# Who Was the First Karen? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 17, 2020, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-first-karen/915577 "2020-07-17T14:00:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Ynnad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/4491bb/32.png) [@Ynnad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ynnad)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2020, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-first-karen/915577/1 "2020-07-17T14:00:47Z")
Who was the first person on the Internet to be explicitly referred to as a Karen? Not just someone named Karen but a Karen Karen. No offense intended to people actually named Karen. I’ve known some really nice people with that name. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2020, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-first-karen/915577/2 "2020-07-17T14:37:38Z")
Oh, just the internet. I was going to say Eve. Don’t you know why they really got kicked out of the garden? ---
**Author:** ![Dorjan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dorjan/32/12440_2.png) [@Dorjan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dorjan)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2020, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-first-karen/915577/3 "2020-07-17T14:52:01Z")
Karens have existed for a long while, but the first memed Karen I can recall was BBQ Becky. > **[Woman Calls Police On Black Family For BBQing At A Lake In Oakland](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/woman-calls-police-oakland-barbecue_n_5af50125e4b00d7e4c18f741)** > > Their crime? Using the wrong type of grill in a barbecue-designated zone. ---
**Author:** ![chela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chela/32/21582_2.png) [@chela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chela)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2020, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-first-karen/915577/4 "2020-07-17T14:53:07Z")
That is funny! Too many people are now trying to get a rise out of any ol white lady. I saw one vid where a gma nicely asked a young woman to cover her butt at the park because she was walking around in a string thong and little kids were staring at her. So the exhibitionist turned her phone at the old lady and posts it as a Karen vid. Lame. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2020, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-first-karen/915577/5 "2020-07-17T14:57:59Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > Don’t you know why they really got kicked out of the garden? Because the serpent told her if she wanted to eat, she needed to put on shoes and a shirt and it was downhill from there. ---
**Author:** ![Ynnad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/4491bb/32.png) [@Ynnad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ynnad)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2020, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-first-karen/915577/6 "2020-07-17T15:00:12Z")
BBQ Becky exhibited Karen-like behavior but was she explicitly referred to as a “Karen”? I couldn’t find it in the link but I am trying to do four different things at the same time this morning and might have missed it. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2020, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-first-karen/915577/7 "2020-07-17T15:00:44Z")
> [@Dorjan](#): > > the first memed Karen I can recall was BBQ Becky I searched for “Karen” in that article but didn’t find it. I could be wrong, but I think the OP is looking for the first to be explicitly referred to as a “Karen.” ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2020, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-first-karen/915577/8 "2020-07-17T15:04:54Z")
As it turns out, there’s a [wiki page](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karen_(pejorative)) on just this subject. ISTM, the name Karen is about as random as Felicia (as in Bye Felicia). ---
**Author:** ![Folly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/folly/32/3219_2.png) [@Folly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folly)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2020, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-first-karen/915577/9 "2020-07-17T15:08:40Z")
Yeah, it seemed like an alliterative thing at first. I don’t know why it seems to have settled on Karen. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2020, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-first-karen/915577/10 "2020-07-17T15:09:54Z")
‘Bye Felicia’ was a line from a movie with a character named Felicia, not a big distinction, but the name wasn’t created to describe the personality or behavior. I will mention that my son was engaged to a girl named Felicia and she dumped him hard and just about everybody who knew them enjoyed saying “Bye Felicia” too her. Some of her own family regretted that they weren’t saying goodbye to her. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2020, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-first-karen/915577/11 "2020-07-17T15:20:09Z")
Hey. I’m getting triggered. Just sayin’ 🙄 ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2020, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-first-karen/915577/12 "2020-07-17T15:20:22Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > As it turns out, there’s a [wiki page](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karen_(pejorative)) on just this subject. ISTM, the name Karen is about as random as Felicia (as in Bye Felicia). Not what I’m seeing. Did they newly add that paragraph about the Reddit user Fuck\_You\_Karen who was complaining about his wife who was actually named Karen, and then became a the name for anyone who acted like her? > Another use of the term _Karen_ as an [internet meme](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_meme) dates to an anonymous [Reddit](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reddit) user, Fuck\_You\_Karen, who posted rants denigrating his ex-wife Karen, whom he alleged had taken both his children and, later, his house during divorce proceedings. The posts led to the creation of a [subreddit](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subreddit) in 2017, r/FuckYouKaren, to both compile a narrative and share memes about the posts. Since Fuck\_You\_Karen deleted his account, the subreddit refocused to memes about the stereotype in general rather than one specific woman.[[4]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karen_(pejorative)#cite_note-Romano-4)[[5]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karen_(pejorative)#cite_note-BI-5) ---
**Author:** ![jnglmassiv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2020, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-first-karen/915577/13 "2020-07-17T18:22:17Z")
Recent GQ thread: [Why Karen?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-karen/850633) ---
**Author:** ![Zyada](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zyada/32/3028_2.png) [@Zyada](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zyada)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2020, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-first-karen/915577/14 "2020-07-17T21:53:29Z")
And someone in that thread linked to Know Your Meme/Karen, which does a good history of notable Karen-ish Karens ---
**Author:** ![Locrian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/locrian/32/14146_2.png) [@Locrian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Locrian)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2020, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-first-karen/915577/15 "2020-07-17T23:04:18Z")
Donald Trump. Absolutely. He is the inspiration.