karma police

By Gary Crissman

I was laying awake the other night listening to OK Computer and I was pondering in my melon what this song meant. This is what I think the song means there is this kId he is sitting in class wondering why he cant understand his work so he tells his parents he is flunking because the teacher is talking in math a language he hasn't heard and he keeps rambling on and on and on like a fridge, and he is sitting by a girl with a shaved head and so he trys to use that excuse by saying It mAKeS me FEEl Ill. and she is talking how her party got busted last weekend. he is an undercover cop and he is thinkin this is what u get when u mess with us and she finds out he is a cop and she gets mad and starts following him around like a pig and he knows he is being stalked and he thinks its funny because he's the cop and he laughs at her and her ambitions of stalking. and she does it for so long he considers it part of his day part of himself so she decides to quit and he thought he lost himself in the madness of it all. And he is getting scared and paranoid now and he wants to quit being a cop and busting partys and he can't because he's on contract, still on the payroll, and the other cops are laughing at him because he is so neRVouS and they are saying this is what you get when you mess with us hahahahaha!!!! Then he thought they were saying that because he got fired so he thought he was going to lose himself again, his sanity.

By J Chaffee

This song opens with an order for the karma police to arrest a man. The karma police must be a group of people who make their arrests based on an evaluation of a person's actions, and thus the speaker must make a "charge" against the man he wants arrested. His charge is that "he talks in maths," that he is unintelligible, and of course we always want to rid ourselves of what we don't understand. The next charge is against a girl with a "Hitler hairdo." I am not quite sure what a Hitler hairdo is, but obviously the speaker finds it grounds for arrest by the karma police, presumably because he does not like it and the girl looks different from the norm, and so should be put away. I see the speaker as a sort of "Hitler" himself; a person who wants to shun or get rid of anything he doesn't understand or like. Thus he crashes the girls party, even though he presumbly does not know her or have anything against her besides her hair. The final verse is the speaker's plea for help. He has tried but he cannot get rid of all the things that upset him. He has given all he can but there is still more to do, in his eyes. I see Thom as taking on the persona of the speaker for most of the song, because we all want to hide from what we don't comprehend at times, but at the end he snaps out of it, admiting "For a minute there, I lost myself." The song is a comment on the people who desire what the speaker desired, and a waring to the rest of us not to fall into the temptation to judge quickly, like the karma police and the speaker, before we understand.

By Jacob Churosh

The phrase Karma Police, as some have said before, tends to remind one of the Thought Police in George Orwell's 1984--whoever or whatever the Karma Police are, they are Watching You, and you can't escape them. The "This is what you get" line indicates to me that our karma is inescapable (we will be punished for our offenses), and that the speaker is imagining the revenge that the people who alienated him will receive at the hands of their karma. But in his disgust with other people, he's lost himself.

By T M Bootman

With lyrics like "for a minute there I lost myself" it would appear that Thom is lashing out at the ever demanding public who have elevated him to a status where he is no longer happy. It is clear from the Meeting People Is Easy video that this poor, tormented soul occasionally cracks under the substantial pressure placed on him by us. Ever hungry for more songs, he feels obliged to write even though he sometimes just wants to be left alone.

I personally think that Karma Police is him venting a bit of his frustration, stating to us, his public, that even he is fallable and capable of going off the handle and could we just leave him alone? The answer of course is no. We need him and the other members of Radiohead, but he has no-one besides himself to blame as he's just too bloody good.
By Dole

Ok this sounds retarded.....but it really explains the song first off...i can see thom yorke all over this song....its the BIG FUCK YOU ot FUCK OFF song that radiohead (namely thom) is sending to the music industry, or those exec's who market or "work" their art and those artists who buy into it and perhaps the public as well who buys their output....namely they must feel arrested by contracts, and how others in the industry perceive their music....moody, sad, basically an overhyped college research project of the modren world set to music....they never play award shows because they would hurt the ratings.....the industry is only concerned in the "maths" or sales....the sales make these certain bands who sell out sound like a fridge or just background music for a zombie-like radio top 40 consumer...nothing important, something you notice only because its annoying...sing along, and 3 months later forget about (any american band....this means u...u all eve 6's out there)

The whole "hitler hairdo" girl thing makes no sense....except he could be using an example of a women he looked up to musically doing the same thing and the music exec's moved in and "crashed her party".....so maybe he's referring to michael stipe here and uses the girl reference as an example of a powerful man (the exec's) violating a women's limit of what they will do for money...namely prostitute themselves....in the sense that who ever the artist no matter how much they are their own individual (funny hair cuts aka dyed hair (thom)) the industry always "violates" their artwork....they ultimately lose out....and of course this disturbs thom greatly... "its making me feel ill"

The lines "this is what you get" is very interesting..... its the fuck you part of the song and in it, thom is stressing that during the making of ok computer and perhaps back to the making of the bends.....thom knew their kind of music was not going to be played on pop radio.....and here we are making what "could be" the best album of not only our lives but of this century and we know its gonna flip everyone on their ass....indeed this is what you get when you mess with radiohead.

