Drive-Thru “Karen” Won't Stop Honking at Fast Food Restaurant Because She Refused to Accept It's Closed
"as someone who worked at a drive thru. my fav part of the night. laughing at people who came seconds to late "
Published March 24 2024, 10:05 a.m. ET
Persistence is usually a quality that should be applauded. A persistent fighter who, throughout the course of several rounds, despite getting tagged and dropped and feeling sloppy and never firing off the shots that they want to, still manages to get into their groove and win the bout.
A persistent actor who, audition after audition of getting turned down, keeps working their craft, improving bit by bit until they land the role of a lifetime.
But there are sometimes persistence will get you ridiculed as a petty dolt, which seems to be what's happening to this woman who was recorded in a fast food establishment's drive-thru.
A TikToker named Yolanda (@lionessyolanda7) recorded a woman in a blue pickup truck persistently honking their horn as they waited for drive-thru service. Her issue? She wanted to be served, but it appeared the restaurant had already closed.
"As I was picking my 16 year old up from work tonight! A Raging Karen pulled up still wanting service after the restaurant was closed," the text overlay in the video reads.
Yolanda records the irate customer in question in the drive-thru line of the fast food establishment, honking their horn, and demanding service despite the restaurant being closed. A car drives away as she leans again on her horn, blaring it into the night.
A voice sounds off on the loudspeaker that appears to tell the woman that the restaurant is no longer open. The woman then states her case delineating the reasoning behind her continuous honking: "I was here before 9 o'clock. You were not closed."
She then punctuates her point by honking again as her dog rustles in the back of her car. She appears to put the truck into park and then leans on her horn again. The dog standing in the back of her vehicle begins barking out of the open window of the truck.
"I was here before 9 o'clock," the customer says again in response to further correspondence emanating from the drive-thru's loudspeaker, and it seems like she tells the employee she's been waiting there for 20 minutes or so.
The TikToker continues to record the customer's tirade, as another person in the car — it sounds like — tries to get out to confront the woman and tell her that the restaurant is closed and she should leave the employees alone.
A voice, presumably Yolanda's, tells the person to not get involved and to stay in the car. "This is just ridiculous," the TikTok user recording the incident can be heard saying as the honks go on and on.
The woman then adjusts her approach: she attempts a short burst, staccato honks in the drive-thru after she's done, and there's a brief pause before her dog mimics a similar double-bark maneuver.
The TikToker keeps recording as the woman picks up her honking (some say she's still honking till this day).
Viewers who saw Yolanda's clip seemed just as incredulous as she was about the customer's behavior.
One person wrote that they couldn't even imagine acting in such a manner: "I don’t even like going to a restaurant 30 mins before they close because I don’t want them to have to reclean anything"
Another person said that when they worked in the fast food industry, they actually enjoyed this part of the night, probably deriving some kind of twisted pleasure in seeing an adult not get their way as they throw a tantrum: "as someone who worked at a drive thru. my fav part of the night. laughing at people who came seconds to late"