Why the “Karen” Meme is Overused & Not Funny
The original founder of the Karen meme was Dane Cook.
He brought up the name in one of his bits and talked about how this person was a stickler.
A “Karen” is someone who blows small things out of proportion.
They are known for asking, ‘Can I speak to your manager?’
Also, they are known to have these short haircuts and prissy faces.
The Karen meme became a sensation within the past 2 years.
Initially, it started off as an online joke.
Nowadays, I see the ripple effects going into the real world.
The Karen meme is overplayed in 2024.
It needs to die.
Before I talk about why it needs to die, I’m going to talk about why it was needed.
My Encounters with Karens
When I worked in fast food during high school, I noticed how most customers were polite.
They just wanted their food so they could go about their day.
However, there was one type of customer who always made a fuss.
2 moments stick out…
When I worked in Subway, there was this old lady who kept making a fuss about bacon.
‘I would like my bacon crispy. Don’t you understand?? Crispy!’
So, she began berating my coworker to keep reheating the bacon.
He would reheat it, and she would repeat the same statement.
‘I would like my bacon crispy. Are you still not understanding?? Crispy!’
He’d repeat the process, she’d be unsatisfied, make him reheat it again, and hold up the entire line.
A few weeks later, I met the younger version of her.
This new lady wanted to get the turkey sub for 5 dollars.
The only problem was that malls didn’t fully abide by the 5 dollar footlong deal.
Where most Subways had the 5-dollar footlong deal for all subs, the mall only had it for a few subs.
My coworker told this lady the news.
She was pissed.
So, she got the meatball sub.
As he was almost done making it, she asked:
‘Wait, was ham and cheese on the mall’s 5-dollar footlong list?’
My coworker pointed to the sign that listed out all the subs that applied for the deal…
The same sign he told her about when he initially broke the news.
This lady was furious.
‘How come you didn’t tell me that ham and cheese was on the 5-dollar footlong list when I told you I initially wanted turkey?’
My coworker responded:
‘How am I supposed to draw that conclusion??’
She began yelling at him and demanded he make her a new sub.
Why Karens Were Needed
The reason that the Karen meme was needed was because the power dynamic had swung too much to the customer.
The quote, “The customer is always right” was taken literally.
Plenty of customers abused their power.
- They talked recklessly to employees.
- They talked recklessly to managers.
- And they made the workers reheat the bacon too many times.
Before, not much could be done.
However, around the lockdown time, things began to change.
More workers began to stick up for themselves.
Businesses have the right to refuse service.
Plenty of workers exercised this right.
The power dynamic was slowly switching to the workers now.
Was the customer always right?
In the new era, no.
The Karen Pendulum Has Swung Too Far
Within the past year, I noticed that the Karen pendulum had swung too far.
I saw people who were not Karens being unfairly labeled with that title.
People who were sticking up for themselves & showing displeasure for bad service were being called a Karen.
How??
Are service workers not expected to maintain any level of professionalism???
Most of the comments on these Karen videos were blindly taking the service worker’s side.
I saw this one video where a girl asked the restaurant not to put lettuce on her sub during the online order.
When she got the sub, it had lettuce in it.
The girl asked for a refund.
The worker refused.
So, the girl went online to talk about her experience.
She was flooded with comments of:
- Who cares about some lettuce?
- I would have just removed the lettuce.
- The worker did nothing wrong!
What silly comments!
If she said no lettuce, that means no lettuce.
Asking a moronic question about who cares about some lettuce is beside the point.
Also, telling someone to remove the lettuce puts the onus on the customer to clean up after the service worker’s mistake.
(Removing iceberg lettuce from a saucy sub is not easy either & ruins the experience).
I get it, people make mistakes.
However, this girl was NOT a Karen.
She just wanted what she paid for.
I see plenty of situations like this now.
Another video was of a few streamers harassing random shoppers at Target.
One of the shoppers said that he didn’t want to be filmed.
The streamers saw that this customer was giving them a reaction, so they zoned in on this guy.
They began bothering him more.
Soon, the customer told the security guard that the streamers were bothering him.
The security guard asked the streamers to leave.
The next day, the streamers posted the video online.
And all the comments labeled the customer as a Karen.
Give me a break!
The streamers were bullies, and the customer was only sticking up for himself.
The Pendulum Will Swing
I believe one reason the service industry is piss poor as of late is because the workers have too much power.
In the future, here’s what I see happening…
Right now, the Karen videos are going viral.
In the future, I see the comments within the Karen videos going viral.
These comments will give more context to the video.
‘Wait! Everyone is calling this person a Karen, but is she really? Here are the following reasons this lady is NOT a Karen, and her anger is completely justified…’
These comments will break people out of their group thinking ways.
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