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‘Karens in the air’: Woman brings microphone onto airplane to rant about COVID-19 in viral TikTok

Flight attendants told the woman she’d be cuffed if she didn’t stop.

Photo of Stacy Fernandez

Stacy Fernandez

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In a surprising display of theatrics, even for someone dubbed a Karen, a passenger on a plane got up in front of everyone and started ranting about COVID-19. She even brought her own headset microphone so everyone could hear her.

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Karen stands before her fellow passengers looking very official with her headset, sandwiched between two actual flight attendants doing their best to get her to go back to her seat.

“This is my microphone and you can’t take it. I tried borrowing yours, you don’t want to let me use it,” Air Karen tells the flight attendants. “I brought my microphone I’m gonna use it.”

Singer-songwriter Jawny posted the video mid-flight on Saturday and said he bought in-flight Wi-Fi just so he could upload the incident in realtime. The viral video racked up more than 900,000 views and 80,000 likes in 11 hours.

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@jawny

someone come get her

♬ original sound – JAWNY

After trying to verbally deescalate the situation one flight attendant warns that if the woman doesn’t settle down additional measures will be taken.

“Get in your seat immediately or we are going to have to cuff you,” one flight attendant says. It’s unclear which airline they’re flying on.

“You’re gonna cuff me?” the woman replies, seemingly surprised there may be consequences for her actions. “I don’t need to be cuffed, I’m completely harmless. I think you’re all enjoying this because like I said I’m not terrible to look at.”

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In the back you can hear an annoyed passenger say something to the effect of, “You just want the attention, that’s what she wants.” As Karen continues her rant, more irritated passengers start to chime in, though what they say is unclear.

The woman keeps yelling about people not knowing “what reality is anymore” and is directed to her seat by the flight attendants where she picks up a travel carrier with her dog in it. She is then escorted to a separate part of the plane by the flight attendants. One of the flight attendants is holding what appear to be yellow disposable hand cuffs, though she’s not seen putting them on the woman.

“My dog has better sense than any of you,” she continues as she’s ushered away.

Of course the comment section had some jokes to get off.

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“That no fly list gonna be so long it’ll look like a CVS receipt,” one viewer said.

“She really though she was gonna do a TED talk [during] the flight,” another wrote.

“Portable mics are about to be banned from carry on bags,” one person quipped.

“Karens in the air,” a user commented. “We call em Airens.”

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Jawny did not immediately respond to the Daily Dot’s request for comment via TikTok comment and email.


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