The Ken and Karen St. Louis Missouri Gun Couple refers to Mark and Patricia McCloskey, two personal injury lawyers who were filmed on June 28, 2020, pointing firearms at Black Lives Matter marchers walking past their Central West End mansion1. Mark, barefoot in a pastel polo, waved an AR-15-style rifle while Patricia held a small silver pistol at hip level toward the crowd2. The confrontational stance, set against the gilt facade of their Renaissance-style home, made the pair instant meme fodder within hours of the first video hitting Twitter3.

Viewers quickly slapped the couple with the nickname 'Ken and Karen,' a nod to the 'Karen' label already attached to entitled middle-aged white women3. Beyond the political jokes, firearm hobbyists piled on the couple for their sloppy weapon handling, calling out Patricia's finger on the trigger and the way both spouses casually swept each other with muzzles while stomping around the lawn7. Snopes ran a fact-check confirming the video was authentic and identified the couple as Mark and Patricia McCloskey of the McCloskey Law Center1.

Building a Ken and Karen macro typically starts by cropping a still of Mark and Patricia, guns raised, and pairing it with something visually incongruous. Common templates set them beside 'American Gothic,' next to Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie in 'Mr. & Mrs. Smith,' or under punchlines about tacky suburban interiors7. Photoshoppers often played up Mark's pink polo and khakis, treating the pair as generic stock characters for any 'entitled white homeowner losing it' joke6.