A new member has joined the pantheon of people having viral meltdowns on camera like "Permit Patty," "Bagel Boss Guy" and "Barbecue Betty" — "Kidz Bop Karen."
"Kidz Bop Karen," nicknamed after she claimed her children couldn't hear her unleashing a foul-mouthed rant against a driver who allegedly cut her off because they were listening to children's music, has become a mega-viral meme.
The rant was captured in a video taken on Friday by Chelsea Klein, 29.
Klein was looking at her phone while riding in a Lyft down New York City's West Side Highway and told NBC News she didn't see whether or not her driver cut the unidentified woman off. Klein said she noticed the woman giving her and her driver the finger, and so Klein responded by giving the woman a thumbs up.
Klein said when the two cars were stopped at a light, the woman walked over to the Lyft driver's vehicle and hit the passenger side window. Nervous about what the woman would do, Klein began to record the altercation.
"I honestly started filming because I was scared she was going to jump in the car," Klein said. "The look in her eyes was scary and road rage is kind of scary. I was scared for sure."
In the video Klein filmed, the unidentified woman can be seen leaning into the Lyft driver's car, staring wide-eyed while sticking her tongue out at Klein.
"I'm sorry. I'm really sorry. It's my fault," the driver said as the woman stuck her head through the passenger-side window.
The unidentified woman continued to insist the driver was at fault before turning her attention back to Klein in the backseat.
"She thinks it's cute that her driver almost hit my kids, and she thinks she needs to take a video of it instead of apologizing," the unidentified woman says mockingly.
Klein replied, asking if standing in the middle of the road would help the situation.
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"You being a b---- is going to help? I don't know? Calm down! Calm down!" the unidentified woman snapped at Klein while bizarrely pawing at the air.
The driver again attempted to defuse the situation by apologizing to the angry woman, but the woman continued to berate Klein.
"It is your fault. And you know, that didn't upset me, but the b---- a-- h-- that told me to calm down? What I'd like you to do is apologize instead of being a b----," the unidentified woman told Klein.
Klein can be heard apologizing but added that the woman's children could likely hear her using the curse words because the woman's windows were down.
It's then in the video that the woman uttered the line that the internet has since latched on to: "My kids can't hear me calling you a b---- ... they can't hear me because they're listening to 'Kidz Bop.'"
Klein said she could see an adult and an "older kid" in the woman's car. She said the child appeared to be crying. Once the light turned green, Klein told her driver to roll up his window and go.
At the end of the video, "Kidz Bop Karen" can be seen returning to her car, but before she did, she told Klein that her "attitude sucks d---."
"This was out of a movie," Klein told NBC News. "I just want to know why she was so angry and why she had to attack me."
Klein sent the clip to sports and pop culture site Barstool Sports, and shortly after the clip went massively viral, with more than 16 million views on Twitter alone. The video has been shared on other sites like Instagram and YouTube where it continues to rake in scores of views.
On Twitter, some mashed up the video with the Taylor Swift song "You Need to Calm Down," while over on short-form video app TikTok some have posted clips of themselves pretending to be "Karen's" children in the car listening to various "Kidz Bop" songs.
Although NBC News was unable to contact "Kidz Bop Karen," she told TMZ the worst part of the whole ordeal was being labeled a Republican. She also told TMZ that her kids were listening to the Kidz Bop version of the Lil Nas X song "Old Town Road." She also told TMZ that she'd like to apologize to the driver.
In a statement to NBC News, a Lyft spokesperson said: "The safety of our community is fundamental to Lyft. We have reached out to the rider and driver involved in this incident and stand ready to support any investigation."
