If this list proves anything, it's that Karens have been around for a long time. Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down the most notorious, horrible, cruel, or offensive Karen incidents for each year of the 21st century so far.
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00:00 "Do you see how that's incredibly offensive?"
00:03 "Yes, I do.
00:04 That's why I said it."
00:05 Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down the most notorious, horrible, cruel,
00:10 or offensive Karen incidents for each year of the 21st century so far.
00:15 "And a valley woman is going viral after being caught on camera deliberately coughing
00:20 on customers in a grocery store."
00:22 2000, Anchored Down Working as a Canadian news anchor in 1999,
00:29 The wheels on Avery Haynes' career came off due to a joke being accidentally aired
00:33 by a technician in January 2000.
00:37 Haynes was recording an introduction for a report, only to stumble over her words.
00:41 "Haynes stumbled on one of her lines."
00:44 "Protesting Ottawa's farm-made petroglyph."
00:46 "The so-called joke she made about her flub has changed her life."
00:51 She then made an offensive joke about her brief stuttering being an equal opportunity.
00:56 Haynes pushed it further with stereotypes and claimed she would have a successful career
01:00 as such.
01:01 "I kind of like the little stuttering thing.
01:03 It's like equal opportunity, right?
01:05 We have a stuttering newscaster."
01:07 Haynes was fired from the job and the technician was suspended.
01:11 She did apologize and continued to have a successful career in the news business.
01:16 2001, Tennis Tirade Serena and Venus Williams are two of the greatest
01:21 athletes the United States has ever produced.
01:24 While the duo have had all the success on the tennis court, sometimes journalists have
01:29 made horrible comments.
01:31 For example, Sid Rosenberg in 2001, while on radio's IMAS in the morning to discuss
01:37 the French Open, the controversial sports broadcaster called both sisters "boys"
01:42 when discussing their appearance, and derogatorily referred to both Venus and Serena.
01:47 "Serena shocked by racist heckler."
01:50 "See I personally stayed away from that for your benefit."
01:52 "I was on an airplane."
01:53 Even fellow guests and contributors on the show were astonished at the rant.
01:59 2002, Pitching Slurs After making inflammatory comments filled
02:03 with slurs to Sports Illustrated in 1999, you'd think baseball pitcher John Rocker
02:09 would have kept his head down and focused on his MLB career.
02:20 But no.
02:21 In 2002, he was at a restaurant in Dallas, Texas.
02:25 Reportedly, Rocker loudly uttered homophobic insults at two men before he left.
02:29 Then, out in the parking lot, Rocker got into a vile argument with a transgender woman.
02:35 Rocker later apologized and claimed he was badgered by customers there.
02:52 Regardless, that doesn't give the pitcher leeway to be horrendous.
02:56 A waiter who was working there dismissed Rocker's versions of events.
03:00 2003, Mayonnaise Mayhem
03:02 In 2003, Waynetta Nolan was handed the cheeseburger she ordered at the drive-thru at McDonald's
03:09 in Houston, Texas.
03:11 But when she examined it, she realized there was no mayonnaise on it.
03:15 Which didn't come with that burger.
03:17 After arguing with the staff, Nolan lobbed the mayonnaise-less item at them.
03:22 When manager Sherry Jenkins offered her a specially made burger, Nolan complained about
03:26 the fries and soda.
03:28 With Nolan still angry, Jenkins called the cops, then went outside to write down Nolan's
03:33 license plate number.
03:35 Then Nolan hit Jenkins with her car, breaking the manager's pelvis, before speeding off.
03:40 She was later arrested and claimed she accidentally hit the accelerator.
03:44 Nolan was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
03:47 2004, Broadcasting Bias
03:50 At one point, Ron Atkinson was a respected former soccer player and manager who had started
03:55 a new career in punditry and commentary for matches.
03:59 But when Monaco faced Chelsea in the Champions League semi-final in 2004, Atkinson tarnished
04:05 any goodwill he had created.
04:21 Speaking on ITV, he was heard on his microphone making a horrible comment about Chelsea's
04:25 Marcel Desailly that continued a racial slur.
04:28 While it wasn't broadcast in the UK, it was heard in the Middle East and other parts of
04:33 the world.
04:48 With no way back from that, Atkinson apologized and resigned from his position in disgrace.
04:55 2005, Maximus Decimus Quirinius
04:59 Many of us had issues at some point in connecting a phone call.
05:16 But not many of us have taken it out on someone who has nothing to do with technical issues.
05:21 But then again, we're not Russell Crowe.
05:24 In 2005, the Gladiator actor was at the Mercer Hotel in New York when his room landline
05:29 couldn't get through to his wife in Australia.
