Item — HN Reader

Oh hardly, using a sterotypical name is a very common comedic device. Tarquin and Julian are out-of-touch upper class people who probably go on illegal fox hunts, Karen gets unreasonably angry over petty things at low-level customer service people who can't argue back, Doris insists on driving at 25 mph in a 60 while her husband Bernard shouts at passing children for sport. Kevin is roughly the male equivalent of Karen, while Chad is a world-reknowned cad. Billy No Mates is famous for being alone, while Johnny Foreigner occasionally struggles with idioms.

Joe Public of course is usually well aware of this usage and doesn't actually think all people with these names are the sterotype they represent.

2 comments

>using a sterotypical name is a very common comedic device

It is, and most of these memes keep some of the levity of their comedian origins. This particular meme seems unusually nasty and serious in comparison, but maybe it's just because it hurts someone close to me.

I think it's particularly vitriolic because it represents a deeper social issue, the bullying of underpaid customer service employees who lose their jobs if they defend themselves. The people who suffer most from "Karenish" behaviour can't call an entitled, bullying shitehawk what they are in person so it comes out as a meme. "Doris's" sluggish driving or "Tarquin's" excessive privately-educated mannerisms are merely annoying, while "Karen's" screaming and shouting at people who can't call them out is something worse.

I suppose that doesn't change the fact it's a bit crappy for all the perfectly decent people called Karen out there. While I think this behaviour does need a good snarl word to call it out when it happens, perhaps "Karen" isn't it and we can do better.

Die in a fire