42 People Reveal What Real-Life “Karens” Are Like When The Viral Meltdown Is Over

My Mom is a literal Karen, as in...it’s her name. But she’s like a Bizarro Karen. She will constantly ask to speak with managers and supervisors and bosses...

But when said managers arrive, she unloads about the employee helping her out was fantastic, hardworking and friendly. And then she’ll spend 20 minutes trying to figure out if she and the manager know someone in common. Nine times out of 10 they do. As a kid it would embarrass me, as an adult it’s one of my favorite things about her. She makes people feel good about the work they do—and it’s really special to watch how wonderful she makes people feel.

Plus she’s got long gorgeous silver hair.

EDIT: Karen and I are crying with all the love and support. She’s a wonderful lady. And to give my fair city a much needed boost—this Karen is a lifelong Philadelphian. Thank you all for making mine and my Mom’s day!! Stay safe out there.

My mom's a Karen. She is self aware she is a Karen my siblings and I send her memes about it. When my step dad divorced her last summer we were all amazed he lasted 17 years to be honest. None of us like going out with her it's terrible and my husband just straight up tells her no you aren't talking to the manager when we go in a place.

I'll tell you guys a story my step told us; they are farmers and own a small beef and bee farm. They have a store they go to for bee supplies. The owner called my step dad and asked him to please be the one to pick up their stuff because his staff was tired of dealing with my mom. He is the only one who went to the store for the next 5 years.

Divorced Karen. Haven’t had a need to see a manager since.

I know a couple with a Karen. She blamed him for EVERYTHING.

The husband was (in our opinion) something of a saint.

Once she broke a glass in the kitchen, came and sat back down at the table, and said "That was your fault."

We all just stared at her. She looked sheepish and said "I knew that one probably wouldn't work."

They're divorced, now. I guess even saintliness has its limits.

Not married to one. but mom was a major Karen back when I was growing up.

"Mom can we just go?" was my favorite question. Then the apologetic nod as we leave the store.

My brother was married to a Karen. She lived to berate people and rarely went anywhere without a flask of vodka to fuel her fire. She despised kids and wasn’t quiet about it. In the first year of marriage she decided her husband had to *earn* s*x. So if she didn’t like the way he painted the shed or groomed the dog or poured his cornflakes (and she never did) there was no *reward.* After 10 years he divorced her, moved to another State, and married a kind hearted, generous, empathetic lady. Karen still can’t understand why he dumped her “perfect” a*s.

My mom is a Karen. she thinks the world is supposed to cater to her, serve her and everyone else is wrong.

Once we went to Carl's Jr. she ordered 4 burgers, for the four of us. She pulls one out of the bag while the guy is getting our drinks and hides it. She complains that he forgot a burger. She pulls them out one by one and counts it in front of him. It's obviously missing because she hid it and he's swearing up and down he put them all in the bag. I'm stunned speechless and it happened so fast. She got a free burger, and laughed as we drive off. Im just staring at her and she opens it up to eat it on the drive home. And she ate her actual burger like the 5th one never existed.

I can't even explain how she is when she's in the hospital. she treats it like a luxury stay in a hotel.

My Dad married one, she's an absolute nightmare. Apparently at work once she went outside to shout at a gardener who was making too much noise trimming a hedge. When she came back inside she found all her colleagues laughing and saying 'That poor guy got Karen'ed!' She was really shocked that her name got turned into a verb but her colleagues were spot on!

My sister is a Karen. Everyone feels so sorry for her husband. Everything is his fault. He is treated like a s***e. She only addresses him by yelling. She constantly insults him. We have no idea why he hasn't divorced her or flipped out and attacked her. We have all told her to cool it and her response is that he's just so stupid. I could go on and on but my sister really is a horrible person.

Not married but Dated a Male Karen for eight years.


He was a semi successful business owner who was twice my age and I was young and dumb for a lack of a better word.

The gist of our relationship was him trying to take over every part of my life. For instance he would order for me at restaurants and would dissuade me if I wanted to try something new. If I had a problem with something it would be brushed off but if he had a problem then he had to talk to a manager. Not knowing any better I just thought he was very particular and even started copying some of his tendencies like speaking up when I felt I wasn’t getting the right service when I was out on my own.