The next phase of the song is again the back bone of what thom is trying to say about an artist trying to live in a capitalist society...namely a music industry who cares less about substance and more about sales (aka any boy bands, bush, brittany spears, anyone of the many, nameless popish and unoriginal bands out there)...thom is still stressing i've GIVEN musically all i can to combat this crap....and its not enough....i've drained my self, worried, stressed over "the music," not myself or how i dress...and i have pulled out everything internal inside me to do what i can to make sense of all this mess around me....but none-the-less thom comes back up for air and realizes...no matter who we are, no matter how much are music touches people, no matter how much we try to stay out of the norm and remain independent.....we are still on the payroll...a cold and bitter realization of life in this business and maybe thom realizes maybe he's just going along with this whole business machine-like work....make an album, try and sell it, push it out there to the public...in this process...he's losing his soul, his only way of relating to people and the world...namely his control of his music

Then thom (and the music really expresses this point)..... thom snaps out of it, gets pulled out of it and goes wow,"for minute there I lost myself".....i bought into all this industry shit....i tried to act like a rock star...damn was i stupid....phew!...i lost myself....but he's going "i may just regain my outlook on the world and most importantly control of my music"...I'm not a sell out, get away you fuckers!

This is an "intelligent" song...an english major could just write a paper about it....kinda like i did.
By Jared

I could slowly analyze every detail of this song carefully. I'm sure I could find some very interesting things. However, I think this song is quite possible about the current "alternative" music and the current "alternative" age and how Mr. Yorke is fed up with it and realizes how pathetic it really is. That's what I get out of the song... ten years ago when the alternative age first came, it was something great but now it is completely fake. "i've given all I can its not enough ive given all i can but we're still on the payroll"... Thom feels he cannot change this. He tries, but hei s misunderstood for another stupid poser. "phew for a minute there i lost myself"... he almost believed it for a minute but he is happy he does not still. This is the way I think and it may not be how Mr. Yorke thinks. anyway there's my "2 cents".
By mpura@escape.ca

This song is about a guy who basically rats people out. He is a police informant.

The 1st. person he tells the police about is a man who is hepped up on drugs or is drunk and disorderly, or possibly from a mental hospital as said with "he talks in maths" [doesn't make any sense] "he buzzes like a fridge" [rambaling incoherently] "he's like a detunded radio" [slurred speach].

The 2nd person gets arrests is a racest, like a neo-nazi with a shaved head, which disgusts the informant. He has the police crash somthing similar to a KKK rally.

I believe that the lines "this is what you get..." means that the informant is actually getting people back for what they did to him or somthing like that. He is turning in people that he knows and doesn't approve of.

Obviously, once he has turned in all of his enemies, he has done all he can for the police. But he gets paid for his tips, and either thinks that he isn't being paied enough or that he wants more people to turn in so he could get more easy money.

Finally, when he says "phew, for a minute their, I lost my self", he is regreting what he has done and it was out of character for the informant. He fells like he sold out and is glad that it is all over.
By Heather

For me, the first time I heard this I thought it had to be about the afterlife. Obviously, the title Karma Police indicates that it's a spiritual song. Thom alternates between the persona of the helpless and afraid mortal in the verses to the title organisation in the chorus. As he says, "I've given all I can, it's not enough" it represents the fact that as hard as we try, all of us have done something punishable, and this is what the Karma Police are there for. In the chorus, the foreboding and dread is hypontically hammered home as Thom sings, "This is what you get" three times to reinforce the inescapable nature. Naturally, we don't know what it is that "we get" because the whole Karma subject is abstract and mysterious, it involves faith and in this case, fear. This is why Thom sees a girl with a Hitler hairdo- could he share some of the sinful traits of Hitler? In the first two verses, he asks the police to arrest others. Later, he inevitably turns the focus on himself, and realises that he's just as guilty. "We're still on the payroll" means he thinks he's next for punishment, on the list of those who've damaged their karma. As he sings, "I lost myself", he may be remebering the time that he destroyed his karma, pleading with the police that it was just "a minute there". He is told "this is what you get", and as he pleads "for a minute there", he is drowned out by the loud and abrasive siren, as it gradually takes over the guitars and paino for a "solo" and then self-destructs, representing the end of life, song, ordeal, whichever. Karma Police is a beautiful song with the acoustic guitar and gentle style, but in traditional Radiohead fashion its lyrics are very serious and provocative, and the musicality obscures the bleakness. Check out the video if you can, as the man running is Thom's persona in the song. He just can't escape, and the police will eventually burn him. He can run, but he can't hide. The Karma Police see all.
By Joel Cummings

