History YMMV / Karen

* TheWoobie: Karen's daughter, Sarah. Despite her mother's rotten personality, Sarah is [[NiceGirl a sweet and friendly little girl]] who goes out of her way to help Imani clean trash off her front lawn [[{{Jerkass}} after her mother toppled Imani's garbage bin over]] [[ForTheEvulz out of spite]]. She opposes her mother's racist attitude but is clearly afraid of her, to the point where she hides that she has a black boyfriend at school out of fear of punishment. The few interactions we ''do'' see between Karen and Sarah serve to justify the latter's fears, with one of them having Karen yell at Sarah to get back in the house when she finds her ''literally'' cleaning up her mother's mess. To make matters worse, [[spoiler:[[WhatHappenedToTheMouse we never see what happened to Sarah and her older brother Kyle after their mother and uncle Mike perished in the film's climax]]; one can only hope they landed in a nice orphanage or in the hands of kinder relatives afterwards.]]

* HilariousInHindsight: Karen's last name is Drexler. That technically means that she, a racist, ironically shares her last name with a black NBA All-Star.[[note]]In this case, ''[[UsefulNotes/NotablePlayersOfTheNBA Clyde]]'' [[UsefulNotes/NotablePlayersOfTheNBA Drexler.]][[/note]]

* Narm: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BK50TD5BdU The trailer alone]] was so ridiculously on-the-nose (the titular villain even has a Confederate flag-themed ''soap dispenser!'') that it had many people mistaking it for a ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' parody.

** Imani. It is made clear that she was the one who wanted to move to the new house, a house that is repeatedly stated she and her husband can barely afford. Not to mention a very large house despite the fact she has no desire to have children. Then it is revealed she works as a blogger, which means she could literally do her job anywhere with an internet connection whereas her husband now has to commute to get to work, which causes him unnecessary stress that he uses marijuana to self medicate.

* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: Imani. It is made clear that she was the one who wanted to move to the new house, a house that is repeatedly stated she and her husband can barely afford. Not to mention a very large house despite the fact she has no desire to have children. Then it is revealed she works as a blogger, which means she could literally do her job anywhere with an internet connection whereas her husband now has to commute to get to work, which causes him unnecessary stress that he uses marijuana to self medicate.

* TheWoobie: Karen's daughter, Sarah. Despite her mother's rotten personality, Sarah is [[NiceGirl a sweet and friendly little girl]] who goes out of her way to help Imani clean trash off her front lawn [[{{Jerkass}} after her mother toppled Imani's garbage bin over]] [[ForTheEvulz out of spite]]. She opposes her mother's racist attitude but is clearly afraid of her, to the point where she hides that she has a black boyfriend at school out of fear of punishment. The few interactions we ''do'' see between Karen and Sarah serve to justify the latter's fears, with one of them having Karen yell at Sarah to get back in the house when she finds her ''literally'' cleaning up her mother's mess. To make matters worse, [[spoiler:[[WhatHappenedToTheMouse we never see what happened to Sarah and her older brother Kyle after their mother and uncle Mike perished in the film's climax]]; one can only hope they landed in a nice orphanage or in the hands of kinder relatives afterwards.]]

** Malik tends to fall into this as well. Even though the film makes a point of him being a victim of racial prejudice, he himself make a few iffy remarks against white people as a group, which is rather [[{{Hypocrite}} hypocritical]] on his part. One example is when he declares that "[he and Imani] ain't running from white people" as he proclaims that they stand their ground against Karen, implying that they are some sort of collective adversary to confront or run away from.[[note]]Even more baffling is that Karen's (also white) children are genuinely open towards Imani and Malik, with Sarah helping Imani pick up trash and Kyle playing basketball with Malik; Sarah even confides in Imani that she disagrees with her mother's racist outlook. In casting white people in such a negative light, Malik indirectly insulted these kids who were actively friendly towards them and lumped them in with ''actual'' racists (e.g., Karen and Mike).[[/note]] All in all, it's troubling when the only reason to side with the protagonists is because the antagonist is [[HateSink so exaggeratedly evil]] that most people would look like saints in comparison.

* TheWoobie: Karen's daughter, Sarah. Despite her mother's rotten personality, Sarah is [[NiceGirl a sweet and friendly little girl]] who goes out of her way to help Imani clean trash off her front lawn [[{{Jerkass}} after her mother toppled Imani's garbage bin over]] [[ForTheEvulz out of spite]]. She opposes her mother's racist attitude but is clearly afraid of her, to the point where she hides that she has a black boyfriend at school out of fear of punishment. The few interactions we ''do'' see between Karen and Sarah serve to justify the latter's fears, with one of them having Karen yell at Sarah to get back in the house when she finds her ''literally'' cleaning up her mother's mess. To make matters worse, [[spoiler:[[WhatHappenedToTheMouse we never see what happened to Sarah and her older brother Kyle after their mother and uncle Mike perished in the film's climax]]; one can only hope they landed in a nice orphanage or in the hands of kinder relatives in the aftermath.]]

** When Karen calling the police on a civil rights attorney's son goes viral, her neighborhood's Homeowner's Association revokes her membership due to the bad publicity. Up to this point, though they scoffed at her racist blatherings, they did little to actively curb or punish her toxic behavior; only when she makes headlines do they decide to take action, but only because her presence makes them look bad. This could have highlighted how companies and institutions can act on certain social, economic, or political issues not because it's the right thing to do, but instead to maintain their optics. Unfortunately, the film never addresses this.

