Synopsis

Set in Mississippi in 1870, the video follows a colorful crowd gathering along the river as Culture Club perform aboard a paddle steamer named The Chameleon. Among the passengers is a pickpocket who moves through the crowd, stealing jewelry and valuables. Once aboard, he joins a poker game but is caught cheating. The lighthearted period adventure ends with the thief being punished as the boat continues down the river, while Boy George's vivid costumes and the red, gold, and green color scheme dominate the imagery.

Factoids & Trivia

• The supposed Mississippi setting was created on Desborough Island in Weybridge, England, during the summer of 1983. The Thames stood in for the American river.

• The period story was designed to give Culture Club a more theatrical setting than a conventional performance clip. Its late-19th-century costumes, riverboat setting, and multiracial crowd contrast with Boy George's unmistakably modern pop-star image.

• The harmonica heard on the recording was played by Judd Lander, but Lander does not appear in the video. He was in Los Angeles for Motown's 25th-anniversary celebrations when the shoot took place, so another musician was hired to mime the part on camera.

• Lander recalled that the riverboat belonged to Richard Branson. The detail helps explain why the production could convincingly build the video's central action around a working passenger boat rather than a studio recreation.

• The video helped turn the song's references to "red, gold and green" into a visual signature, with those colors appearing prominently among the crowd and costumes.

• "Karma Chameleon" became Culture Club's only US number-one single and spent three weeks at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 in early 1984. Its period-adventure video remains one of the band's most recognizable visual statements.