Karen Memes

There was a "Karen" subreddit as early as 2017. A full year before BBQ Becky.

If you look at the earliest "Karen" stuff, it's not quite what it is now. It's mostly copypasta expressing exasperation at "Karen" or ranting at her in a way that seems like up with the possible Goodfellas origin. Most of them can be read in the voice of a screaming Ray Liotta and make perfect sense. Over time it snowballed and picked up negative tropes associated with a certain type of middle aged white woman and became what we know today.