05:38 Crowe allegedly pulled the device from the wall, argued with the concierge, then threw
05:42 the phone at him, causing injuries.
05:45 While the following lawsuit from the victim was settled for a figure reportedly in the
05:49 six figures, Crowe had to face criminal charges.
05:56 Due to admitting fault, he was given a conditional discharge and fined $160.
06:01 2006, Karen Kramer
06:04 Due to his multi-award-winning work as Cosmo Kramer on Seinfeld, Michael Richards was a
06:10 respected actor and comedian.
06:12 But then his 2006 stand-up set happened at the Laugh Factory in Hollywood, California.
06:18 Being heckled as a comedian is pretty typical.
06:21 Richards' reaction?
06:22 Not so much.
06:27 He was recorded on stage going on an expletive-filled rant at a group of people and, more shockingly,
06:33 screaming racial slurs several times.
06:36 Unsurprisingly, there was a lot of outrage.
06:39 An infamous apology on The Late Show with David Letterman with aid from Jerry Seinfeld
06:43 didn't make the matter go away for Richards.
06:51 2007, Abandoning The Elderly
07:01 In 2007, a couple heard a strange moaning sound coming from the local garbage dump and
07:07 he rode Tamil Nadu, India.
07:10 When the couple arrived, they discovered an ill elderly woman, Chinnamal Palanyapun.
07:15 They took Palanyapun home and fed her as she told them the story.
07:19 She stated that she had been living with one of her daughters.
07:22 However, after an argument in the family over who would look after the ill Palanyapun, the
07:27 daughter took her two sons, Palanyapun's grandsons, to take her somewhere she couldn't
07:32 come back from.
07:33 So they bundled her into a vehicle and dropped her at a dump.
07:37 Unfortunately, Palanyapun didn't know her daughter's address.
07:40 A week after, she sadly passed away.
07:44 2008, Radio Karen's Taxi
07:47 After working as a news reporter for various regional channels, Sam Mason became a reporter
07:52 for BBC Radio Bristol in 2008.
07:55 And only two months later, she wrecked her career trajectory.
07:59 While off-air, Mason called a local taxi firm to pick up her teenage daughter to take her
08:03 to her grandparents.
08:22 During the call, Mason requested the company not send an Asian driver as a guy with a turban
08:27 might freak her out.
08:29 The operator refused to book the racist request, angering the BBC DJ who called back later
08:34 to speak to the manager.
08:35 Mason was also fired for her terrible behaviour.
08:46 The operator, who had illegally recorded the conversation and sent it to the media, was
08:50 unfortunately also let go.
08:53 2009, Tantrum in the Terminal
08:55 In 2009, before the word Karen was used as a negative advective, we had a viral incident
09:01 of one at the Hong Kong International Airport.
09:04 According to reports, an unnamed Chinese woman had missed her flight to San Francisco, California.
09:10 Instead of handling it like a grown-up, she had a full-blown temper tantrum.
09:20 After attempting to run past security to the airplane and failing badly, she resorted to
09:24 yelling.
09:25 Then, airport Karen threw herself to the floor while bellowing "I want to go" in Cantonese
09:31 as an embarrassed older man tried to get her up.
09:41 The airline, Cathay Pacific, who seemed far too accommodating to her bizarre antics, put
09:46 the woman on a later flight to Los Angeles.
09:50 2010, McNugget Menace
09:53 Most people like to mark the new year by either taking care of themselves after a late night
09:57 or doing something significant.
09:59 Well, Melody Duchesne decided to celebrate 2010 with a crime.
10:03 She was at a drive-thru window for a McDonald's in Toledo, Ohio.
10:07 However, as it was the morning, she couldn't get the chicken McNuggets she wanted.
10:16 Instead of getting something else or waiting, Duchesne leaned inside, hit the two employees,
10:21 then chucked a bottle through the window before speeding off.
10:24 She was later arrested for her antics, which she claimed took place under the influence
10:29 of alcohol.
10:30 Regardless, Duchesne was sentenced to 60 days in jail, three years of probation, and had
10:35 to pay for the restaurant's new window.
10:38 2011, The Never-Ending Call
10:41 When you're in the quiet carriage of a train, you'd expect it to be, well, quiet.
10:46 But not if you had LaCashia beer to board in 2011.
10:49 As passengers settled in for a long journey from Oakland, California to Salem, Oregon,
10:54 Beard decided to fill in the time by talking on her phone, which is already against the
10:58 rules.
11:04 But she did it for 16 hours.
11:07 Even with people getting annoyed and arguing with her, forcing staff to get involved and
11:11 make repeated announcements, Beard wouldn't get off her device.
