Conductor We Have A Problem!

About

Conductor We Have A Problem! refers to a viral video of a man on the Washington D.C. Metro repeatedly pressing the emergency call button and screaming "conductor we have a problem" allegedly after being threatened with a gun by another passenger. The video was uploaded by Steve Clark in 2015 and went viral in the years following, inspiring a number of memes referencing it. The audio is used as a producer tag by Conductor Williams, who is featured multiple times in rapper Westside Gunn's 2021 album "Hitler Wears Hermes 8."

Origin

On December 10th, 2015, YouTuber S t e v e Calaark (Steve Clark) posted a video titled "See something Say something does no good. DC Metro." The video is a POV of a man, assumedly Clark, rapidly pressing the emergency call button on the Washington, D.C. Metro and yelling "conductor we have a problem!" He occasionally looks around at the passengers but does not stop yelling. Passengers soon try to get him to calm down and tell him to get off the train and he accuses another passenger of having a gun. A conductor never arrives. The original video was deleted but has been re-uploaded several times (shown below, original description underneath). It was reported on by STATter 911^[1] on December 11th, 2015. WUSA9^[2] obtained further information about the incident from Metro:

A Metro spokesperson told WUSA9 the incident happened Thursday night on a Yellow line train heading towards the L’Enfant Plaza Station. Metro transit police and medics met the man at the next station and interviewed him. Passengers on the train also called police from their cell phones about the man. The spokesperson said there was never a threat to the train and no injuries were reported.

No response from the WMATA Emergency Call box when another rider (The man in the yellow Whole Foods shirt at 0:52 in the video!) pretended to reach for a gun. Anyone that knows this man, please come forward.

When I tried to call the conductor using the Emergency Call Box, NO action was taken by WMATA. How many times does someone (in need!) need to press this damn button?! What the Hell does the button do?! Does opening the door help?!

Ultimately, the other riders tried to get ME off the train, then a guy, the African American gentleman with the hooodie and gloves (Seen at 0:38), grabbed my phone from my hand, and stepped off the train.

Spread

On December 30th, 2015 an anonymous user of 4chan's^[5] /pol/ board shared the video with the title "Liberal's reaction to seeing a gun," gaining over 328 replies. The video inspired a number of popular edits and memes following its upload in 2015. On January 9th, 2016, YouTuber Diogo Castro posted a remix of the video, gaining over 59,000 views in five years (shown below, left). On July 31st, YouTuber Mediocre Memes used the audio from the clip over a clip from The Polar Express, gaining over 112,000 views in a comparable span of time (shown below, right).

Producer Conductor Williams uses the audio clip "conductor we have a problem" in many of the songs he produces. Examples of this can be heard twice on Westside Gunn's 2021 double-LP "Hitler Wears Hermes 8," in the song "Blessed Times"^[3] from side A, and in the song "Munch"^[4] off side B (shown below, left and right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References