City removes 'Karen' themed Halloween display after receiving complaints

A city administrator was forced to apologise after a 'Karen' Halloween display received multiple complaints.

The City Hall of Posser, in Washington State, was forced to take down the meme-inspired display which was submitted as their official entry into a local decoration competition.

Posser Historic

Sadly for us, on 17 October, city officials agreed to take the festive scene down.

It featured a scarecrow with a Karen name tag and a shirt emblazoned with the words "Can I speak to the manager?"

Turns out someone did speak to the manager and promptly complained, with one resident, Maricela Sanchez, telling NBC Right Now: "This past weekend, City Hall entered an annual Halloween decorating contest with a ghoulish scarecrow dressed up to look like me.

"Prosser City Hall engaged in targeted, public harassment of a private Prosser citizen on public grounds. They created a grotesque effigy to publicly humiliate a city resident as retaliation for opposing a city bond proposal on the upcoming ballot."

The scarecrow is pretty creepy. Credit Posser Historic

The display was duly removed and city administrator Thomas Glover apologised on the town's behalf.

Glover insisted that the display was in no way intended to cause offence: "This was in no way intended to be a political statement, a likeness to any individual or community group.

"We have investigated the issue internally and found that no one who participated in creating the entry intended any malice. These actions were regrettable, but unintentional."

Of course, people had a field day with the story on social media, with Reddit users quickly reacting to the situation.

One user thought the whole thing was pretty funny: "Lol the Karens got upset and had it removed. Priceless."

Posser Historic

While another questioned if the exhibit was inspired by real life: "I mean, if City Hall put a Karen-themed Halloween exhibit, it probably means they deal with them on the daily. So, you're probably not far off."

A third simply said: "They wanted to speak with the manager" and to be fair they probably weren't wrong.

Another misread the whole thing entirely: "Somehow, I read that as: "a group went to City hall demanding to see the city's manager."

Though we think a group of possessed scarecrows going to city hall to complain could be the start of a decent spooky movie.

If you have a story you want to tell, send it to UNILAD via [email protected]

Topics: News, US News, Halloween, Viral, Reddit

Shola Lee

Shola Lee began her journalism career while studying for her undergraduate degree at Queen Mary, University of London and Columbia University in New York. She has written for the Columbia Spectator, QM Global Bloggers, CUB Magazine, UniDays, and Warner Brothers' Wizarding World Digital. Recently, Shola took part in the 2021 BAFTA Crew and BBC New Creatives programme before becoming a journalist at UNILAD, where she works on breaking news, trending stories, and features.