* TheWoobie: Karen's daughter, Sarah. Despite her mother's rotten personality, Sarah is [[NiceGirl a sweet and friendly little girl]] who goes out of her way to help Imani clean trash off her front lawn [[{{Jerkass}} after her mother toppled Imani's garbage bin over]] [[ForTheEvulz out of spite]]. She opposes her mother's racist attitude but is clearly afraid of her, to the point where she hides that she has a black boyfriend at school out of fear of punishment. The few interactions we ''do'' see between Karen and Sarah serve to justify the latter's fears, with one of them having Karen ''yell'' at Sarah to get back in the house when she finds her (literally) cleaning up her mother's mess. To make matters worse, [[spoiler:[[WhatHappenedToTheMouse we never see what happened to Sarah and her older brother Kyle after their mother and uncle Mike perished in the film's climax]]; one can only hope they landed in a nice orphanage or in the hands of kinder relatives in the aftermath.]]

** When Karen calling the police on a civil rights attorney's son goes viral, her neighborhood's Homeowner's Association revokes her membership due to the bad publicity. Up to this point, while they scoffed at her racist blatherings, they did little to actively curb or punish her toxic behavior; only when she makes headlines do they decide to take action, but only because her presence makes them look bad. This could have highlighted how some companies and institutions act on certain social, economic, or political issues not because it's the right thing to do, but instead to maintain their optics. Unfortunately, the film never addresses this.
* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: Imani. It is made clear that she was the one who wanted to move to the new house, a house that is repeatedly stated she and her husband can barely afford. Not to mention a very large house despite the fact she has no desire to have children. Then it is revealed she works as a blogger, which means she could literally do her job anywhere with an internet connection whereas her husband now has to commute to get to work, which causes him unnecessary stress that he uses marijuana to self medicate.

** Karen's children obviously do not share her racist beliefs and even get along pretty well with Imani and Malik in the few scenes they have together, the son's voyeurism notwithstanding. Karen's daughter specifically gets a scene in which she helps Imani pick up trash after her mother callously kicks over Imani's trash can. The scene leads absolutely nowhere and nothing ever comes of the set-up, with Karen's children all but disappearing from the plot later on.

* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: Imani.It is made clear that she was the one who wanted to move to the new house, a house that is repeatedly stated she and her husband can barely afford. Not to mention a very large house despite the fact she has no desire to have children. Then it is revealed she works as a blogger, which means she could literally do her job anywhere with an internet connection whereas her husband now has to commute to get to work, which causes him unnecessary stress that he uses marijuana to self medicate.

* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: Imani.
** Despite the fact that it is made clear being racist to her is wrong, it is heavily implied that she herself is racist towards white people. Despite moving to a majority white neighborhood she hardly ever tries to integrate herself into the community and only ever hangs out with other black people.
** It is made clear that she was the one who wanted to move to this house, a house that is repeatedly stated she or her husband can barely afford. Not to mention a very large house despite the fact she has no desire to have children. Then it is revealed her job is a blogger, which means she could literally do her job anywhere there is an internet connection whereas her husband now has to commute to get to work, which causes him unnecessary stress that he uses marijuana to self medicate with.

** Karen's children obviously do not share her racist beliefs and even get along pretty well with Imani and Malik in the few scenes they have together, the son's voyeurism notwithstanding. Karen's daughter specifically gets a scene in which she helps Imani pick up trash after her mother callously kicks over Imani's trash can. The scene leads absolutely nowhere and nothing ever comes of the set-up, with Karen's children all but disappearing from the plot later on.

* HilariousInHindsight:
** Karen's last name is Drexler. That technically means she ironically shares her last name with a black NBA All-Star. [[note]] In this case, ''[[UsefulNotes/NotablePlayersOfTheNBA Clyde]]'' [[UsefulNotes/NotablePlayersOfTheNBA Drexler.]][[/note]]

* HilariousInHindsight: The fact that a joke made about racist white women '''''got its own movie.'''''

** At one point the film implies that Karen might have a VillainousCrush on Malik. It only ever comes up in one scene and she shows no sign of being attracted to him after. Given what the film was going for, this could have been used as a commentary on the fetishization of black men as studs (or overall about how racists can still express sexual attraction towards other races), but the concept is dropped almost immediately after the film brings it up.

* {{Anvilicious}}: The movie is not at all subtle with its themes of racism being bad. The first shot of the movie is Karen washing away UsefulNotes/{{Black Lives Matter|Movement}} graffiti and it doesn’t get any less subtle from there.

* {{Anvilicious}}: The movie is not at all subtle with its themes of racism being bad. The first shot of the movie is Karen washing away UsefulNotes/BlackLivesMatter graffiti and it doesn’t get any less subtle from there.

** At one point the film implies that Karen might have a VillainousCrush on Malik. It only ever comes up in one scene and she shows no sign of being attracted to him after. Given what the film was going for, this could have been used as a commentary on the fetishization of black men's bodies, especially by white women, but the concept is dropped almost immediately after the film brings it up.

* {{Anvilicious}}: The movie is not at all subtle with it’s themes of racism being bad. The first shot of the movie is Karen washing away UsefulNotes/BlackLivesMatter graffiti and it doesn’t get any less subtle from there.

* SoBadItsGood: Many people watch the film to laugh at how hilariously tone-deaf and corny it is and how gloriously it bungles every sensitive topic it tries to touch upon.

** Karen's children obviously do not share her racist beliefs and even get along pretty well with Imani and Malik in the few scenes they have together, the son's voyeurism notwithstanding. Karen's daughter specifically gets a scene in which she helps Imani pick up trash after her mother callously kicks over Imani's trash can. Instead, the scene leads absolutely nowhere and nothing ever comes of the set-up, with Karen's children all but disappearing from the plot after it.