Comedian Jay Pharoah Wants Credit For “Karen” Memes

Karen memes really took off this year, but Saturday Night Live alum Jay Pharoah wants us to give credit where credit is due.  He appeared on PeopleTV’s Couch Surfing, and revisited a bit he did about annoying white women named Karen in his special, Can I Be Me?, from 2015.

Although Pharoah mentions that comedians like Dane Cook poked fun at the name before him, he tells host Lola Ogunnaike that his version is what led to “Karen” becoming synonymous with entitled white women. “I’m the one who started it,” Pharoah says. “The white woman named Karen, I experienced that. I said that and when I saw all the memes, I was like, ‘Really, what?'”

And when an SNL writer tweeted about Karen being from a “Black Jeopardy” sketch, Pharoah says he thought, “I remember that from Jay Pharoah.” “You can ask any of my friends. For years, I did that joke. Came to the show, refined it, everything,” he added. “And when everything dropped, they were like ‘Oh, my G, they owe you money. Nah, they stole that.'”