We have all encountered a “Karen” at some point, and you’ll know her off the bat based on how she looks and her behavior. Karens have gained notoriety over the years, and the term describes a middle-class, caucasian woman who comes across as overly entitled. Karens also tend to get ticked off about the smallest of things.
Karen is also that woman who’ll belittle the staff at any establishment by asking to talk to the manager. The worst part about it is that many Karens are often also racist. Most of these women typically have their way, but a couple of people decided to pen down lighthearted clapbacks aimed at the Karens of the world, and we take a look at the best ones.
How To Spot A Karen
Karens have a distinct look that everyone can spot from a mile away. It often starts with the classic short, usually blonde, choppy hair cut. They’ll typically have on a pair of sunglasses, and accessories, paired with some “live, laugh, love” themed sneakers. When it comes to their convictions, Karens tend to have a profound dislike for modern medicine.
Karens are also often your quintessential moms who drive minivans, and can’t be bothered by their kids’ unruly behavior in public spaces. If you can’t spot Karen just by looking, we bet that in a matter of minutes, they’ll be that lady that is pissed off at something and demanding to speak to the boss.
The Mechanics Of Being A Karen
It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia fans know the sociopathic character that Glenn Howerton plays, Dennis. In one of the episodes, the character came up with the “Dennis Method.” One meme legend converted it into a description of the mechanics of being a Karen.
Karens know their rights, accuse others at any given chance, request to see a manager, and/or escalate things to involve law enforcement, and they also neglect reason. That about sums it up, and it’s a smart way to help us all easily identify the Karens walking amongst us.
Earning The Rank
If you thought that Karens were born, then you are mistaken. According to this meme, Karen is not a name you are given at birth, but instead, it’s a rank you have to earn. Parents don’t even want to call their daughters that name anymore.
Babynames.com says that parents are ditching the name based on the negative association with entitled middle-aged women. In the past decade, the name is reported to have drastically dropped in popularity by a dramatic 75%. The folks who search for the name these days are only interested in knowing its meaning.
Karen Has A K, So Does Kim Kardashian
Judging from this tweet that Kim Kardashian shared in May 2019, we should point out that these days, Karens have morphed a lot. They aren’t exclusively the classic middle-aged complainers, and even celebrities and just about every other entitled person can become a Karen.
Kim had a bone to pick with Jack In The Box. She told them to check their corporate email about her complaint or contact her via her DM, telling her who she should address her concerns directly. Someone even points out, that’s just different wording for “I want to speak to the manager.”
Karen’s Level Up
Beyond earning the rank as a Karen, it turns out that there are also different levels to it. Babies kick it off, believe it or not, and once they grow up and earn their wings, they become ordinary Karens. From there, Karens can level up to two more ranks.
If you thought that Karen was the absolute worst, she’s reportedly not the Marvel Cinematic Universe equivalent of Thanos when ranking the levels of Karens. There’s the scary-looking Super Karen level followed by Captain Karen, according to this meme. These days there’s even a male version of Karen dubbed Ken.
The Illegal Police
One thing you’ll quickly learn about Karen is that she is the self-appointed illegal police. Her impatience and a false sense of privilege make her promptly remind everyone that their actions are unlawful. That is, of course, when Karen is not getting her way.
Karens don’t know anything about trying, and to them, they demand nothing short of excellence. Anyone who falls short of this expectation risks facing the law, based on some trumped-up or fictitious reasons Karens makes up to call the cops. Fast-food employees are warned, Karen is out to get you.
When Karen Doesn’t Want You To Breathe
The American Diabetes Association estimates that by 2018 10.5% of the American population had diabetes. For some people with diabetes, insulin shots are their lifeline because it helps them manage their blood sugar levels. Try telling that to this entitled Karen!
According to this poster, a Karen walking the earth under the name Debra, told off a girl sitting next to her in class for administering an insulin shot. Debra thought that the girl should choose another time to give herself the insulin shot, but the girl shot back at Debra, saying that she had to do it at that time precisely in order to keep living.
Karen’s Sunday Fun Day Activities
People working in the service industry have a love-hate affair with the Karens of the world. They will stream into various eateries after Sunday service, but don’t expect them to uphold the biblical teaching about love and kindness.
This is the woman who will point out the speck in another person’s eye for forgetting, for she’s a living, breathing Karen. If there’s no fault in the first place, trust Karen to figure out how to put the waiter she doesn’t like in their place. She’s the type to plant a strand of hair in her food as an excuse to unload on a restaurant employee.
When Karen Has Had It With Other Karens
Unsurprisingly, Karen can spot the same mannerisms that make her everyone’s nemesis in other people. That’s why you’ll often hear Karen complaining about others like her. Karen can’t wrap her head around the current ongoing pandemic.
