TikTok footage of Karens in the wild almost always guarantees a viral video. People love to hate customers asking questions at restaurants or yelling at retail workers unprompted. You have to be careful though, sometimes posting footage of your latest on-the-street argument may cause you to look like the bad guy.
In this particular instance, a man posted footage of a woman confronting him outside of the post office, asking him not to take video of her and her car. She seemed to be making a drop off to USPS and the videographer appeared to be making that errand very difficult for her. When she requested he stop filming her, he stated that he simply “declined” her request.
She was able to make her way in and out of USPS only for him to still be standing next to her car, filming. However, when she came back out he continued to film her and harass her, to the point where she flagged down a nearby police officer and the USPS managers who said that the man had been harassing people outside all day. The woman had a shockingly good attitude about the whole situation, teasing the cameraman and making jokes. She even asked if this was how he treated all of the women in his life.
Despite the TikToker’s efforts to frame the woman as an entitled Karen who “wants to control everything.” Unfortunately for him, commenters were quick to take the woman’s side, even saying that they only watched a few seconds of the video before making up their mind. Some people said that put in her shoes, they would have just ignored him, run their errands, and driven away. “Dude really wanted a reaction out of her. He was so out of line,” one commenter even added. It’s safe to say that, no matter how the woman reacted, viewers were not down with someone harassing people as they tried to run their errands.
According to the United States Postal Service’s website, filming on post office premises actually requires a media request. Informal videos and snapshots are allowed, but only if the videography and photography don’t disrupt post office operations or post office patrons. While it is legal to film on a public street, harassing them and continuing to do so when they ask you to stop, is generally frowned upon.
This time around it seems that this TikToker’s attempt at catching a Karen in the act was a big swing and a miss. And it serves as a reminder to watch the footage back before you most, otherwise, you may come off like the jerk.