Hey, i'm just 14 years old and i dont know as much about life as all of you, but here's my go at karma police. Expectations. I think the song is about all the expectations society has on people now days. People are expected to finish high school, get a job, get married, move in the the suberbs, buy a mini-van and have 2 kids. Then live happily ever after. But wait. What if we dont want to. WHAT IF WE RESEST THE MOLD SOCIETY HAS CRAFTED!? That wont do. The song is about people persiquiting and accusing others of not living life how society wants. And when others are constants harping for you to change meybe you will have second thoughts, thus "for a minute there, i lost myself." Karma Police is society, and they're arresting us.
By JD

'tis a song about the middle men.....corporate middle men....pushing you around with eerie language that is bearly understood after having been trained to understand it. He buzzes like an alarm, if you will...
By Mike Church

"Karma police arrest this man he talks in maths"

My guess at this is either one of two things. Either (1) the singer is discomforted by the mumblings of a strange and brilliant man, who can only speak in abstract concepts, or (2) the singer is disgusted by the character of a bourgeois man who thinks rationalistically, as if all things can be reduced to numbers.

" he buzzes like a fridge he's like a detuned radio."

In other words, this man, businessman or eccentric genius, doesn't make any sense to the singer.

" Karma police arrest this girl her hitler hairdo is making me feel ill"

It seems to me that the Hitler hairdo represents two things simultaneously. The first is the Yorke's disgust with the existence of hatred in today's supposedly civilized world. "Girl" indicates young, and he's frustrated by the question of why such a young girl, who was supposed to be born in a new age without evil, has turned to hatred. The second is Yorke's dislike for the tendency of some youth toward shock apparel, seen in the 15 nose-rings (ick) and unshaven female body hair (ick to the hundreth power... but now I'm talking in maths... :) ) you see on certain people.

"& we have crashed her party."

I think this is his way of saying to the girl, "get over it. Nazism is dead. We [the Allies] kicked your ass fifty years ago."

"This is what you get (x3) When you mess with us..."

My guess at this is that he's saying that if you go against the natural flow of things, the Karma Police, you end up as much of a grotesque as the Hitler girl or the bourgeois-type man.

"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"

I'm gonna have to go out pretty far to interpret this line, but let me try... I have the feeling that this is about, when the singer sees these two people who disgust him so much, he almost wishes he could die, and he's asking the Karma Police (perhaps deified) to take him off the payroll (out of life and into heaven) but all he's given to these Karma Police he knows hasn't been enough.

"Phew for a minute there I lost myself"
I think this is about his final realization, about a minute after seeing, and falling deep into depressing thought because of, these disgusting people, that there's no reason for him to be worked up over other people's faults and problems, and that he "lost [him]self" when he got all worked up over them.
By Dave McA

Most Radiohead songs have deep moral teaching, however, they are normally quite easy to interpret. Karma Police seems to be the most subtle of these songs- well, on OK Computer anyway. As others have said, the Karma Police are reminiscent of the Thought Police in 1984 by George Orwell, but I think they are more than that. The word Karma mixes religious issues into the song, and also hints at greater magical powers.

Thom also conveys frustration as he can never be good enough to beat the Karma Police with the lines 'I've given all I can but we're still on the payroll'. The fact that he is living off his governments 'payroll' suggests his hopeless dependance on the state which sequentially makes the state all powerful. The state being 'the party' in Goerge Orwell's classic.

Thom then goes on to mimic the Karma Police by stating 'This is what you get when you mess with us' which shows not just his hatred for them, but also his piercing fear as he has realised his impending doom- his Karma.

As the distorted guitar stoops lower and lower to close the song, Thom Yorke seems to have given up fighting and has surrendered himself to the Karma Police.
By Daf n Mark

Ever get the feeling that all the interpretations of radiohead songs you read are wrong? What follows is correct interpretation of Karma Police.

Karma Police is about the 80's action series "The A-Team", featuring the acting talents of such stars as Mr T. The "A-Team" reap revenge, or Karma, on the U.S. government while pursued by the military POLICE!!! What an uncanny similarity!

Thom believes he was Mr T in a former life! If you rearrange the letters of "Karma Police" and add a few and take some away you do, in fact, end up with "The A-Team"! Amazing!!

