| “ | ” | —Karen after cheering JubJub up, SMG4: Mario Does His Laundry | |||
Karen Katphish[1] is a recurring character in the SMG4 series, debuting in SMG4: The Mario Documentary. She is an anthropomorphic cat who works at Starbucks as a barista, and in later appearances works as a clerk in various stores throughout the Mushroom Kingdom.
History[]
Karen debuted in SMG4: The Mario Documentary, working as a barista at a local Starbucks. She gets annoyed by Mario sneaking around her and scared him away with her shotgun. She is then seen again trying to get Mario off the store for trying to camp outside of Sundays but was kicked in the face. She would later send him and his tent to a garbage dump.
She made a cameo in SMG4: Mario Goes To The Zoo, where she was at the zoo being burned at the stake by the pig army.
She made her first major role in SMG4: Mario Does His Laundry, working as a laundry aide in a laundromat.
Her three kids debuted in SMG4: How To Train Your Mario.
In We Must Kill Mario, it would be revealed that she used to be an assassin before she quit her job in order to raise her kids but picked it up again temporarily since a criminal had appeared could be a threat to the world and her children.
Appearance[]
Karen is an anthropomorphic cat with white fur and hair (with a bit of turquoise underneath her hair and in her ears), wearing yellow reading glasses matched with a Starbucks-like uniform with a light green T shirt and an average green cap and apron with her name tag. She wears black leggings with black shoes and also has a red bow on her tail.
In her normal clothes, Karen wears only the light green T-shirt along with her black leggings and shoes. She speaks with a stereotypical New England accent.
Personality[]
Karen is shown to be laid-back, shown with her calm general expression, but is overall pessimistic. She also takes her jobs very seriously, to the point that she has to seriously deal with others who annoy her working such as Mario, and is not above using violence as a method of control. Despite this, she seems to be enamored by cuteness, as she took a liking towards JubJub Boopkins in SMG4: Mario Does His Laundry.
However, she is shown to not like working; in SMG4: Mario Gets His PINGAS Stuck In Car Door, she was relieved when the store she was working at was robbed and blown up by the Mushroom Robber. In fact, Karen comes off as being rather cynical and a little nihilistic, such as keeping a straight face in many situations that turn out deadly, though she can act with surprise if the action spikes up.
She is shown to be extremely protective of her children and her loved ones and cares for them very much despite her negative outlook on life, though she does not tend to tolerate her son Zack's antics.
Trivia[]
- Several fans had compared her to Tasque Manager, from Deltarune. FM had to point out that she was designed far before Deltarune Chapter 2 came about.
- Her good behavior is based on the patience, as she establishes a connection with saturn.
- Her name was inspired by the slang term "Karen" that used to be a common name for people that slowly become a term for people perceived as entitled or demanding beyond the scope of what is normal. The term is often portrayed in memes depicting rude women who use their perceived power to demand their own way. Depictions may include demanding to "speak to the manager" or sporting a particular bob cut hairstyle (The notable examples are: Whitney and Peach Toadstool).
- However, during her screen time, she displays behavior that is the opposite of a Karen, as she doesn't seem to entitle herself, cares about some such as her children, only focuses on her work, and rarely complains to anyone. When Bob goes "full Karen" in SMG4: The Meme Games 2022, she even seems to have a dislike towards Karen's as well.
- There is a theory among fans that Whisk is indeed a relative of Karen. Both having white hair\fur, similar hairstyles, and cat-esque features (ears and tails).
- Karen working at multiple jobs is similar to that of Larry Needlemeyer from The Amazing World Of Gumball series.
- Coincidentally, Larry had a fiancée named Karen.
- She is also similar to Brooklyn T. Guy from SML, as they both have a lot of different jobs; both are generally unhappy with their lives.
- Brooklyn Guy's wife is also named Karen coincidently. But ironically, they both act the opposite of what a stereotypical Karen is like (The SML Karen is cheery & annoying while the SMG4 Karen is sarcastic & hard working).
- She shares some similarities with Gloria Sato from the animated Disney Channel series Big City Greens, both characters having a job at a local barista & always putting up with shenanigans from the main protagonist (Mario/Cricket Green).
- She may have severe depression, this is hinted to by the fact in SMG4: Mario Does His Laundry, she is reading a book titled "How to Be Happy Again".
- She said she has 1000 children in SMG4: Mario Does His Laundry. However, In SMG4: How To Train Your Mario, in biological terms she has only 3 children. It is likely that she might have a babysitter job and/or she said it metaphorically since Karen is stressed of taking care of them. She feels like taking care of 1000 children despite the fact that she's actually taking care of 3 of her own.
- Most of her lines came from Scout from Team Fortress 2, however rather than using the Scout's voice pack, instead pull from the The Female Scout Voice Pack, voiced by Sandra Espinoza.
- Coincidentally, she has also voiced a sound pack for the Female Spy sound pack.
- In recent episodes, her official voice actor Elsie Lovelock has been providing more voice acting for her than before, and the generic female scout voice clips have been used lesser and lesser, a trend ongoing with other characters as well.
- In SMG4: War Of The Fat Italians 2022, during the rap, she is voiced by Elsie Lovelock. A few of her other lines in the episode are voiced by Elsie as well.
- This makes her the third character that Elsie has voiced.
- Karen's hairstyle bears a resemblance to those of Rival Octolings, the species that Desti and the Octoposse are part of.
- Her GMOD model wasn't released until one year since her debut.
- It's been shown in SMG4: Mario Breaks the McDonald's Ice Cream Machine that Karen displays many behaviors similar to an actual cat, such as enjoying being petted.
- Weirdly enough, her children don't wear pants while she does.
- She's likely one of the strongest characters in the series in terms of physical power. She is also shown to be able to handle weapons proficiently, owning a collection of them. Both of these qualities are likely attributed to her possible assassin past.
- Her last name, Katphish, is a play on the term "catfish", which is someone using a fake identity to mislead someone on the internet into romance or financial fraud.
- It is unknown that her surname is her husband's or her maiden's.
GMOD model[]
Before her Official model release, 2 fan made recreations of Karen was created & published onto the Steam workshop