The last few years have seen a plague of Karens descend upon an endless array of unsuspecting shoppers, minimum wage employees, and people going about their business. Despite the sometimes harsh consequences these entitled humans face after going viral in the aftermath of their Karen moments, it seems like more Karens crop up every day.
Fortunately, one TikToker may have discovered an unofficial Karen deterrent, which they used flawlessly on a woman who allegedly wouldn’t stop pestering them. According to TikToker @badassriah‘s caption for the short clip, the woman “kept harassing” her and her friends. The video also sports a text overlay at the beginning, which proclaims that the unsuspecting woman “met the right Black girl to be racist to.”
The video is exceedingly simple and shockingly effective. It doesn’t begin until after any alleged real Karen drama has passed, and instead simply shows the woman identified as a Karen, dressed in baggy attire and a black slouchy beanie, walking down the sidewalk near @badassriah. She seems to be in the midst of saying something as the video begins, but is immediately cut off by the TikToker’s incredible Karen repellent.
She simply shouts “what” over and over again in the woman’s face.
It is unerringly effective, and almost frustratingly simple. After actual years of dealing with a fresh Karen outburst every day, it is somewhat dumbfounding to realize that all we really needed was to beat them at their own irritating game. @badassriah showed the world how to out-annoy a Karen, and commenters are absolutely eating it up.
The entire duration of the 14-second clip is composed of @badassriah repeating “what” in harsh, jarring tones. The woman’s repeated attempts to get a word in edgewise are foiled by the TikToker’s dedication to the bit, which sees her increase in volume and intensity anytime the woman attempts to pipe up. In a second text overlay, she notes that the woman shouldn’t “start nothing you can’t finish.”
In response to one—or a few dozen—of the “what’s,” the woman blurts out “nothing,” before attempting to walk away. When the TikToker’s blaring repetition of the pronoun doesn’t cease, the woman lets out a feeble demand that she “stop it,” as she continues to retreat, before polishing off the video with a desperate, and shrill, command to “stop fucking talking to me!”
People in the comments section treated @badassriah with veneration, heaping her with praise for discovering the simple, apparent Karen deterrent. One user proclaimed the act an “alarm system for Karens.”
Other viewers came to the sudden realization that, to defeat a Karen, “you gotta out crazy them.”
Dubbed the “Karen Kryptonite,” the “What” method become an instant favorite among viewers. Several people felt it “sounds like a broken car alarm,” but numerous other viewers compared @badassriah to Lil John—famous for his recognizable “What’s”—and Cardi B.
Numerous viewers have requested that @badassriah make the audio into a usable sound, so TikTok users are all but assured to hear a lot more of those blaring “what’s” in the coming weeks.
The Daily Dot was unable to reach @badassriah for comment.
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