If you have a problem, and no one else can help, maybe you should contact...

...The Karma Police (see, it all fits!)
By Ender

This song, like lots of other radiohead songs, doesn't have a specific time or setting. The music sets the mood and fills in what words can't.

It is set in a society (possibly future) where things like freedom of expression and free speech aren't allowed. It is a very sarcastic song.

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

Here the man does not sing the party line, and doesn't conform with the accepted code of behaviour. The karma police, people commishened to enforce this code of behaviour, are instructed to arrest him.

The verse about the hitler hairdo is about not being allowed to dress a certain way\wear your hair a certain way etc.

The "this is what you get..." etc lines are about the authoritative power of these people, this establishment. You can't stop them. They are in a position to harm you and answer to no one. And they try to make you feel that it's your fault etc.

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

in a soicety that stamps out individuality, thom feels he has lost his idenity. Who doesn't feel like that sometimes?
By Bug

Karma police never let you merge into traffic; and they blow by you in the left lane and honk only for you to pull up alongside them when the light is red anyway. Karma police don't like when you sit cross-legged or slouched in your chair in a meeting, even when you've just made their asses look brilliant. Karma police don't like to see anyone smiling when they are wallowing in another bad day; they'll try to drag you down with them. Karma police won't let you use their bathroom when you really have to go. Karma police hold onto their comfort and routine as if it's treasure. Karma police get back TEN-FOLD what they send out into the universe; and the SECOND joke is on them because none of it has to stick to my bones...
By H

I think this song is about America's youth today. Society doesn't like people that are different. "karma police arrest this girl, her hitler hairdoo is making me feel ill" this shows fashion is controlled by trends and if you're not in the trend you get mocked and made fun of. If you test the limits you'll be rejected...."this is what you'll get when you mess with us"
By Eddy

Radiohead is a band that truly explores some of the more complex issues in life. However, Karma Police is not an example of this. In Karma Police, Thom is simply joking around. He has admitted in interviews that the song is really just a joke. He's just verbally drifiting off about some abstract fantasy world in which people are arrested for how they make you feel- the person who has an annoying voice, the girl with a hairdo that makes you cringe are all arrested. It's just Thom tring to get his sense of humor into his music. Thom is not some dark poet who cannot laugh at himself and life. He is quite the opposite and this song is a great example of that.
By Lola

This is the one Radiohead song whose meaning I am absolutely clear on. Thom has said it himself, the line "buzzes like a fridge" refers to the stale rock format. The song is about music(hehe)...the industry, the comercialism in the music world, the attention to immage..."her hitler haircut..."..and how they're still part of the industry"...on the payroll"...although our sweety Thom.."has given it all he can"....it just ain't enough yo! YOu can't mess with Radiohead...you will get something undeniably genius...dat's all! peace!
By Mind

Karma-the spiritual force that permeates the universe whose purpose is to give to you what you have put in. the essence of the "what goes around comes around" rule. the karma police are the enforcers of this rule. Apparently the "man who talks in maths" (a business man perhaps, always speaking in terms of profit, statistics..etc.)and the "girl with the hitler hairdo"(hitler conotations are obvious...but it is put with hairdo, to suggest the evil is only her seeming appearence) are in need of some kind of karma enforcement.

the speaker was too quick to point his finger...

he (the speaker) turns to himself and his society.."we have crashed her party" (judged on false premises and ruined her fun).. "we're still on the payroll" (we condemn the business-men that we all work for in a capitalist country).."This is what you get when you mess with us"..the speaker(s) have been wrongly interpreting the concept of karma for personnal revenge instead of a fair balence. The song ends with, "for a minute there I lost myself" the speaker attempts to reconnect with the popular mainstream alternative culture, defending he isn't as egotistical as he has seemed. The whole idea that this individual is calling for the "karma police" tells us that he doesn't understand the concept.
By Lisa

I tend to agree with Jacob Churosh's interpretation of "Karma Police". I, too, see some Orwellian threads here. In 1984, all one had to do was simply report another to the thought police, out of revenge or uber-patriotism. This song, however, does have a futuristic,existential vibe to it as well. "Phew, for a minute there I lost myself" is symbolic of an awareness that one gets when swooping up into the knowledge of "being" then sinking back into an ever growing bureaucratic society that's dependent on technology--computers, etc. I may, though, be reading way too heavily into this. I do see kafkan themes in a lot of Radiohead's lyrics. Thom Yorke reminds me of a modern day Kafka, his voice containing such tranquil urgency and alienation. Well, enough pseudo-literary criticism.