Popularity
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Karen's popularity on the show grew mostly from her one-liners, "zingers", and straight-forwardness. Karen's emotional complexity was wrapped in a façade of lack of interest in other people's problems, as well as a focus on her own selfishness and greed.
Although her friends are cavalier about it, Karen is clearly an alcoholic and drug addict, often indulging in prescription pills and booze. She often (albeit casually) mentions taking street drugs or being under the influence of them. She hides bottles of vodka and wine in Grace's office and often refers to drinking her breakfast and lunch, implying that they consist of strong liquor. In one episode, she complains to Will about the way he approached her, saying: "You came in here all high-and-mighty ... acting all mighty, while I was high," and on another episode saying, "Oh, honey, you say potato, I say vodka," and to Ben Doucette (played by the late Gregory Hines), Karen declares, "Honey, I'd suck the alcohol out of a deodorant stick." In the episode where Karen got a physical exam, the doctor (played by Jack Black) reads the chart listing medications she is on, revealing that she is taking every drug in the Merck Pharmaceutical catalogue. Following her exam, she asks Will to read it, and Will asks her: "What, are you afraid they might find blood in your alcohol?" In the episode "FYI, I Hurt, Too," she states that the subway is a good place "to buy mari-batteries", quickly changing it as a policeman walks by. In the second live episode, Karen's medicine cabinet opens with hundreds of pill bottles falling out. In the series finale, Karen drinks an entire bottle of vodka in one gulp, which Jack, Grace, and Will watch without much surprise. It is implied that her heart beats at an extremely slow rate (even though Jack once considered it to be "racing" at the time) and that she needs a new liver. Despite this, she appears to be in very good health.
Karen makes observations on others with an emotionless and often cruel eye. She once said to Jack, "Honey, you know what's really sad? Poor people with big dreams. Well, that's not so much sad as it is incredibly funny!" A recurring victim for her cruelty is a bartender named Smitty, who tells her tragic events in his life, such as being on his last day, his twin brother dying in a fire or having the childhood memory of his mother being killed in front of him, only to have her laugh in his face and thank him for cheering her up. She is also known for the excessive use of the word "honey" when conversing with people, for her "killer rack", and for being insanely rich.
Read more about this topic: Karen Walker (Will & Grace)
Famous quotes containing the word popularity:
“A large part of the popularity and persuasiveness of psychology comes from its being a sublimated spiritualism: a secular, ostensibly scientific way of affirming the primacy of “spirit” over matter.”
—Susan Sontag (b. 1933)
“A more problematic example is the parallel between the increasingly abstract and insubstantial picture of the physical universe which modern physics has given us and the popularity of abstract and non-representational forms of art and poetry. In each case the representation of reality is increasingly removed from the picture which is immediately presented to us by our senses.”
—Harvey Brooks (b. 1915)
“In everything from athletic ability to popularity to looks, brains, and clothes, children rank themselves against others. At this age [7 and 8], children can tell you with amazing accuracy who has the coolest clothes, who tells the biggest lies, who is the best reader, who runs the fastest, and who is the most popular boy in the third grade.”
—Stanley I. Greenspan (20th century)