Top 24 WORST Karens of Each Year (2000 - 2023)

Top 24 WORST Karens of Each Year

Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down the most notorious, horrible, cruel or offensive Karen incidents for each year of the 21st century so far.

2000: Anchored Down
Working as a Canadian news anchor in 1999, the wheels on Avery Haines’s career came off due to a joke being accidentally aired by a technician in January 2000. Haines was recording an introduction for a report, only to stumble over her words. She then made an offensive joke about her brief stuttering being an equal opportunity. Haines pushed it further with stereotypes and claimed she would have a successful career as such. Haines was fired from the job and the technician was suspended. She did apologize and continued to have a successful career in the news business.

2001: Tennis Tirade
Serena and Venus Williams are two of the greatest athletes the United States has ever produced. While the duo have had all the success on the tennis court, sometimes journalists have made horrible comments. For example, Sid Rosenberg in 2001. While on radio’s “Imus in the Morning'' to discuss the French Open, the controversial sports broadcaster called both sisters “boys” when discussing their appearance, and derogatorily referred to both Venus and Serena. Even fellow guests and contributors on the show were astonished at the rant.

2002: Pitching Slurs
After making inflammatory comments filled with slurs to Sports Illustrated in 1999, you’d think baseball pitcher John Rocker would have kept his head down and focused on his MLB career. But no. In 2002, he was at a restaurant in Dallas, Texas. Reportedly, Rocker loudly uttered homophobic insults at two men before he left. Then, out in the parking lot, Rocker got into a vile argument with a transgender woman. Rocker later apologized and claimed he was badgered by customers there. Regardless, that doesn’t give the pitcher leeway to be horrendous. A waiter who was working there dismissed Rocker’s version of events.

2003: Mayonnaise Mayhem
In 2003, Waynetta Nolan was handed the cheeseburger she ordered at the drive-thru at McDonald’s in Houston, Texas. But when she examined it, she realized there was no mayonnaise on it, which didn’t come with that burger. After arguing with staff, Nolan lobbed the mayonnaise-less item at them. When manager Sherry Jenkins offered her a specially-made burger, Nolan complained about the fries and soda. With Nolan still angry, Jenkins called the cops, then went outside to write down Nolan’s license plate number. Then Nolan hit Jenkins with her car, breaking the manager’s pelvis, before speeding off. She was later arrested and claimed she accidentally hit the accelerator. Nolan was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

2004: Broadcasting Bias
At one point, Ron Atkinson was a respected former soccer player and manager who had started a new career in punditry and commentary for matches. But when Monaco faced Chelsea in the Champions League semi-final in 2004, Atkinson tarnished any goodwill he had created. Working on ITV, he was heard on his microphone making a horrible comment about Chelsea’s Marcel Desailly that continued a racial slur. While it wasn’t broadcast in the UK, it was heard in the Middle East and other parts of the world. With no way back from that, Atkinson apologized and resigned from his position in disgrace.

2005: Maximus Decimus Karenius
Many of us have had issues at some point in connecting a phone call. But not many of us have taken it out on someone who has nothing to do with technical issues. But, then again, we’re not Russell Crowe. In 2005, the “Gladiator” actor was at the Mercer Hotel in New York when his room’s landline couldn’t get through to his wife in Australia. Crowe allegedly pulled the device from the wall, argued with the concierge, then threw the phone at him, causing injuries. While the following lawsuit from the victim was settled for a figure reportedly in the six figures, Crowe had to face criminal charges. Due to admitting fault, he was given a conditional discharge and fined $160.

2006: Karen Kramer
Due to his multi-award-winning work as Cosmo Kramer on “Seinfeld,” Michael Richards was a respected actor and comedian. But then, his 2006 stand-up set happened at the Laugh Factory in Hollywood, California. Being heckled as a comedian is pretty typical, Richards’s reaction…not so much. He was recorded on stage going on an expletive-filled rant at a group of people, and, more shockingly, screaming racial slurs several times. Unsurprisingly, there was a lot of outrage. An infamous apology on the “Late Show with David Letterman” with aid from Jerry Seinfeld didn’t make the matter go away for Richards.

2007: Abandoning the Elderly
In 2007, a couple heard a strange moaning sound coming from the local garbage dump in Erode, Tamil Nadu, India. When the couple arrived, they discovered an ill elderly woman, Chinnammal Palaniappan. They took Palaniappan home and fed her as she told them the story. She stated she had been living with one of her daughters. However, after an argument in the family over who would look after the ill Palaniappan , the daughter told her two sons, Palaniappan’s grandsons, to take her somewhere she couldn’t come back from. So, they bundled her into a vehicle and dropped her at the dump. Unfortunately, Palaniappan didn’t know her daughter’s address. A week after, she sadly passed away.

