What on Earth Is Going On in The House of Commons?

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About

"What on Earth is Going On in the House of Commons?" refers to a phrase uttered by ITV News at Ten anchor Tom Bradby that later grew popular on TikTok as a sound with which people used the question to talk about bizarre and unexpected scenarios, often involving the internet or personal drama.

Origin

On May 17th, 2022, the London Metropolitan Police (often known as just the Met Police) put out a statement saying that they had received a report in January 2020 relating to sexual offenses that had been committed by a man between 2002 and 2009. The man was alleged to be an unnamed Conservative (or Tory) Party member of Parliament in the House of Commons. He was arrested on suspicion of indecent assault, sexual assault, rape, abuse of position of trust and misconduct in public office. The Tory party whips, or officials in the party tasked to ensure party discipline in Parliament, would later put out a statement that the MP in question does not attend the Parliamentary Estate while an investigation was ongoing.^[1]

The news was introduced on the ITV News at Ten, ITV's 10 o'clock news show, by news anchor Tom Bradby that night. After the programme's signature bong from London's Big Ben, he opened up the show with the headline "What on Earth is going on in the House of Commons? Tonight, a Tory MP is accused of rape."

The Tory MP in question would be released the following day on bail.^[1]

Bradby's reading of the news would be posted as a TikTok video and sound by user @itszkrm^[2] (shown below) on June 21st, 2022. The video received 341,000 likes and 2.2 million views in 2 months.

https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/7111775859991760134

Spread

One of the earliest known examples of the sound being used in a humorous manner was posted by user @elysachristinarose on July 26th, 2022 (shown below). Notably, while the line "What on Earth is going on in the House of Commons?" was used, the line "Tonight, a Tory MP is accused of rape" wasn't used. The video received 1,300 likes and 12,100 views in 13 days.

https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/7124790383208320262

The meme would spread further on TikTok, with many users using the sound's question to talk about bizarre and unexpected scenarios, often involving the internet or personal drama. One post by user @nickmillerfanclub (shown below) with the caption "me in year 7 when i was added to a gc called "sorting things out"", received 278,000 likes and 1.4 million views in 4 days.

https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/7127728214847360262

Other users used the sound to mock TikTok clones in regards to how late their users are when it comes to memes and trends. One post by user @mewhenimliterallysofunny (shown below) with the caption "Instagram reels users in 5 months when they start getting Krissed" received 441,000 likes and 1.5 million likes in 5 days.