I dont get what the name of the song has to do with the song........

I think that everyone has pretty much covered what I want to say in one way or another, but the way I think of this song is how powerful you feel when you judge others against yourself, but then you realize that by judging others and not yourself, that you are never going to be any better or more powerful than them.

For some reason I think this song is about Religion. "Karma Police" is the all-righteus God, and this self-righteus, self-important, virtuous person is making all those ridiculous claims against innocent people to gain his/her good karma. And how he/she's taking away all the freedom from innocent people("we have crashed her party"). But ofcourse, nothing is good enough for this person so he keeps doing it to make himself seem more important than the others. It may have not be about religion, but know where I'm going. I mean, who are we to decide whats "normal" or whats right and whats wrong, or whats immoral and not immoral? Personally I think this song is about self-righteousness.

to me, definitly a complicated meaning...hidden a bit but what makes the song even better

recently had a friend perform this song for me and i instantly fell for it...would have to say a personal favorite and what will hook me to Radiohead.

I think its about judging people...society...getting caught up in things...but not entirely shore of the message

im sure there is a meaning behind this but i just cant find it even with the opinion of other people. Just to bizarre.

I think this song is about the way society seems to hate itself.

Like 'Her hitler hairdo is making me feel ill.' In Germany there's such a feeling of guilt about the Nazi's and they seem so worried in case something like tha happens again over there. All political parties like that are banned and I think that ties in with 'Karma Police' as if they believe they'll get bad karma if they let anything like that happen again.

The 'Talks in Maths' bit could be the way people who are slightly cleverer (Is that a word??) get picked on at school and are called Nerds because people don't understand them. Or maybe not. Oh well, that's what I think in any case.

I don't get why people think this concept of, "What goes around comes around," is what is being put across in the song. There are several things wrong with that, but mostly the entire idea of karma goes against the thought that Karma Police could exist, which is, I believe, what is being put down here.

"Karma Police
Arrest this man
He talks in maths
He buzzes like a fridge
He's like a detuned radio"
As I see it, the man being spoken of is the embodiment of science, which one may have a fear of when there is little to understand of it. Often, technology is viewed as evil. Sometimes it is an unnecessary evil (the atom-bomb, for instance).

"Karma Police
Arrest this girl
Her hitler hairdo
Is making me feel ill
And we have crashed her party"
I find this stanza to be more important than the first. The girl's hairdo is likened to Hitler's. I see how a lot of you were somehow comparing this to trends. Doesn't work for me. Do you really think Radiohead, when speaking about Karma, would compare trend-followers to Hitler? They're a bit more grown-up than all the high school kiddies trying to interpret this song to their needs so that they can say, "Thom's really stickin' it to those stupid fuckin' preps with their trendy haircuts!" No.

How does one compare someone else's hairdo to Hitler's? There's two situations:
1. The girl's hairdo really is Hitler-y. This seems inplausible, considering these are lyrics to a song. But, going with that, if a girl had a hairdo like Hitler's, perhaps the speaker is homophobic, and is so uncomfortable with a girl having a haircut like a man, that he would compare her to Hitler. Again, as in the first stanza, we see a fear for something different.
2. The speaker hates the girl enough to compare her to Hitler nonsensically.

Such a comparison, in both cases, shows fear. It is doubtful that the girl succeed in killing millions of people, yet she is still villified on a tier with Hitler, easily, the most recognizable name amongst historically evil men.

"This is what you get
This is what you get
This is what you get
When you mess with us"

And this is the most important part of the song, to me. If you know what Karma is, you'll see how terrible it is to think of these words with relation to Karma. Karma is not vengeful. I cannot take something personally and say, "This is what you get, for messing with me." That is not Karma.

The whole idea behind all of this is that there are people who think Karma is with them, on their side. They spend time convincing themselves that others are horrible people, and that they will "get theirs," but that is not how Karma works. You cannot ask the Karma Police to arrest someone. You cannot "crash" their "party" and be protected by the Karma Police.

I think the video captured a bit of this. The man running from the car, (if I recall this correctly), seemed to be the victim of the "Karma Police." That eerie, "This is what you get when you mess with us," image was there. They were going to run him over. However, real Karma intervened, allowing the man to burn their car in the end. That is Karma. The people with hateful souls who will so quickly villify another human being, for whatever reason, will be subject to karma.

As for
"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"
and
"For a minute there, I lost myself..."
I believe these show what goes wrong when people believe they can take Karma into their own hands. Again, there is a misunderstanding in what Karma is from the speaker's point of view. It is seen through the whole song. It is also seen in a lot of the interpretations here.

I may not be right, but I know what Karma is and what it isn't, and I don't think Thom is dumb, so I'm pretty sure the intent was not to make it seem as though, karmically, the speaker in this song is in the right and that Hitler-hairdo girl or math-talking man are going to get "what goes around." In no way is any person able to judge what Karma will bring to another.

Although I do agree that there is an underlying feeling of hate in this song, I don't think that it is the main idea. To me the math talking man, and hitler hairdo sporting woman represent the masses of ignorant people who live in this world. The woman who thinks, like hitler, that she owns and controls the world; that life revolves around her. And that ignorantly educated man who speaks only of what it says in the books and never stops to think about the other wonders of the world like beauty or love for example. The hate in this song just comes from Thom's hatred of mediocrity, his hatred towards the normal masses of ignorance. "I lost myself" to me has always meant more then just a loss of temper. Its as if you finally know who you truely are and the masses don't accept you. THey make you stop and wonder for a minute if you really know yourself. YOu lose yourself for just a span of time. Its as if as much as he trys to seperate himself from the society that he hates, it always catches up to him. He has to be a part of it; he's "still on the payroll".