I realized who he was when we were flying back from Vegas and our luggage was heavier than when we flew in. Obviously we’d bought extra things which made up for the weight difference so as he demanded to know an explanation from the check in clerk as to why if it was the same luggage would it somehow weigh more, I innocently answered that it must have been the extra shoes and clothes. He was quiet and paid up. Later he told me to not to do that again as he knew the reason why the luggage was heavier he was just trying to get away with not paying. At that moment a bulb went off in my head. This man who’d spent $1500 on a s******r for his friend was making an already stressful job more stressful for the clerk in order to avoid paying $60! We broke up soon after and I checked myself on the Karen tendencies he’d rubbed off on me.

Not married to one but my mom is absolutely one. I spend most of my time with her in public apologizing to people after she’s walked away. The one and only time it comes in handy is when I’ve bought cars and had her come in during the price negotiation phase - she’s knocked off thousands purely due to how unpleasant she is and how much people want her to just get the hell out of the door.

My life has been a living hell. The number of times I have had to intervene to save the life of a customer service rep over nickels is insane. I've asked for divorce now just a couple weeks ago. Guess how that went over.

Not married to a Karen, but married someone with a Karen for a sister. SIL is the freaking worst. I hate more than anything going out to dinner with her, listening to her order food and talk to the servers. Holidays are also terrible, she sends out long lists of expected gifts list. She celebrates every holiday and birthday specifically for presents even when it not appropriate.

Funny thing is one time I was away from the dinner table when the bill came and SIL waited for me to return to pay the bill by actually handing it to me. She didn't give it to her sibling/my SO or pay her half, but expressly handed it to me to pay.

Btw, her husband is an idiot and they are a match made in heaven.

Edit: I'm sorry to disappoint everyone, but yes I did pay. There are many reasons as to why, but the biggest one is that it got me out of the restaurant faster. Also, it helps me control the tip. Another time we went to a family brunch where the bill was split - Karen SIL waited to see what other people tipped so she could lower the overall tip percentage for the waitress to what SIL thought was deserving. We didn't know this until afterwards when she bragged about it later so no one even knew to stop her. And she is invited to these family meals because she has two children we want a relationship with, so she has that emotional blackmail card.

Was married to a male Karen.

Everything, and I mean everything, could set him off.

We were at a local taproom and his iPhone automatically connected to the Wifi. Keep in mind, he had full bars on our cell service. The WiFi was being wonky and wasn’t working. The manager, super nice guy, comes over and asks how we are doing, while he washes some glasses in the dish pit on the other side of the bar. The following conversation ensues, keep in mind, my husband is super irritated at this made up problem because our cell service is working just fine and he can literally just turn off the WiFi:

Husband: Your WiFi is f*****g trash.

Manager: I’m sorry. We recently upgraded our internet, and C*x is sending us a new modem. It’s supposed to be here this week.

Husband: If you say you have WiFi, you should make sure it actually works.

Manager: 😐 I know. I’m sorry. I’d be happy to restart the modem to see if that helps.

Husband then ignores him and continues to talk under his breath about a made up issue.

This was my life for almost five years. The sense of entitlement was frustrating enough in public, but more so at home. I had apologized to more servers, retail workers, neighbors, and random people in public for him in five years than the rest of my life outside of him.

You know what, now that I’m talking about it, maybe he’s not so much a male Karen. He’s more like a piece of s**t.

I was married to a “Karen”. I’m sure the question on everyone’s mind is “was she like that at home”, the answer is abso-f*****g-lutely. She was the kind of Karen who it had to be absolutely perfect or I’m complaining. Restaurants, stores, anything. At home was worse. I couldn’t do anything right. Any ambitions or dreams I had, I wasn’t good enough to do...so why try. Ugh. So glad I divorced her! Bonus: the lawyer she hired was an idiot and wrote the paperwork up wrong, so she won’t get anything from my retirement.

I taught my nephews (ages 9 and 11) about 'Karens' last year when they stayed with us for a week after school let out. After describing traits and observing them in the wild, they asked somewhere around day 2... "Is our mom a Karen?"

