About

“Oh My God, Karen, You Can’t Just Ask Someone Why They're White” is a memorable quote from the 2004 comedy film Mean Girls. On Tumblr, several variations of the quote has been incorporated into multi-pane image macros depicting a socially awkward or personally invasive conversation among three or more characters from popular TV shows and films.

Origin

The catchphrase comes from a set of lines from the 2004 comedy Mean Girls.^[1] In the film Karen Smith (Amanda Seyfried) asks Cady Heron (Lindsay Lohan) “So if you’re from Africa, why are you white?” to which Gretchen Wieners (Lacey Chabert) admonishes “Oh my god Karen, you can’t just ask people why they’re white.”

One of the first edited versions of the quote was applied to Harry Potter, with Harry asking Voldemort "Why don't you have a nose," and Dumbledore admonishing "God Harry, you can't ask people people why they don't have noses." The quote appeared online as early as December 4th, 2010, on Yahoo! Answers.^[2]

Spread

On March 15th, 2011, Tumblr user perfectlikegaston^[3] posted an image with the quote edited to be about Rebecca Black. As of August 2014, the post has gained over 700 notes.

On December 11th, 2012, Tumblr user meangirlsofcapitolhill^[4] posted an image with the quote edited to be about an overly tan politician. As of August 2014, the post gained over 500 notes.

On January 10th, 2014, Tumblr user khaleesi-of-dreams^[5] posted an edited version of the quote to be about the Disney film The Hunchback of Notre Dame. As of August 2014, the post has gained over 100 notes.

Notable Examples

External References