Alison Sullivan
There are so many videos of people yelling at total strangers on the Internet, and most of the time it is about something that could easily be settled with a respectful conversation. So I definitely think they’re just addicted to yelling, like Karen making an appearance in a viral TikTok posted by user Mevilde Ahmeti. To be fair, the woman in the video isn’t screaming, but she is trying to stop two people from getting engaged on a public beach.
The short clip shows a woman and a kid standing on the edge of an elaborate setup for a proposal, with a sign that says “MARRY ME” and a picnic set up and a scattering of rose petals. The videographer is telling the woman that she will not be “stopping the event” to “have this conversation.”
“So please walk away,” she warns.
The conversation seems to be about the random woman’s disgust with the threatening petals:
Like, of course they’re not? They are about to get engaged! They can clean up afterward! The video was such a hit, they made a short follow up stating that the woman got pushed out before the couple got together for their special moment:
Since the clip blew up, there are a lot of people in the comments suggesting that the couple and whoever planned the event are the people in the wrong in this situation. Maybe the beach is full of sea turtles, maybe it’s dunes getting eroded, maybe it’s a private beach. They made a THIRD TikTok breaking down why the engagement set up was perfectly legal and ultimately harmless to the natural world.
“Since we have been getting a lot of negative comments, we decided to visit the park today to prove it wasn’t a private property and isn’t considered a place with dunes,” they wrote, heading back to the beach to give a better survey of the area.
They explained that they hired an event planner who was responsible for the setup—and the clean-up, so all the petals were picked up, theoretically.
And there were no posted restrictions, except for a warning about COVID-19. Always a warning about COVID-19 these days, isn’t there?
Ultimately, the happy couple triumphed and are now engaged and the Karen went on her way. The sands of Ottawa’s beaches remain unharmed.