“Definitely the Karen” — Upstairs Neighbor Sparks Debate After Tenant Says She’s Too Loud

We may never know the definitive answer to whether or not a tree makes a sound if it falls in a forest with no one else around to hear it.

But if you replace that tree with an upstairs neighbor, you can bet your bottom dollar it'll be the noisiest forest in the world.

TikToker Jessie (@prablums) found herself in an awkward situation when a neighbor who lived beneath her was upset at the commotion she and others in her apartment were making on a Sunday morning at 9 a.m. Jessie documented her back and forth with her fellow apartment dweller.

"My Karen neighbor getting mad at us getting ready for Church," a text overlay in the video reads. The clip begins with a woman standing at the door of her place as she speaks to someone off-camera. Right from the get-go, it doesn't sound like the person isn't all too happy with Jessie.

"Like I don't know how many times I have to come over and tell you guys to stop really ... stomping," the man states, complaining about the commotion. "It was 9 a.m. on a Sunday morning. I'm trying to sleep. I'm trying to get some rest."

As the man talks to the woman, she looks at him, her mouth agape. Although she seems still in the video, she writes in an overly that her mannerisms belied how she was feeling internally during her talk with the neighbor.

"I'm literally shaking," she pens in the clip as he continues to talk.

"I'm working a lot and you guys really, like come on," he says.

She responds, "We were just getting ready for church. We're not like—" she says before the neighbor interjects.

"I understand everybody else is getting ready for other things too. But they're not like jumping."

"We're not jumping. We're just walking around," she says, putting a smile on her face.

This explanation didn't seem to satisfy the neighbor.

He goes on to say, "Well it sounds like you are I don't know, whatever you're doing, stop, please. I'm just, it's really f--king annoying."

She tries to offer her side of the situation, again: "Well I think it's just the like about apartment living or ... I think it's just how ..."

Jessie's unformed thought doesn't come out in time, and the neighbor indicates that he has zero issues with anyone else in the building, but that he believes the TikToker's household is, for whatever reason, too loud. "Like I never hear anybody else do that."

"Well, 'cause we're right above you? Of course, you don't hear anybody," she tells him.

"I've lived in millions of different apartments, never had that kind of problem," the man says as Jessie populates another text overlay on the screen, highlighting that the man constantly wouldn't allow her to finish her sentences.

He went on to say, "But I'm having that problem with you. So what is it?" he asks her.

As she tries to stammer a response, he goes on to ask Jessie if she hears the neighbors above her own apartment.

"I bet that you don't," he says before Jessie informs him that she very much does hear her upstairs neighbors clomping around.

"That's how it is in apartment living," she says again, nervously laughing as she continues to talk with her neighbor. "Maybe you should move to the fourth floor?" she suggests to him.

"Don't tell me what to do," he says to her as she stands and looks at him.

At this point in the video, it appears that the man walks off-camera angrily. The TikToker then widens her mouth and covers it in disbelief towards the camera. She heads back into her apartment and talks to the folks inside. "Did you guys hear that?" she asks as she closes the door.

Users who watched Jessie's video seemed split on who was right or wrong in the situation. There were several users on the application who found it odd that the man retorted to Jessie that she shouldn't tell him what to do after she recommended he move to the fourth floor. TikTokers found his rejoinder ironic, considering that he was acting bossy towards Jessie throughout the entirety of the video.

"'You shouldn't tell me what to do' as he's telling you what to do," one person said. Someone else thought he was being hypocritical as well: "Girl he talking 'bout don't tell him what to do while he's telling y'all what to do."

Someone else replied that they thought walking around at 9 a.m. is a perfectly acceptable time to be making noise and that he shouldn't be that upset over it: "9 a.m.? You don’t owe him an explanation, and if he shows up at your door swearing again, you should call the police."

However, there were more than a few TikTokers who replied to her video who thought the neighbor was in the right. "Definitely agreeing with him, some people walk soo loud and are stomping," one said.

Another penned: "I’m on his side. Don’t wear shoes in your apt."

While someone else simply penned that Jessie was having a case of mistaken Karen identity: "You’re definitely the Karen here."

Who do you think was in the right? Was Jessie right for telling her neighbor to basically go and kick rocks and get used to living inside of an apartment? Or have you experienced noisy upstairs neighbors before and think she shouldn't put her shoes on until she's outside of her apartment?