Stop Hitting Yourself: A Brief Examination of the “Karen” Meme (2021) Ario Elami October 3, 2022 It is often the case with a meme that what is new is not the idea, but the visuals, the signifiers, by which that idea is expressed. The Karen meme fits into the phenomenon of inventions made in order to anger the creator, with the secondary intent of sharing this invention so that a kind of collective irritation occurs.