airport karen toronto

Woman goes full Karen at Toronto's Pearson Airport in hard-to-watch viral video

Today in scenes that are as hard to watch as they are to look away from, we have video footage of an irate airline passenger screaming about how she intends to call lawyers over a flight delay at Toronto's Pearson International Airport.

Originally shot around the holidays at a WestJet terminal within Pearson and uploaded to TikTok, the clip in question is only today exploding in popularity thanks to a heavy-hitting Instagram account called Passenger Shaming.

"Karens out here Karening… DON'T BE A KAREN," wrote the account when sharing the video with its more than 1.2 million followers on Friday morning. The clip was simultaneously cross-posted to another IG account called "Airport Karen."

Upon watching the video, it's easy to see why this woman, whose actual name is unknown, has been labelled a super-Karen — she meets all the criteria for the pejorative label, from her race and gender (white female) to her haircut (mom shag) to her bold, entitled, "let-me-speak-to-your-manager" attitude.

"Look at all those people down there, this is goddamn bullshit!" screams the Karen in question at the top of the clip toward a service counter that, according to the original uploader, was staffed by WestJet.

The woman appears to be angry about a flight delay or cancellation, and will not accept staff shortages as an excuse to leave her in Toronto (homegirl could clearly benefit from a marg on the beach in Punta Cana.)

"We can't fly because of your staff shortages! Don't give me the bullshit…" yells our Karen of the day.

"Are you done yelling?" says someone behind the service counter, at which point the woman brags that she "works for a bunch of lawyers" who are "getting called tomorrow."

After telling the airline worker that she "doesn't give a shit" what he thinks, the woman is told by another apparent airline employee that she won't be permitted to travel with them if she doesn't stop swearing.

"Really?" she shouts. "We're not travelling anyway! I want a refund and I want to rebook."

A man behind the counter says something along the lines of "we will make sure that you don't travel at all if you continue [to behave this way]."

"I don't give a shit," says the Karen. "I want a refund and I'm booking with another airline!"

At this point, the man Karen is travelling with tells her to calm down and breathe. She is visibly upset, but it has become apparent that her antics are getting her nowhere.

"This is god damn shit!" she shouts before an employee asks her to step out of the line. And there ends the cringey video — but not the discourse around how entitled airline passengers behave amid (admittedly sometimes horrible) air travel snafus.

"As someone who's worked for an airline this behaviour is appalling. Respect the people who have the power to kick you off a flight!" wrote one TikTok commenter on the original upload.

"She should be embarrassed," wrote another. "I am for her."

Lead photo by

Passenger Shaming


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