Ehei, it's screwed
TL;DR · OriginThe source is "That damn chicken is crowing again LOL", a video on the YouTube channel Sunja Eomma ("Sunja's Mom"), which documents rural life. Uploaded on November 8, 2019, …
Origin
The source is "That damn chicken is crowing again LOL", a video on the YouTube channel Sunja Eomma ("Sunja's Mom"), which documents rural life. Uploaded on November 8, 2019, it drew 2.32 million views.
The video opens with an elderly woman in the countryside eating produce she grew herself. A chicken keeps crowing and annoying her, and she says that if it keeps crying she will eat it. Then comes the moment: while lifting the boiled chicken out of the pot, she drops it on the ground — and, laughing, mutters "Eheyi, this one's screwed."
The line became a meme because of the mismatch between the situation and the reaction. Instead of getting angry or flustered after ruining a chicken she had spent time boiling, she laughs and delivers one flat remark. That resigned ease is what makes it funny, helped by the contrast of a coarse word like "screwed" delivered in her warm rural accent. Coverage is available in a Newsis article dated March 10, 2023.
Once the video circulated, comments from well-known YouTubers helped it along. Jo Jae-won of the channel Jo Jae-won and the travel YouTuber Pani Bottle both commented, drawing in more viewers.
Short clips containing only the line were then replayed across YouTube Shorts and TikTok, letting the audio spread on its own. The catchphrase turned Sunja Eomma into a prominent senior YouTuber and earned her television coverage.
Usage
It is used when something has gone irreversibly wrong — but not in despair. The point is the resigned laugh: it already happened, so nothing can be done. The grandmother's attitude in the original became the usage itself.
- Realizing you have blown an exam or a deadline
- Losing a file or dropping something by accident
- Reacting to someone else's misfortune with a teasing tone
Attaching the ruined situation before or after the phrase completes it — for example, "The deadline is tomorrow and I haven't started. Eheyi, this one's screwed." Both the original clip and plain text quotation circulate.
