There are many, many ways we’ll remember the summer of 2020. The summer of Covid. The summer of Black Lives Matter. The summer of no sports. And maybe, somewhat like 2019 was the summer of the Area 51 “raid,” 2020 will be the summer of the Karens.
The term “Karen” has taken over on social media following a succession of viral videos of very public meltdowns.
As Urban Dictionary explains , “Karen” refers to “rude, obnoxious and insufferable middle aged white women,” as stereotyped by a particular haircut, entitled attitude, and a penchant for wanting to speak with the manager.
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We’ve seen plenty of videos of Karens doing their thing this summer, often involving a refusal to wear a mask in stores like Starbucks or Costco .
And so, it was only a matter of time until someone took the Karen thing to another level.
Enter Karen as an American Girl doll, mocked up as an ad with her toting a gun, and suggesting she’s “an independant thinker who refuses to wear a mask in public places,” first shared on the Adam the Creator Facebook page .
The gun is not exactly inappropriate considering guns have been involved in Karen incidents, as when one woman pulled a gun on a family trying to leave a Chipotle in Michigan.
It is, quite obviously, a parody.
Yes, it has that American Girl logo at the bottom, but can any reasonable person imagine the company actually putting out a purple-sweatsuited, gun-toting, shopping cart-pushing doll? The fake ad even contains a spelling mistake – so, naturally, most folks thought it was all in good fun.
“I am an AG doll collector and I love this. It is really funny. I love the cute Chucky face,” wrote one person.
“Man its not real i wanted to buy one,” wrote another .
However, enough people did think the parody was real that they decided to complain to the manager.
The manager in this case being American Girl. Somewhat blindsided by the whole thing, American Girl’s reps weighed in on the parody after the complaint, saying they were “disgusted” and promising to take “the appropriate steps to ensure this is removed.”
Of course, there are legal exceptions the company would be subject to regarding a parody.
American Girl later followed up with a tweet to clarify the matter, stating that “American Girl has no intention of censoring this parody meme and anything shared to the contrary was in error. We apologize for any misunderstanding.”
It doesn’t sound like they find much humor in it, but they’re pretty much going to have to live with it all the same.
