The Root has done its fair share of “Karen” stories. We love calling out white women that have been caught on camera calling the police on Black people for no particular reason. But calling out a cartoon character is a new one.
Velma Dinkley, a cartoon character from the popular kid’s TV show Scooby-Doo, has been branded a Karen thanks to her ability to call the police on characters in the video game, MultiVersus. But following some light-hearted resistance on social media, that ability has been taken away from the character.
MultiVersus is an online fighting game by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and it features a plethora of characters across their properties, including Batman, Superman, Bugs Bunny, Tom & Jerry, Shaggy and even LeBron James from Space Jam: A New Legacy.
While users on social media did call out the character’s ability to call the cops on characters, especially LeBron James, the criticism on social media was mostly done in a joking manner.
One user wrote on Twitter: “I am enjoying Velma in Multiversus but maining a character who’s special move is calling the police on her enemies definitely don’t sit right with me as a black man lol.”
Another user wrote, “Velma in multiversus is just a karen she yells at u and calls the cops.”
Despite the jokes, the creators of the game wanted to avoid any controversy and changed the character’s abilities last week. Now, “Instead of calling the police, Velma now calls the Mystery Inc. gang in the Mystery Machine to take enemies away.”
But as people on social media typically do, they also found it humorous that the game even changed the abilities of the popular cartoon character.
So at one point, Velma was considered a “Karen.” But thanks to the creators of MultiVersus, I guess she’s not anymore. The Root will just have to wait for another white woman to call out.