11:19 After the chatty Karen got aggressive with a frustrated passenger, she was removed from
11:28 the train and charged by police for disorderly conduct.
11:31 Beard stated she felt disrespected by the removal.
11:35 2012, United Nations Karen
11:38 Using the London Underground can already be annoying enough.
11:42 It's crowded, the tube's noisy, and you're lucky to get a seat.
11:46 But in 2012, Jacqueline Woodhouse made it a lot worse.
11:51 As she got on, she walked into a black woman, sparking a drunk Woodhouse to erupt in a curse-word-filled
11:56 racist rant.
12:07 On top of telling non-white passengers that it's not their country, she uttered her racist
12:11 idea that while she used to live in England, now it's turned into the United Nations.
12:17 After the video was released, Woodhouse handed herself into the police, where she was charged
12:22 for her tyranny.
12:36 On top of losing her job, she was sentenced to 21 weeks in jail and got a 5-year anti-slavery
12:41 social behaviour order.
12:44 2013, Terrible Tweet
12:46 Before boarding a flight from London, England to Cape Town, South Africa, Juntine Sacco
12:51 sent out a tweet in 2013.
12:54 When she landed 11 hours later, she saw the massive outrage from her words in the hashtag
12:59 #HasJuntineLanded.
13:16 There were articles, parody accounts, and angry posts everywhere.
13:20 It's not too surprising considering Sacco put up a horrendous joke stating she was off
13:24 to South Africa in hopes she wouldn't contract AIDS.
13:28 But she wouldn't since she's white.
13:30 Sacco, who was born in South Africa, apologised for her remarks.
13:34 However, that didn't stop her from being fired as a Senior Director of Corporate Communications
13:39 for the company she worked for.
13:47 2014, Appalling in Australia
13:52 In 2014, a packed train in Sydney, Australia was made more stressful with Karen Bailey
13:57 on board.
13:59 She was recorded going off on a racist rant, using derogatory language and gestures against
14:04 Asian people.
14:05 All while pretending her name was Sue Wilkins to escape consequences.
14:16 However that didn't work.
14:18 Bailey claimed she was under a lot of stress after being scammed out of $100,000 by a man
14:23 she met on a dating site.
14:25 Struggling to find work and knee pain, she was charged for her terrible behaviour and
14:29 pleaded guilty, but escaped a fine.
14:32 Instead, she got a 12-month good behaviour bond.
14:39 However, unsurprisingly, Bailey continued to struggle with finding work as a Legal Secretary
14:47 in the immediate aftermath.
14:49 2015, Second Time's No Charm
14:53 Having been fired from her workplace in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina for yelling racial slurs
14:57 at a customer in 2015, Tara Lynn Belcher went for double or nothing.
15:02 After a man from the store followed her outside to the parking lot to record her, she launched
15:07 into another racist tirade against him.
15:19 She followed up by spitting on the guy, causing him to react physically.
15:23 The man also claimed Belcher pulled his dreadlocks.
15:26 However, when the police arrived on a false robbery claim, Belcher claimed the man had
15:31 spat on her, attacked her and stolen her cell phone.
15:34 When they saw the video evidence, they arrested Belcher for assault, battery and possessing
15:39 an illegal substance.
15:42 2016, Broker Brawl
15:47 In 2016, Taiwanese securities broker Dina Huang Chi-Yung was returning to her Singapore
15:55 condominium in a taxi after a night of entertaining clients and consuming a massive amount of
16:00 sake.
16:01 However, she decided not to pay and attempted to leave, forcing the driver to hold onto
16:06 her bag.
16:16 Huang responded by hitting him multiple times and screaming at him, even bragging about
16:21 her wealth.
16:22 When he released her, she went and got help from a manager at a nearby restaurant.
16:26 Then Huang attacked a security guard, biting the latter.
16:34 When the police arrived, they found the broker asleep outside the restaurant.
16:37 In 2018, Huang was jailed for three weeks and fined $1,000 for her rampage of assaults.
16:44 2017, Shopping for Ignorance
16:47 All it took was Eva Hicks politely asking to move past a woman in a Walmart in Bentonville,
16:53 Arkansas.
16:54 In 2017, she was trying to get some medicine but what she got was a Karen launching into
17:00 a racist tirade.
17:10 The unnamed woman began complaining that she had apparently been told to move aside on
17:15 every aisle during her shopping, before telling Hicks to go back to Mexico.
17:20 When another customer thankfully called this Karen ignorant, she reiterated by spitting
17:24 out a racial slur.
17:26 An assistant manager eventually arrived to stand up for Hicks and the other customer,
17:30 which upset Karen.
