About

Why Are You Running? refers to a clip from the Nigerian film Pretty Liars 1 in which a woman over-dramatically runs away from a man in a car. The man then gets out of the car and yells "Why are you running?" The clip became remixed in several Vine and YouTube videos, and became associated with the Ugandan Knuckles meme, as gangs of Ugandan Knuckles in VR Chat would repeat the phrase.

Origin

Pretty Liars 1 is a Nigerian ("Nollywood") film from the early 2010s. Though the exact release date is unknown, a post on Nollywood Forever^[1] from March 14th, 2011 marks the release year as 2010. In the clip which would later be remixed, a woman runs away from a man in a car whom she owes money too. As she runs away, the man gets out of the car and shouts "Why are you running?"

Spread

A clip of the scene was uploaded to Vine on July 23rd, 2016 by user sam iglesia, gaining over 1.7 million loops (shown below).

The Vine was then reuploaded to YouTube on July 6th, 2016, gaining over 2 million views. On August 16th, an edit with Donald Trump's campaign announcement was uploaded to YouTube by Prodankton Studios, gaining over 287,000 views (shown below, left). On the 17th, a compilation of Vines using the moment was posted to YouTube by YaBoiDJ, gaining over 499,000 views (shown below, right).

The clip saw a revival with the influx of Ugandan Knuckles memes. In one of the most popular videos spreading Ugandan Knuckles posted January 1st, 2018 by YouTuber Syrmor, the clan of Knuckles players chase down another player while chanting "Why are you running?" (shown below, left). On January 5th, 2018, YouTuber Kill yo Lol uploaded a video remixing the original "Why Are You Running?" clip with the Ugandan Knuckles character, gaining over 400,000 views (shown below, right).

The clip saw a small revival several months later on YouTube. On February 18th, 2018, YouTuber african comedy uploaded another Vine compilation which gained over 14,000 views (shown below, left). On the 16th, YouTuber Dyllon Freeman uploaded a clip crossing the scene with Naruto, gaining over 14,000 views (shown below, right).

Dance Challenge

On April 22nd, 2020, TikToker ineskaney started an African dance-inspired trend using the song “Why Are You Running (Remix)” by DJ Eddy Beatz, according to StayHipp^[2]. The dance video gained over 45,800 likes in two months. On May 8th, TikToker kionjonesmcmaster performed the dance in a video that garnered over 83,100 likes in two months (shown below, center). On May 20th, itsjustnifee uploaded a different version of the dance trend to TikTok and accumulated over 185,800 likes in a month (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References