The ‘Get Out Challenge’ is getting out of control

No spoilers here but one: Jordan Peele’s commercially and critically successful horror film “Get Out” has taken its place in the pantheon of meme culture in the form of the #GetOutChallenge.

“Get Out” — conceived by Peele during the 2008 Democratic presidential primary election between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama — is a fascinating film about many things, including the implicit and explicit racism that black people can face in white spaces. Peele tells the story of a young black photographer, Chris, on a weekend visit to his white girlfriend’s parents’ house in the suburbs.

The weekend getaway doesn’t go over too well for Chris — again, no spoilers here — but in the two weeks since the film’s release, one eerie scene from the film, where Chris encounters a character “getting his exercise in,” has inspired the #GetOutChallenge, a series of short clips showing people sprinting toward a camera and then making a last-minute sharp turn.

The meme, which began its viral spread earlier this week, was started by Western Illinois University student Kira Donna, when she uploaded a Snapchat video of her friend reenacting the iconic scene to Facebook.

In a matter of five days, Powell’s video garnered 3.6 million views and inspired an equally viral response on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat, showing people taking on the #GetOutChallenge in various places.

Like your local Walmart.

A second-floor window.

In the newsroom.

Or even, Mom’s office.

As is usually the case with internet memes, others have appropriated the challenge, adding their own comedic twist to the trend. Twitter account, getoutchallenge, has curated several videos of users creating short sketches based on the meme.

NBA Basketball star, Stephen Curry even joined in on the fun and uploaded a video of himself doing the #GetOutChallenge, a move that propelled the meme to further viral fame.

The politics of a meme

While the #GetOutChallenge is a not-so-serious meme to come out of a dark film about race relations in the United States, the challenge, as some have pointed out, is not without its own political baggage.

Ta-Nehisi Coates pointed out in his essay about O.J. Simpson last year, that the action of running bears a significant political and social meaning unique to black Americans. Coates wrote that “running also holds a special significance to a people denied violent resistance as a viable option, if only because it has always been the most potent tool available.”

Throughout history, he wrote, black Americans were forced to run from slavery, from racist and segregationist policies and from violent, white supremacist mobs to not only preserve their humanity, but to save their lives. This history with running has been, in turn, used to perpetuate a “racist thinking about the innate athleticism of blacks” — a fact made all the more relevant when one realizes the premise of “Get Out” and reason behind Walter’s midnight running routines.

Some Twitter users, taking into account the subtext of “Get Out,” have, therefore, criticized white people for either misunderstanding the #GetOutChallenge or trying to hold a monopoly over the meme.

How long will #GetOutChallenge last in the ever-changing meme ecosystem? Only time will tell.