Take this mom, for instance, who drove 90 minutes to the beach, and not even the warmth of the sun or sand on her feet could lighten her mood. She complained that other people did the exact same thing she did; perhaps she expected to have the public space all to herself. In case Karen didn’t get the memo, social distancing also means avoiding places that are bound to get packed, like the beach.
The Karen Matrix
This meme tells us what could happen when a Karen asks to speak to the manager, who also happens to be yet another Karen. The image vividly shows us what would happen: a super collision. Imagine the screaming match that would follow, complete with calling the police.
All Karens should know that there are penalties for placing non-emergency 911 calls. The state of Virginia, for instance, classifies it as a “class 1 misdemeanor.” This abuse of the emergency service can land someone a year behind bars or/and a $2.5K fine.
It’s Karen, Not Ellen
According to the Insider article, talk show host Karen Degeneres, not Ellen, in this case, called the late Apple CEO Steve Jobs with a complaint about her iPhone. An associate producer at The Ellen Show spilled the beans to the New York Post.
Ellen reportedly lost her glasses, and the small font size on her iPhone didn’t make it easy to read texts. Much like your typical manager, Ellen went all the way up to the boss. The show’s producer added that Ellen told Jobs that they should include bigger fonts in their devices.
The Karen That Stole Thanksgiving
Encountering Karen about your day is entirely different from working for one. That outrightly transforms your work hours into a soul-crushing experience. Don’t even mention anything about holidays because with Karen running things, those luxuries are a myth.
It doesn’t even necessarily mean that Karen is your boss in this case. If you work in a grocery store, you must have a fair share of encounters with Karens who keep the store open till late. Some even drag their feet to keep the grocery store open till late, just to rub it in the staff’s face because they can.
Karen Wreaking Havoc
Wonder how petty Karen can get? Just try being that waiter who forgets the one sauce packet that seems to be Karen’s lifeline. Karen will blow the roof in such a scenario, but it turns out that she’s also a hypocrite.
Karen doesn’t hold her family to the same standards, and she’ll allow her kids to run wild when they are dining out. She won’t reprimand them for causing damage, and she’ll simply smile through it all. The chances are that Karen’s child will be the one screaming their lungs out at the cinema, disrupting everyone who is enjoying the latest blockbuster.
Spooktacular Karen
Even Karen lets her hair down to join in on the spooktacular annual holiday. The question is, what Halloween costume suits her best? This meme answers the question, and as always, it’s all about exaggeration with Karen.
It’s lighthearted humor, but the realities of not vaccinating your child are grave Vaccines exist to protect children from preventable diseases, some of which are fatal. Unvaccinated children pose a risk to others because they could transmit some of these illnesses. They may also get excluded from child care or schools just because they are not vaccinated.
The Worst Coffee Ever, As Endorsed By Karen
We want to believe that all those nasty comments and dislikes on YouTube videos, as well as negative reviews are from the Karens or Kens out there. They will take any given opportunity to give bad press to a business they didn’t particularly like.
This establishment made the best out of a negative review they got from a woman on Tripadvisor. The woman, who we believe is a Karen, described their coffee as the worst she ever had in her life. We are sure a lot of people streamed into that joint to try out the coffee.
Reschedule The Universe For Karen
This post encompasses everything that is Karen and how Karen views the universe. She expects the world to stop on her account, and in this case, it’s a solar eclipse party scheduled on an inconvenient date for her. Karen asked whether they could push it to the weekend.
Yes, they could, only that it’s impossible to reschedule a solar eclipse. This phenomenon happens when the earth, moon, and sun align, causing the moon to cast a shadow on the sun. The engulfing shadow can block off a portion of the sun (partial solar eclipse) of the entire celestial body (total eclipse).
Karen In Her Natural Habitat
What you see here is Karen in her natural habitat. She is more prone to pitching a fit when she has her brood. We should also point out that she’s in the company of a man who is essentially the male version of Karen, Ken.
If you dare cross their path looking out of place, expect them to put you right in your place. They’ll ask for the manager or cops, depending on the scenario. Sometimes the boys in blue just won’t cut it for Karen and Ken who’ll insist on getting the police manager to handle their trivial complaint.
The Original Karen
Any fan of ’70 British sitcoms would probably rank Fawlty Towers as one of the great ones. It centered on a rude and somewhat naive Basil Fawlty (John Cleese) and his overbearing wife, Sybil (Prunella Scales). Basil encountered many Karens while running the fictional Fawlty Towers hotel, like the classic one we can’t forget.
Like the meme points out, Karen over here asked for the manager, and Basil informed her that she was speaking to the owner. She insisted that she wanted to have a word with the manager and not the owner.
Twitter Mass Exodus
Like everyone else, Twitter provides the best platform for Karen to voice her unsolicited opinions. This lovely lady just about had it with everyone throwing around the K-word, and she demanded absolute censorship.
