Thousands of innocent TikTok users are being ‘Krissed’ in a new trend taking the social media app by storm. TikTok has, of course, spawned many a trend in its short run, and it doesn’t show any signs of slowing down. The ‘kriss’ or ‘krissing’ employs a familiar tactic of bait and switch, leading gullible users down one path before surprising them with Kris Jenner dancing to Lady Marmalade. That’s what’s been sending unsuspecting users into disarray. And who can blame them?
The clip is originally from 10 years ago and was first uploaded to daughters Kendal and Kylie Jenner’s YouTube channel. It shows the two dancing with half-sisters Kourtney, Khloe Kim miming to the 2001 cover of Lady Marmalade which famously featured in the musical Moulin Rouge. However, only a small section, which sees Kris Jenner singing the gitchie gitchie ya-ya da-da bit, has gone viral. In her cameo, Jenner can be seen wearing a glittery green outfit, enjoying herself as people tend to do when singing throwback hits.
Who could’ve guessed that this harmless little video could be spun into a punchline? Most of these posts entice viewers with a fake rumour before slapping them with the Jenner video and usually a text that reads something along the lines of: “You just got Krissed.” “I don’t wanna get krissed anymore,” one example comment with over 80,000 likes reads. Another complains: “I got krissed again how do I keep falling for it.”
What does Jenner make of it herself? The Momager is yet to comment, but her opinion of social media is dicey. Last year, Jenner claimed social media was partly to blame for the end of their reality show Keeping Up With the Kardashians. She said: “When we first started, there was no Instagram or Snapchat or other social media platforms. The world has changed. Now there are so many, the viewer doesn’t have to wait three or four months to see an episode. We can give them all of the information anyone would ever want to know in real time.” Jenner continued, “Social media is the fastest and most controlled way to get the message out. The consumer gets to see the products the girls are working on in real time, and they know we’re going to get it out the door pretty quickly. The girls want them to be part of the journey to keep them engaged.”
As for Krissing… this type of online prank is nothing new. Before Krissing there was Rickrolling, another bait-and-switch joke that involved setting randomers up in the same way you would with a Krissing, but in this case the viewer was re-directed to the music video of Never Gonna Give You Up by Rick Astley. Since May 2007, numerous versions of the music video on YouTube garnered hundreds of millions, largely driven by the widespread practice of Rickrolling and subsequent resurgence in popularity of the song over the late aughts and early tens. But it goes back further than Rick. Good old Rickrolling had its beginning on imageboard community 4chan as a spin-off of an earlier practical joke known as ‘duckrolling,’ in which an external link with a sensational title would be re-directed to an edited image of a duck on wooden wheels.
According to 4chan founder m00t, the Rickrolling began on /v/ (video games) circa May 2007, when someone posted a link to Rick Astley’s music video disguised as a sneak preview for the then newly released video game Grand Theft Auto IV. Due to the feverish excitement around the game at that time, many fans on the /v/ board fell for it hook, line and sinker, causing the joke to become popular on 4chan. According to Wikipedia and Google Trends, search interest in “rickrolling” began to rise between April and May 2007. The rest is history. The rest is Kris Jenner. Gitchie gitchie ya-ya- da-da.