Kim K’s “Nobody Wants To Work” Quote Has Made The Best TikTok Trend

Whether you’re an avid TikTok scroller or keep up with the content as it spills onto the rest of the ‘net, there’s a high chance you’ve gotten a viral TikTok sound stuck in your head. Maybe you’ve sighed to your roommate that your Monday woes are “just hay fever,” or you’ve spent all weekend texting your group chat about your Bridgerton names. But there’s one recent audio trend that’s hit the internet as hard as an alarm clock ringtone: billionaire Kim Kardashian’s inspiring message to “Get your f*cking ass up and work.”

“It seems like nobody wants to work these days,” Kardashian continues in an audio that started going viral on TikTok in March. “You have to surround yourself with people that want to work.” These are the words of wisdom that TikTokers didn’t know they needed — though actually, many would probably say they didn’t need them at all.

The SKIMS founder missed the mark in a pretty crucial way, as TikTokers were quick to point out. According to a January survey commissioned by Wisetail and conducted by OnePoll, one in three respondents to a survey of 2,000 employed Americans reported that they had quit their jobs in the past two years — joining the “Great Resignation” trend. But they weren’t quitting because they don’t “want to work these days”: 57% said they quit because they found a new job with better pay, while 55% quit for better work-life balance and 54% sought improved working conditions. What’s more, when asked what would have prevented them from quitting, the top answers included more room for growth, better working condition, internal career development, and better pay. In other words, people do want to work, it seems — 61% said they’d even take a pay cut for a better working environment.

As one would guess, it didn’t take long for Gen Z’ers on TikTok to put their industrious spirits behind one united cause — trolling Kim Kardashian. Here’s everything you need to know about TikTok’s latest trolling trend.

Kim Kardashian’s “Nobody Wants To Work” Quote Origins

Given how much this audio is lacking in “read the room” energy, you might be wondering about the context of this brazen unsolicited advice. The audio comes from Variety’s “Uncovered” video interview of Kris Jenner and Kourtney, Kim, and Khloe Kardashian, filmed to accompany their March 2022 cover story.

The panel was asked to share their advice for women in business. Just after Khloe said that social media can create the illusion that success doesn’t require hard work, Kim stepped up to share that she has “the best advice for women in business.” The monologue, complete with an affirmative, “So true,” and, “Yeah,” interjected by Kourtney and Kris, went on to encourage women to surround themselves with fellow hard workers, and to avoid “toxic work environments.”

Kardashian has since apologized for her comments, telling Good Morning America’s Robin Roberts on March 28 that, "My message was to anyone who wants to be successful in building a business or brand having come from that very specific space — reality show or social media fame — is to work hard. It’s not easy. You don’t just post something on social media and overnight you become a success."

“Nobody Wants To Work” Memes On TikTok

As with any viral audio, many TikTokers have hopped on this trend simply for the fun of lip-syncing the outlandishly out-of-touch audio. However, as the trend has progressed (with over 18k videos using the original audio), plenty of TikTokers have used the audio to poke fun at their own lack of motivation to work.

Other videos directly targeted at Kardashian have proposed that she work a 12-hour hospital shift or a busy night shift at an ice cream shop before claiming “nobody wants to work.”

Another take on the audio has users venting about how “no one wants to work” while their significant others dote upon them — carrying around their purses or groceries.

Of course, a large portion of the videos under the trending audio are from users reciting the sound while showing their lack of motivation to work. Decreasing your morning coffee break from 30 minutes to 25? Wiggling around your mouse so that it looks like you’re online? These are all examples of what work looks like.

If you’re eager to jump in on the trend, you don’t even have to “get your ass up” to participate. All you have to do is open the viral sound from the comfort of your couch and get to shooting your own spin on Kim K’s work wisdom.