Society/Culture Karen spotting!

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I was watching an old Carlton beer ad on You Tube, the 'Woman Whisperer' advert where a mysterious cowboy enters a bar and hypnotizes a domineering wife into letting her hen-pecked husband stay for another beer with his mates. This advert from the early 2000s more than 20 years later definitely falls into the 'you would never get away with that today' category, as would another Carlton advert from the same time where a group of army reservists are being yelled at by a drill sergeant and told 'now get back out there and hide!', people today probably thinking that it would promote workplace bullying or some other nonsense.

However, there was another very funny Carlton beer advert from this era also up on Youtube (and also not PC compliant enough to be shown today) where a group of guys arrive to pick up their mate for a weekend away, and his nagging wife is screeching at him, this audible from out in the street. The name of the shrill blonde wife? She is called Karen, of course.

I also remembered another fictional Karen, one of Ted's girlfriends from How I Met Your Mother, played by Laura Prepon, a real killjoy that none of the others like.

Considering that the beer advert and the HIMYM episode pre-date the Karen trope by some years, just what is it about that name, even back then?
 
emuboy said:
I was watching an old Carlton beer ad on You Tube, the 'Woman Whisperer' advert where a mysterious cowboy enters a bar and hypnotizes a domineering wife into letting her hen-pecked husband stay for another beer with his mates. This advert from the early 2000s more than 20 years later definitely falls into the 'you would never get away with that today' category, as would another Carlton advert from the same time where a group of army reservists are being yelled at by a drill sergeant and told 'now get back out there and hide!', people today probably thinking that it would promote workplace bullying or some other nonsense.

However, there was another very funny Carlton beer advert from this era also up on Youtube (and also not PC compliant enough to be shown today) where a group of guys arrive to pick up their mate for a weekend away, and his nagging wife is screeching at him, this audible from out in the street. The name of the shrill blonde wife? She is called Karen, of course.

I also remembered another fictional Karen, one of Ted's girlfriends from How I Met Your Mother, played by Laura Prepon, a real killjoy that none of the others like.

Considering that the beer advert and the HIMYM episode pre-date the Karen trope by some years, just what is it about that name, even back then?
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Back in the 80s my mate's gf, ended up marrying her, was called Karen.

Her profession? A carpenter. She straightened up all the door arches in my little shack.

There are some ripper Karens out there still.
 
emuboy said:
Considering that the beer advert and the HIMYM episode pre-date the Karen trope by some years, just what is it about that name, even back then?
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I first encountered it as the default name for a cats owner in cat memes. Given the popularity of cat memes, i would guess that's where the Karen label comes from.

However I think its current usage is problematic. It's an unfair and convenient way to silence women who are complaining, or to perceive women as Karens when they complain.
 
Lethality said:
I first encountered it as the default name for a cats owner in cat memes. Given the popularity of cat memes, i would guess that's where the Karen label comes from.

However I think its current usage is problematic. It's an unfair and convenient way to silence women who are complaining, or to perceive women as Karens when they complain.
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I had thought it came from a Dane Cook stand up comedy routine circa 2007, but it probably has other sources too - like cat ladies as you said - and it melded together to form the Karen meme of recent years. Although the number of difficult fictional characters called Karen before this is interesting.

IMO there's a lot of difference between a dissatisfied customer and a Karen. A frustrated mother at a Gold Coast theme park who is dealing with her young son crying because he just missed being tall enough to go on one of the rides after a long wait in a line isn't a Karen. If she makes a huge scene about it, arguing with and being abusive to the ride attendants doing their jobs and holding up the ride on a busy day, promising to go straight to the admin office to complain to the manager and to leave 1 star reviews about the park online, then this is a Karen.

And a man can be a Karen too. For example if you went to Subway and there was some guy in there making a scene because he wanted a sandwich that has been discontinued since 2017, then he would be a Karen.
 
emuboy said:
I had thought it came from a Dane Cook stand up comedy routine circa 2007, but it probably has other sources too - like cat ladies as you said - and it melded together to form the Karen meme of recent years. Although the number of difficult fictional characters called Karen before this is interesting.

IMO there's a lot of difference between a dissatisfied customer and a Karen. A frustrated mother at a Gold Coast theme park who is dealing with her young son crying because he just missed being tall enough to go on one of the rides after a long wait in a line isn't a Karen. If she makes a huge scene about it, arguing with and being abusive to the ride attendants doing their jobs and holding up the ride on a busy day, promising to go straight to the admin office to complain to the manager and to leave 1 star reviews about the park online, then this is a Karen.

And a man can be a Karen too. For example if you went to Subway and there was some guy in there making a scene because he wanted a sandwich that has been discontinued since 2017, then he would be a Karen.
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That sandwich bloke sounds like a Keith, from England.
 
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