17:32 So she headed for the hills.
17:39 2018, Permit Patty
17:46 It takes a special kind of Karen to complain to the cops about a child selling bottles
17:51 of water on the street to raise money to go to Disneyland.
17:54 But that's exactly what Allison Edel did, now also known as Permit Patty.
18:07 She was recorded telling the police the African-American girl was selling the water illegally without
18:12 a permit.
18:13 Edel claimed she took action since she was working from her San Francisco, California
18:17 home, but the noise from the sales was distracting her.
18:20 She also stated she didn't actually call the cops, but her 911 call audio was discovered.
18:27 Uh-oh!
18:28 With the massive backlash, Edel was forced to resign as CEO of her company after local
18:32 businesses cut ties with the firm.
18:46 2019, No Apology Karen
18:49 If you were at a restaurant and another table was apparently being loud, would you talk
18:54 to them reasonably or aggressively confront them and mutter racial slurs?
18:59 If you awfully chose the latter, you'd be in the same boat as Nancy Goodman in 2019.
19:17 At a grill restaurant in Raleigh, North Carolina, she was filmed by Shonda Stewart and Lakeisha
19:22 Shaw as she got into an argument with them and used a racial insult.
19:27 When she was interviewed later by the media, Goodman refused to apologize.
19:31 Stated she would use the slur again and mentioned one of the causes was that she had tremendous
19:35 anxiety, as though that gave her a pass.
19:38 The restaurant was horrified at what happened
19:52 and banned Goodman from their establishments.
19:55 2020, Central Park Karen
19:58 In 2020, comic book creator Christian Cooper was enjoying the outdoors and bird-watching
20:04 in New York City's famed Central Park.
20:06 However, his eyes left the feathered creatures when he saw Amy Cooper, no relation, and her
20:12 dog who was off its leash, which was prohibited there.
20:16 After Christian asked her to put a leash on her dog, Amy Cooper did something dangerous
20:33 and vile.
20:37 She called the cops and made up a story about an African-American man threatening her.
20:41 She was investigated for her fake report, but eventually, any charges were dropped after
20:46 she completed an educational program on racial identity.
20:49 However, the court of public opinion ruled harshly against her and she was fired from
20:54 her job at an investment firm.
20:56 She appealed that firing, but lost that case in 2023.
21:07 2021, Coughing Karen
21:12 It's bonkers how many Karens were triggered by people trying to stay safe during a pandemic
21:17 by wearing masks and social distancing.
21:19 And in 2021, it was Janine Hoskovec's turn in that disappointing spotlight.
21:35 She was recorded following a woman and her child around a store in Lincoln, Nebraska.
21:39 On top of refusing to wear a mask and bringing out the cliche of referring to those wearing
21:44 masks as sheep, Hoskovec was enjoying spreading fear as she repeatedly coughed at the woman,
21:50 smirking as she claimed it was due to allergies.
21:53 As the footage spread outrage online, Hoskovec's employers at a German software company were
21:58 notified.
21:59 They investigated the incident and then fired her.
22:02 Internet investigators also identifying Hoskovec's employer as SAP, which confirmed it was investigating
22:09 the situation, later tweeting she no longer works there.
22:13 2022, Plano Karen
22:15 In 2022, after an evening at a restaurant in Plano, Texas, four Indian American women
22:21 were set to get in their cars and head home.
22:24 Instead, Esmeralda Upton popped up in the parking lot.
22:28 Reportedly, without any provocation, she began ranting at them.
22:38 Upton stated how much she hates Indians while throwing in more racial slurs, insults, and
22:43 then getting physical with them.
22:45 When she realized one of the women was recording the encounter, Upton's rage increased.
23:03 She even threatened their lives.
23:05 The police eventually arrived but did little except de-escalate the situation.
23:10 However, the next day they arrested Upton on several charges.
23:19 2023, Bellowing Intimidation
23:33 It's always impressive how calm people can be when faced with horrid racism.
23:38 In 2023, Rita Bellow was at a pizzeria in Hattboro, Pennsylvania.
23:44 Livid that the establishment had Spanish on the TV, she launched into a tirade against
23:49 the owner, Omar Quinonez.
24:02 After claiming the Spanish program was an insult to Americans, Bellow demanded her money
24:06 back and claimed Quinonez was an illegal immigrant.
24:21 Weirdly she called the other staff members racist for filming the incident, then began
24:25 recording herself and making up what happened.
24:28 The police arrived later and Bellow was charged with ethnic intimidation and harassment.
24:34 Which Karen story horrified you the most?
24:36 Let us know in the comments below.
24:57 Thanks for watching!
25:07 (upbeat music)