Very respectable interpretation, nephos. The only thought I have to add is to the video.

The man being chased lights the car on fire, is that not interveining with Karma? He lit the match, he intended to light the car. Is that real karma as nephos stated?

Again, it comes to the lines, "This is what you get/when you mess with us." Which, as nephos said, "Karma is not vengeful... That is not karma."

I am just starting to get into music and i must admit that at first i didnt like this song mainly because because i didnt get it but now i have sum idea.
tho i am not completely satisfied with your intpretations because most of u just focused on like a few lines of the song and expected that to cover the entire song...most of u left out the payroll meaning also and that seems to me to be the final key in figuring out the song...
I also hold the belief that the song's meaning is not that deep and that the lyrics are just really vague...it started as a joke remember? w/e
i guess thats y so many like this song: b/c they can adapt it to anything they want.
also i think many of the people above are borderline geniuses because we have to find the deeper meaning thing for "classic"novels in English and i sux ass but u guys seem to make it fit well, if not perfectly, and should think about applying that elsewhere...
As i final note i would like to say something my english teacher told me: "Classic novels are classics because they are too deep to know themselves" which basically means that they can be applied in ways never thought of by the author...i think that is prolly the same for this song

hey
i tink the karma police reference
is about him wishing there was police and courts to deal with karma and feeling.because sometimes feeling cant hurt people as much as or more dan real crimes and the that the person should be held responible

ps. does any1 no where i could get a copy of the early version i have heard it i jst dnt hav a copy
thanks

the reference in the earlt version "she stares at me as if she owns the world" is way better dan her hitler hair do is makin me feel ill and i dnt tink it ever should hav been changed.wat i get from this is dat thats the girl who has caused him this pain and he feels like she tinks she can do what she likes to people.
and then the line "for a moment i lost myself" line would be about how he relises that this will never happen in this world and that no1 will be held responible for hurting sum1 in a relationship and what was he even thinking about it for

I always thought the "talks in maths" part was talking about a computer. Since math (binary) is the computer language, and the "buzzes like a fridge" could be the sound of a computer.
After all, isn't the album kind of a concept album about life in the "computer age," etc?
Not to be a total fanboy, but at least that was my opinion...

I pretty much agree with earlier intepretations of the song.

Such an amazing song. I love the piano into, and the part where it builds to "For a minute there, I lost myself..." is staggering.

this song is about throwing pineapples at passing ruffians

something to do with john lennon and the beatles song sexy sadie... ever notice the similarities???anyone

1984. Fiftful.

csm, hit the nail on the head, in an interview with Thoms, he said he and the band were throwing oineapples at ruffinas in the streets of Kursk, Russia. One of them was shouting in broken english "if you dont stop, im gonna call my police" Thoms thought he said "im gonna Karma Police" and the song was born

OK so that's an interesting story behind the song title. Basically what the song is illustrating is a place where people who are different are punished harshly and the thought police dominate - whatever they deem wrong or punishable gets punished, however ridiculous it is. Sort of the way that Hitler's Final Solution was developing. I think the "I lost myself" lines at the end of the song hint at the paranoia of the fantasy, but at the same time the song is a classic Orwellian "this could happen if we allowed it to" sort of idea.

gawd, all the other radiohead songs i've heard are better than this one, it couldn't possibly be more overrated.

I'm pretty sure this song is about fate and how it can get back at you.

After reading some other entries, I'd like to add that for the video, the line 'this is what you get.. when you mess with us' is being directed towards the driver of the car. He thinks karma is on his side (which shows when he slows down the car and seems to 'stare' at the old man, a display of 'cocky'ness), but the karma police prove him wrong; sort of like the law of Entropy. I think Thom is playing the role of the driver's karma; he looks back at him periodically in the song, particularly during the line 'this is what you get.' Now, the driver thinks his karma (Thom) is mocking the old man, and that he is on his side, but as the car burns down, the driver looks back to see that his karma (Thom) is gone, and that he shouldn't have messed with him. The driver messed with karma for believing in it too much, and possibly for going after the old man. The video doesn't just demonstrate the meaning of the line 'this is what you get', the video also portrays the feeling of hate through the driver going after the man in the first place.

I had to type this up quick, so excuse any grammatical errors.

According to greenplastic.com:

Released: June 1997
Found on: OK Computer & Karma Police single. Fila Brazillia Club Remix found on 12" single.

"It was a band catchphrase for a while on tour - whenever someone was behaving in a particularly shitty way, we'd say, 'The karma police will catch up with him sooner or later,'" says Jonny. "It's not a revenge thing, just about being happy with your own behaviour." Thom laughs, "This is a song against bosses, fuck middle management!" "Karma Police" was debuted back in 1996 durning the Alanis Morissette tour. Thom sang the line "This is what you'll get" an octave higher than he does on the album, with brillant results. Ed was the one who originally suggested they do a song based on the catch-phrase.

Is it just me, or does someone else see the similarities between this song and the book "1984"? I think this song totally is painting a picture just like the Orwell book. In the verses, Thom plays the part of the stoolpigeon, and tells the "karma" police about people who are acting out of the certain guidelines that they've put on them. In the parts where he says " This is what you get when you mess with us.", he's obviously taking the role of the police. In the last parts, he's talking about how, for a minute he lost his train of being a mindless zombie like police want him to be, but he does come back to his senses.

Orwell is pretty popular with artists. I wouldn't be suprised. Our Lady Peace referrs to Orwell's books, so do some others.