2008: Radio Karen's Taxi
After working as a news reporter for various regional channels, Sam Mason became a presenter for BBC Radio Bristol in 2008. And only two months later, she wrecked her career trajectory. While off-air, Mason called a local taxi firm to pick up her teenage daughter to take her to her grandparents. During the call, Mason requested the company not send an Asian driver as, “a guy with a turban might freak her out.” The operator refused to book the racist request, angering the BBC DJ who called back later to speak to a manager. Mason was fired for her terrible behavior. The operator, who had illegally recorded the conversation and sent it to the media, was unfortunately also let go.

2009: Tantrum in the Terminal
In 2009, before the word “Karen” was used as a negative advective, we had a viral incident of one at the Hong Kong International Airport. According to reports, an unnamed Chinese woman had missed her flight to San Francisco, California. Instead of handling it like a grown-up, she had a full-blown temper tantrum. After attempting to run past security to the airplane and failing badly, she resorted to yelling. Then, airport Karen threw herself to the floor while bellowing “I want to go” in Cantonese as an embarrassed older man tried to get her up. The airline Cathay Pacific, who seemed far too accommodating to her bizarre antics, put the woman on a later flight to Los Angeles.

2010: McNugget Menace
Most people like to mark the New Year by either taking care of themselves after a late night or doing something significant. Well, Melodi Dushane decided to celebrate 2010 with a crime. She was at a drive-thru window for a McDonald’s in Toledo, Ohio. However, as it was the morning, she couldn’t get the chicken McNuggets she wanted. Instead of getting something else, or waiting, Dushane leaned inside, hit two employees, then chucked a bottle through the window before speeding off. She was later arrested for her antics, which she claimed took place under the influence of alcohol. Regardless, Dushane was sentenced to 60 days in jail, three years of probation, and had to pay for the restaurant’s new window.

2011: The Never-Ending Call
When you’re in the quiet carriage of a train, you expect it to be, well, quiet. But not if you had Lakeysha Beard aboard in 2011. As passengers settled in for a long journey from Oakland, California, to Salem, Oregon, Beard decided to fill in the time by talking on her phone, which is already against the rules. But she did it for 16 hours! Even with people getting annoyed and arguing with her, forcing staff to get involved and make repeated announcements, Beard wouldn’t get off her device. After the chatty Karen got aggressive with a frustrated passenger, she was removed from the train and charged by the police for disorderly conduct. Beard stated she felt “disrespected" by the removal.

2012: United Nations Karen
Using the London Underground can already be annoying enough. It’s crowded, the Tube's noisy, and you’re lucky to get a seat. But in 2012, Jacqueline Woodhouse made it a lot worse. As she got on, she walked into a black woman, sparking a drunk Woodhouse to erupt in a curse-word-filled racist rant. On top of telling non-white passengers that it’s “not their country,” she uttered her racist idea that while she used to live in England, now it’s turned into the United Nations. After the video was released, Woodhouse handed herself into the police, where she was charged for her tirade. On top of losing her job, she was sentenced to 21 weeks in jail and got a 5-year antisocial behavior order.

2013: Terrible Tweet
Before boarding a flight from London, England, to Cape Town, South Africa, Justine Sacco sent out a tweet in 2013. When she landed 11 hours later, she saw the massive outrage from her words and the hashtag “#HasJustinelanded.” There were articles, parody accounts, and angry posts everywhere. It’s not too surprising considering Sacco put up a horrendous “joke” stating she was off to South Africa and hoped she wouldn't contract AIDS, but she wouldn’t since she’s white. Sacco, who was born in South Africa, apologized for her remarks. However, that didn’t stop her from being fired as a Senior Director of Corporate Communications for the company she worked for.

2014: Appaling in Australia
In 2014, a packed train in Sydney, Australia, was made more stressful with Karen Bailey onboard. She was recorded going off on a racist rant, using derogatory language and gestures against Asian people, all while pretending her name was “Sue Wilkins” to escape consequences. However, that didn’t work. Bailey claimed she was under a lot of stress after being scammed out of $100,000 by a man she met on a dating site, struggling to find work, and knee pain. She was charged for her terrible behavior and pleaded guilty, but escaped a fine. Instead, she got a 12-month good behavior bond. However, unsurprisingly, Bailey continued to struggle with finding work as a legal secretary in the immediate aftermath.

2015: Second Time's No Charm
Having been fired from her workplace in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, for yelling racial slurs at a customer in 2015, Tara Lynn Belcher went for double or nothing. After a man from the store followed her outside to the parking lot to record her, she launched into another racist tirade against him. She followed up by spitting on the guy, causing him to react physically. The man also claimed Belcher pulled his dreadlocks. However, when the police arrived on a false robbery claim, Belcher claimed the man had spat on her, attacked her, and stolen her cell phone. When they saw the video evidence, they arrested Belcher for assault, battery, and possessing an illegal substance.

