The “Karen” phenomenon has taken over a good chunk of cultural bandwidth over the past many weeks, and spawned parodies that are minting viral stars like comedian Blaire Erskine and Eric D’Alessandro. Here are 6 recent gems.
You’ve all seen the awful videos of “Karens” and “Chads/Kevins” fighting the power by making scenes at retailers, getting slapped at gas stations, and generally seeking attention from the manager. At its most awful, the phenomenon is truly frightening.
But like viral superstar Sarah Cooper, whose spoofs of President Donald Trump mine hilarity from darkly surreal times, others have begun to use the Karen phenomenon as inspiration for parodies that are equal parts knee-slapping and thought-provoking.
Actor and comedian D’Alessandro went viral in a big way this week with a music video parody pegged to Walmart’s announcement that it will require all customers to wear masks in its stores. Entitled “Karen – Mask Off Remix (Walmart Diss),” the video has racked up around a million views across Twitter and
In a blonde bob wig, D’Alessandro flows like Chardonnay over a hip-hop track, hitting Karen tropes and mocking conspiratorial opposition to masks, but also reminding viewers constantly that the result of such defiance is to infect others who are complying with the rules.
Also scoring this week is a parody ad for “Karens Gone Wild: COVID-19 Edition,” a 90s- style commercial for a DVD set that hilariously deconstructs several subspecies of Karen. The style of the ad is dead-on, and will have you reaching for your credit card to get bonus discs “Racist Karens Gone Wild: All Lives Matter Edition” and “Kevins Gone Wild.”
And then there’s Blair Erskine, who has carved out her own niche with impersonations based on red-hot viral moments, infused with cutting originality and absurdist elan. In her latest creation, Erskine stars as the fictional daughter of Georgia Governor Brian Kemp, and lampoons the governor’s opposition to mask mandates and other coronavirus precautions.
Several amusing through-lines in Erskine’s videos are evident here, such as children’s names like “Brian, Amoxicillin, and Margaret Mitchell House,” and replies from people who really believe she’s the character she’s portraying.
Erskine also weighed in on the Walmart mask mandate in a clip that features the classic line “Next, your gonna tell me I can’t smell a gun before I buy
She also took on last weekend’s brief Disney World reopening in darkly-comic fashion as the newly-symptomatic mother of “Hayley-Anne, Remdesivir, and Diabetic Ketoacidosis.”
Earlier this month, Erskine hit it big with her portrayal of the wife of Dan Maples, the man who was fired after being filmed freaking out at a Costco. A lot of people mistook the obvious parody for the real thing.
So the next time you think about making a scene because someone asked you to wear a mask, remember these videos, and that old entertainment maxim: Dying is easy. Comedy is hard.