One more day, one more Karen. Much like many of the excessively demanding women we’ve seen lately — from racists to overly entitled Alabama Karens to screeching Karens — another overly pushy and rude woman has been spotted, but this time in Atlanta, Georgia. What sparked the ruckus this time? Well, during a visit to a restaurant, the Karen got incredibly irate because the waitress wasn’t too happy with her tip. As a result, the Georgia Karen kicked off and made a scene.
The video is recorded from the perspective of the Karen in question, and is accompanied by the caption, “When they think they about to disrespect you.. ATL RESTAURANTS. DO BETTER. CHECK YOUR EMPLOYEES“. At the beginning of the clip, the Karen is stood near the counter, and is speaking to one of the members of restaurant staff. “Hold on. Excuse me.” she exclaims, before saying something difficult to make out clearly, though it sounds like, “No. No. She need to bring her lips here back in over here. Talk about I’m laughing. I’m not laughing, baby girl. I don’t know what you’re talking about. I didn’t have to tip you anything, first of all.” The server, sporting blue denim dungarees and a white t-shirt, approaches the Karen and politely responds, “Yes, ma’am.”
However, the Karen’s meltdown is only just getting started. She continues her irate rant, “And between my meal and my f*cking drink, I already tipped $5, so what are you talking about?” The waitress’s face says it all, as she looks incredibly uncomfortable with the Karen’s abrasive attitude. In fact, the waitress walks away from the situation, and another member of staff takes over. “Hey, hey, hey, hey. What’s happening?” enquires the other employee.
“She’s disrespectful as f*ck.” before saying something hard to discern, though she sounds very angry. “I didn’t do anything wrong.” the Karen says before continuing on, “It doesn’t matter. She needs to stop being disrespectful. You don’t have to give me anything, okay? Yeah, get out of my face. Get out of my personal space. Because had she not been disrespecting me, this would have never been a problem. So, understand who you’re talking to. Yes, get the f*ck out of my way. I don’t give a f*ck who you think you are.”
The employee stands in the way of the Karen, in a bid to stop her from continuing to harass her colleague, but tensions continue to escalate, with the Karen yelling, “Get the f*ck out of my way! This is my f*cking keys over here h*e! Get the f*ck out of my way! Let’s go, ugly a*s! I don’t give a f*ck about none of that!“
With the video snowballing online right now, social media users flooded the comments to give their two cents on the verbal altercation. One Redditor expressed, “Emotional regulation of a poorly behaved toddler.” while another questioned whether tipping culture should continue to exist, stating, “God, just end tipping culture, increase the price of the menu, pay your employees a livable wage, and preemptively stop these assholes from being customers.” Another commenter over on Facebook added, “If you can’t afford to tip, don’t go out to a restaurant“, while another weighed in, writing, “Key phrase she said โunderstand who your talking toโ sheโs a Karen“.
Interestingly, one commenter on Reddit claims to have been in the restaurant while the incident unfolded, and explained, “some context here (i was there): the lady filming laughed at the tip screen after buying a drink. the bartender responded by also laughing and saying that she can choose whatever she wanted. thatโs when the crash out started lol“
It remains unclear what occurred afterwards, but I’m a little bit torn on this one. Yes, the Georgia Karen was clearly in the wrong for her unruly and rude behaviour — we can all agree on that. However, if the waitress was truly unhappy about the Karen’s $5 tip, and showed it in her interactions with the Karen, then that’s not a very good look, either. That all being said, after reading what the Reddit commenter wrote above, I’m inclined to side with the waitress on this one.