2016: Broker Brawl
In 2016, Taiwanese securities broker Dina Huang Chih-Yung was returning to her Singapore condominium in a taxi after a night of entertaining clients and consuming a massive amount of sake. However, she decided not to pay and attempted to leave, forcing the driver to hold onto her bag. Huang responded by hitting him multiple times and screaming at him, even bragging about her wealth. When he released her, she went and got help from a manager at the nearby restaurant. Then Huang attacked a security guard, biting the latter. When the police arrived, they found the broker asleep outside the restaurant. In 2018, Huang was jailed for three weeks and fined $1,000 for her rampage of assaults.

2017: Shopping for Ignorance
All it took was Eva Hicks politely asking to move past a woman in a Walmart in Bentonville, Arkansas. Back in 2017, she was trying to get some medicine, but what she got was a Karen launching into a racist tirade. The unnamed woman began complaining that she had apparently been told to move aside on every aisle during her shopping, before telling Hicks to go back to Mexico. When another customer thankfully called this Karen ignorant, she retaliated by spitting out a racial slur. An assistant manager eventually arrived to stand up for Hicks and the other customer, which upset Karen, so she headed for the hills.

2018: Permit Patty
It takes a special kind of Karen to complain to the cops about a child selling bottles of water on the street to raise money to go to Disneyland. But that’s exactly what Alison Ettel did, now also known as Permit Patty. She was recorded telling the police the African American girl was selling the water “illegally” without a permit. Ettel claimed she took action since she was working from her San Francisco, California, home but the noise from the sales was distracting her. She also stated she didn’t actually call the cops… but her 911 call audio was discovered. Uh-oh. With the massive backlash, Ettel was forced to resign as CEO of her company after local businesses cut ties with the firm.

2019: No Apology Karen
If you were at a restaurant and another table was apparently being loud, would you talk to them reasonably, or aggressively confront them and mutter racial slurs? If you awfully choose the latter, you’d be in the same boat as Nancy Goodman in 2019. At a grill restaurant in Raleigh, North Carolina, she was filmed by Chanda Stewart and Lakesha Shaw as she got into an argument with them and used a racial insult. When she was interviewed later by the media, Goodman refused to apologize, stated she would use the slur again, and mentioned one of the causes was that she has “tremendous anxiety,” as though that gave her a pass. The restaurant was horrified at what happened and banned Goodman from their establishment.

2020: Central Park Karen
In 2020, comic book creator Christian Cooper was enjoying the outdoors and bird-watching in New York City’s famed Central Park. However, his eyes left the feathered creatures when he saw Amy Cooper — no relation — and her dog, who was off its leash, which was prohibited there. After Christian asked her to put a leash on her dog, Amy Cooper did something dangerous and vile. She called the cops and made up a story about an African American man threatening her. She was investigated for her fake report but eventually any charges were dropped after she completed an educational program on racial identity. However, the court of public opinion ruled harshly against her, and she was fired from her job at an investment firm. She appealed that firing, but lost that case in 2023.

2021: Coughing Karen
It's bonkers how many Karens were triggered by people trying to stay safe during a pandemic by wearing masks and social distancing. And in 2021, it was Janene Hoskovec’s turn in that disappointing spotlight. She was recorded following a woman and her child around a store in Lincoln, Nebraska. On top of refusing to wear a mask and bringing out the cliché of referring to those wearing masks as “sheep,” Hoskovec was enjoying spreading fear as she repeatedly coughed at the woman, smirking as she claimed it was due to allergies. As the footage spread outrage online, Hoskovec’s employers at a German software company were notified. They investigated the incident and then fired her.

2022: Plano Karen
In 2022, after an evening at a restaurant in Plano, Texas, four Indian-American women were set to get in their cars and head home. Instead, Esmeralda Upton popped up in the parking lot. Reportedly, without any provocation, she began ranting at them. Upton stated how much she hates Indians while throwing in more racial slurs, insults, and then getting physical with them. When she realized one of the women was recording the encounter, Upton’s rage increased. She even threatened their lives. The police eventually arrived but did little except de-escalate the situation. However, the next day, they arrested Upton on several charges.

2023: Bellowing Intimidation
It’s always impressive how calm people can be when faced with horrid racism. In 2023, Rita Bellew was at a pizzeria in Hatboro, Pennsylvania. Livid that the establishment had Spanish on the TV, she launched into a tirade against the owner, Omar Quiñones. After claiming the Spanish program was an insult to Americans, Bellew demanded her money back and claimed Quiñones was an “illegal immigrant.” Weirdly, she called the other staff member “racist” for filming the incident, then began recording herself and making up what happened. The police arrived later, and Bellew was charged with ethnic intimidation and harassment.

Which Karen story horrified you the most? Let us know in the comments below.