it is for a person to get caught up in himself and realizes that he has been wrong in criticizing others so harshly.

They are mad at the guy who speaks in math͛s 'cause they are outsiders and they are mad at the woman 'cause she follows trends (Hitler hairdo) They want Karma to catch up with them and they hold angry feelings for them, but this in turn brings karma back to themselves cause they're holding grudges. "I've given all I can, it's not enough..." He realized this too late when he said "for a minute there I lost myself" To me the song seems to illustrate how Karma comes back to us all, even for those short moments when we lose our cool.

Have you seen the video for this one? It definitely speaks of karma. An unseen driver is chasing a pedestrian down a dark road. Just when it seems the car will overtake the man, he tosses a match into the car's own leaking fuel and kills his pursuer.

This song is examining the "white man's burden" of the exploration of the new world, and how it applies today - how people put their own concerns over everyone else's, and feel utterly justified in the most ignorant of presumptions. The speaker is acting as god through an internal monologue, and "doing all he can" by condemning those around him because he can't understand them ("talks in math͛s") or misinterprets them ("Hitler hairdo"). The end is ambiguous - either the speaker started paying so much attention to other people that they started to feel crowded out, or maybe they're clinging to their identity and are startled by the fact that they were starting to be tolerant and see things through other peoples' eyes.

Karma is supposed to be a sort of payback for your actions.. Maybe this is a song about the "what goes around comes around" saying. Except, there are no solid rules for karma, and you will be punished if the rest of society doesn't agree with you.

Yes, a lot of lyrics and phrases are inspired by Orwell's 1984. But that doesn't tell the whole story here. The concept of 'karma police' implies that the governing of karmic justice is in some way enforced, rather than a vague concept of retribution. The theme of the song isn't anger, it's the age old 'what comes around, goes around'. The lyric 'we're still on the payroll', for me, seems to imply the actual target of the karmic come-uppance is the singer himself. Possibly relating to the idea that he's giving of himself as much as he can in order to balance out the millions upon millions of pounds he's solicited from an unsuspecting public, incapable of defending themselves from his seeming god-given musical abilities. Or maybe that's stretching the analogy to far. Also, the idea of 'I've given all I can' being a suggestion of attempting to 'bribe' the karma police appeals to me.

"The concept of 'karma police' implies that the governing of karmic justice is in some way enforced, rather than a vague concept of retribution." BUT, I think this was meant to be ironic, that somehow the Karma Police are a figment of Thom's imagination, or, even further, the personification of Thom's own sense of right and wrong/his conscience/his sense of guilt. C'mon, there is no police force out there enforcing moral right and wrong, but there is a little voice in side (most of) us that keeps us from doing bad things and punishes us by making us feel bad for doing things we know are wrong. Also, someone else mentioned that Thom, in an interview, said modern "buzzes like a fridge" and that alternative radio station in the US (and their music) caters to the sponsors rather than the listeners. I heard this too and I think Thom thinks that this is a serious injustice, as it is all about $$$, not expression and making music for the listeners as it should be... So, put these two together... I think this song is about Radiohead coming into mainstream popularity and joining the ranks of other 'alternative' pop stars..."we have crashed their party". Thom believes the Karma police should get these other 'alternative' pop stars (people who buzz like a fridge, as well as the style-Nazis with 'Hitler hairdo's, which also make up a huge part of the music/recording industry.) So, he's attacking materialism, pretty much. Ironically, though, like I said above, there is no Karma police to arrest these people. The Karma Police are only in Thom's head, kind of like a conscience, keeping him from becoming like the other pop stars.... Answering to his karma Police, Thom says "I͛ve given all I can" not to turn into these materialistic pop stars...but..."it͛s not enough"...He admits that he's still on the payroll and not really pure of exactly what he is condemning. And..."For a minute there, I lost myself"...I think is when Thom realizes that the karma Police are all in his head and that although he doesn͛t like these people, he's just being really judgmental and somewhat psycho...... Just my interpretation....The great thing about Radiohead's lyrics is that they are vague enough to have million equally valid interpretations and that they make you think....

OK Computer is like waking up early on a Sunday morning. The smell of not-quite-dusk in the air, you wipe the morning from your eyes, start the car, and turn the radio up. You and your machine hit the street, and it's too fucking early to think about anything, you just know that you've got to start south, because even though she doesn't know it, she's waiting for you. The sky, the road, your head, it's all a hazy grey as the sun takes its time. Wouldn't it be nice if you could drive so fast that the sun never came up? And as you glide by, the hills remind you of the night before, the shit you pulled, and it almost makes you sick. This is gonna be a long drive. Thank God.