My reply: "You words, not mine.".

Married to one. She doesn’t get why people think Karens complain so much! It’s annoying for her and she’d like to talk to someone about this.

SIL is a Karen, and her name is very close to "Karen". One of her most recent masterpieces...

Her daughter (my niece) had a big choir performance one night. My family, her family, and my FIL and MIL were going to meet for dinner, and then go to the show. My neighbor owns a very nice Italian restaurant in town, and he arranged for us to have a big table ready when we got there. We (my family of 4) are halfway to the restaurant when my wife decides to check in with her sister with a text message. SIL (Karen) immediately calls back and casually says she's running late (she is ALWAYS late) and that it would be best if we drove to their house to pick them up. To this day I don't understand how that will help us when she's already late and we had a rather tight window to have dinner...but Karen throws a s**t fit when my wife pushes back, so we turn around, pick them up and drive to the restaurant. We sit down, and she scans the menu, scans, asks the waitress questions, tells her a couple times she's not ready to order and needs a few minutes. Meanwhile we are all openly reminding her that we are on a tight window. Doesn't matter!!! Karen WILL NOT be rushed. It should be noted that my neighbor's restaurant has a single page menu that doesn't change and Karen has been to this restaurant MANY TIMES. By the time she decides what she wants to order, we realize we now will not have time to eat. She gives all sorts of s**t to the waitress demanding to-go boxes for our meals that are just now being served. My neighbor then came to our table to figure out what was going on, and she immediately stood up to try to explain what was going on, and threw the waitress under the bus. As we were leaving, I pull my neighbor and the waitress aside to tell them what REALLY happened, profusely apologize, tell them it absolutely was not their fault at all.

Not married to a Karen, but my mom is a Karen whose name is actually Karen. Simply put, I haven’t seen her in over a year because I couldn’t take it anymore. Living with her was just an exhausting nightmare.

Karen’s world revolves around Karen. Nobody else’s issues matter. If you tell her that you had a bad day, she’ll give you 20 reasons why her day was worse. You worked 60 hours this week? Well, when she was your age, she would work 80. You’re in the hospital after having major surgery? She has a pinched nerve in her arm, which is somehow worse. Your boyfriend cheated on you? She couldn’t even begin to tell you about all the heartbreak she’s experienced in her life.

She complains left and right about anything and everything. If you’re taking a week break after just getting back from college, she’ll ask why you haven’t gotten a job yet and claim you’re lazy. If you’re out to eat at a restaurant the food is always too cold or too burnt or too salty. You can only ever go to the places SHE wants to go to, because everything else is c**p. My entire graduation dinner she complained about how cold the food was.

She THRIVES in getting attention and constantly seeks it, but she has very few ACTUAL friends. Facebook is her lifeblood and she’s always looking to start something on there. She’s the queen of sharing uninformed, misguided, conservative propaganda, which always starts fights in her comments. Also, if a tragedy happens in the family (like the passing of my teenage cousin), she’ll make a big scene on Facebook and expect condolences from anyone and everyone, and makes note of the people who don’t give her what she wants.

Don’t even get me started on the blatant racism. I’ve heard everything from, “watch out for black people on the subway. They’ll try to take your purse” to “It should be illegal for those Muslims to cover their faces. You should be able to see someone’s face.” One of my best friends is black and she once told me, “He’s one of the good ones. They should all be like him.”

Minor, but the house ALWAYS has to be spotless. You have a shirt on your bedroom floor? Pick up! You kids are all slobs! We have people coming over (no we don’t and even if we do why would they be going in my bedroom?) Her house is HER house, and she’ll let you know. Any object she has spent money on doesn’t belong to you, it belongs to HER. She also spends way too much money on home decor like oriental rugs, furniture, etc. but then complains about how she has no money.

TL;DR My mother is a Karen who is actually named Karen. Living with her is a nightmare.

And before anyone asks, yes, my dad is divorced from her.

My husband’s ex is Karen. She’s a classic narcissist. When one of our feral hens started acting aggressive towards other hens, my stepson named her Karen.