Karen, rather this lovely lady, went on to threaten that millions of other women would join her in deleting their accounts if her demands weren’t met. That would be a win if all Karens had a mass exodus from the platform. Just wondering who these millions are who would join her; are there that many Karens or is she just delusional?
Threat To Security
Karen lives for one thing, and that’s taking down others at any given opportunity. This post shares the ordeal a poor guy went through – besides the cruelty of sitting next to Karen on a plane. She raised the alarm about the man sitting next to her and doodling some foreign script, saying that he posed a security threat.
It turned out that the man, and Ivy League economist, was simply working on a differential equation. The man looked foreign, and that is the reason she threatened to force the plane into an emergency landing.
Pandemic Karen
As if we didn’t have enough of Karen already, then the pandemic happened. Karen was the one stockpiling surgical masks, sanitizers, and tissue paper. She can’t quit complaining about the lockdown, socially distanced queues, and having to wear face masks in public.
Karen is also the one likely to get in trouble for flouting self-isolation regulations. Let’s not even get into what happens when she has to get a Covid-19 test. This post makes jest of how Karen would respond to any of these issues by asking to speak to the Pandemic manager.
The Karen Convention
There must be Karen conventions held in secrecy across different states, and that’s what we think we are looking at here. The almost matching outfits and the same puffed-up hairstyle can’t be a coincidence. All we can say is we pity the staff working at this diner.
The only other possible explanation is that these women are having some multi-level marketing meeting. Not that it’s better than the thought of Karen conventions existing across the globe. Picture facing off with a sales representative who is a Karen or coming across one who tries to recruit you into a pyramid scheme.
A Herd Of Karens
Remember the 1993 Jurassic Park film where Laura Dern portrayed a paleobotanist? Dern and a team of scientists went on an expedition to Isla Nubla, a fictional island where revived dinosaurs reigned. We loved the adventure film, and that’s why we equally love to hate this meme.
These were some of the statements Dern made in the movie, and it eerily applies to the group of short-haired Karens above. It is a rare sight, and we wonder where they are moving to and who is about to end up on their bad books – we are referring to the herd of Karens!
Karens Gone Wild
One Karen is one too many, now, having to deal with a group of them is something else. They say opposites attract, but when it comes to Karens, they seem to gravitate towards one another. Like Dr. Grayfang observes, this is a disaster in the making.
Karens often come together for those special activities like vacations. Any manager, service industry worker, and even bystanders should watch out for such a group. Trouble also follows them, and within no time, they’ll ask to see the manager, issue threats, and call the boys in blue.
No Vaccines Zone
Vaccine hesitancy, also known as the anti-vax movement, is a real issue. It refers to the parents who choose to keep their kids unvaccinated for some time or entirely. Some folks question the safety or long-term effects of these jabs, but forgoing vaccines poses a more significant health threat.
Karens are typically thought of as the group of women who are anti-vaxxers. This X-ray image captures the presumed horror on a fetus’s face when they hear their mom saying that she doesn’t want vaccines. Just imagine being that kid in-utero hearing what the world has in store.
A Budding Karen
Like we said, Karens have morphed a lot these days, and they are not exclusively middle-aged women. Even snooty little girls fall under the category proving that the process of morphing into Karen starts quite early. Being a Karen is all about attitude and foul behavior.
Like this little girl who went into a salon for adults and when the stylist wouldn’t work on her mane, she requested to see the manager. The stylist had to oblige to avoid sparking any further trouble, and she knew the right hairstyle for this little Karen.
Money Well Gambled
The person who posted this meme staked their entire life savings on their theory. Here is a woman with a short, choppy, blonde hairdo waiting to see the manager. Add her body language with the crossed arms; we don’t imagine that she has any kind words for the manager.
We would have to raise the stake with our savings too because we bet the meme publisher is right on the money. Did we also mention that this is an eatery? We all know what Karen gets up to whenever she frequents such establishments.
Scary Karen
This photo accurately captures the “Karen imbalance.” Karen is the lady that goes off on people she deems are lesser than her. That’s why the staff working in the service industry are her prime targets because their line of duty essentially requires them always to put the customer first.
Karen might find an issue with a server waiting on another table or her neighbor’s gardener. She never minds her own business, and backing down from a verbal fight is not in her vocabulary. That is the Karen imbalance, with the bug representing everyone else, and the scary canine is Karen.
The Science Behind The Karens Of The World
For the better part, the world revolves around science, and we rely on it to explain life’s complexities. To put it in better terms, we use science to make sense of everything we see around us. Science even helps us make future predictions.
Much like modern medicine, and vaccines, science is a lost concept to Karen. Anytime Karen faces some concrete proof or evidence during an argument, she finds a way to rubbish it. Particularly in the event when it paints her in a bad light. Karen has to win.