Photo: TikTok
Could this be considered dangerous?
By Isaac Serna-Diez — Written on Jul 15, 2022
A woman named Shelby Lee is the owner of a 1993 Nissan Skyline GTS4 — but all you really need to know about the car is that the steering wheel is on the right side of the car, and not the standard left-side steering wheel that’s more commonly found in the United States.
Since Lee’s steering wheel is on the “wrong side,” drive-thrus become infinitely more complicated for her to manage because if she doesn’t want to reach over the passenger side, she’ll have to find another way to get her food.
Shelby Lee’s viral TikTok video shows her driving her car in reverse through the drive-through, sparking a debate.
With the description of the video posted on TikTok including the hashtag “#reversechallenge,” Lee drives her car in reverse at a McDonald’s drive-thru in her hometown only to get met with criticism from the employee working at the window.
“I don’t think [Karen] like my car,” she wrote in the caption, referring to the woman working at the window as a “Karen,” or someone who “makes solutions to others' problems an inconvenience to her although she isn't even remotely affected.”
The young woman records herself reversing through the McDonald’s drive-thru windows, passing the first one, and cursing at herself when the car in front of her (which should be behind her) stops at that same window to pay for their order.
“Is there a reason you came this way?” asks the woman in the window.
Assuming she was referring to how Lee reversed through the drive-thru, she answered “Ah yeah, my steering wheel is on this side.”
“Okay, well, that’s dangerous for other cars who have to [come through here],” the worker replies, “I’ll give it to you now but next time you have to step inside [to get food].”
Not wanting to cause any problems, Lee immediately skips to the fact that she didn’t pay for her food because there was no one at the previous window, and proceeds to pay for and receive her food.
“Me thinking how is it dangerous,” read the caption in her video, adding a “thinking face” emoji.
“It’s actually not illegal to go reverse. A cop can choose to give you a ticket or not,” she added in the comments, “and good thing I live in a small town and all the cops know me.”
Many people in the comments complained about the woman in the window for commenting on the way Lee was driving.
“She just needed something to complain about for the day,” wrote one TikTok user.
Another person said “[she’s] just mad that she wouldn't [have] been able to do the same.”
But a few people also sided with the woman in the window, believing that what she did was obnoxious and saying it was “her fault for going reverse,” and calling others out for labeling the woman as a “Karen.”
“Was there a reason [for] calling her a ‘Karen’ tho?” wrote one user. “She has every right to check you and she was actually nice about it.”
Despite the controversy, the 1.7 million views that her TikTok received inspired her to turn it into a little series, posting another video where this time, she goes through a Taco Bell drive-thru to see what their reaction is.
This time, the drive-thru worker complimented her car instead of criticizing the way she reversed past the windows.
There were mostly supportive comments on her videos, but there were a select few who understood why the woman “checked” her.
It’s not every day you see someone reversing their car through a McDonald’s drive-thru.
Isaac Serna-Diez is an Assistant Editor who focuses on entertainment and news, social justice, and politics. Since graduating from Rutgers University, he spends most of his free time gaming or playing a fictional sport. Keep up with his rants about current events on his Twitter.