The Great Shadow Cast-Off Of 2020

The Great Shadow Cast-Off Of 2020, also known as "The Rocky Horror Karen Show", "Rocky Newbies Show Their Heels", "Revenge Of The Young Queens", "Rocky’s COVID Crack-Up", and "The COVID Generation Coup", were a series of events that took place via social media in the Rocky Horror "community" during the end of June 2020.

Overview

During the height of the worldwide 2020 COVID-19 Pandemic, all North American venues that showed The Rocky Horror Picture Show on a regular basis had been closed for nearly three months or more. All Rocky Horror screenings, Conventions, Audience Participation, and shadowcast events and activities had been cancelled until further notice. In late June 2020, an influential and long-time cast leader had resigned from a long-held leadership position in response to allegations of failing to act on reports of harassment and abuse committed by other members of that particular cast, followed by an overwhelming rejection of that particular cast leaders self-serving and assumed authority over the Rocky Horror "community". Sensing a void in leadership, and seeing opportunities to expand their own power and influence over the Rocky Horror "community", a significant number of self-appointed, ambitious, and at times, delusional Rocky Horror fans began behaving in "full Loretta mode", and began to vie for the exalted, yet non-existent position of "#1 King/Queen Shit of Rocky Horror". Operating from the relatively safe and comfortable environment of social media, many of these individuals waged a campaign with the stated goal of seeking out, identifying, purging, and eliminating all so-called "abusers" from the Rocky Horror "community". Long-time rivalries, personal vendettas, animosities, and other hostilities finally reached critical mass, often along generational lines. As a result, an atmosphere of fear, mass hysteria, mistrust, and paranoia gripped the Rocky Horror "community", augmented by lies, hearsay, innuendo, gossip, unsubstantiated claims, rumors, false accusations, finger-pointing, character assassination, smears, cruelty, insults, name-calling, and petty jealousies. Some people who had been involved with Rocky Horror for decades, none of whom had been charged or convicted of any crime by any legal authority or in any jurisdiction, were targeted and had their lives negatively impacted. Friendships ended, and old friends became enemies. It is considered to one of the most significant changes in both attitudes and behavior among Rocky Horror fans since Fame opened in 1980, and like The Rocky Horror Glee Show and The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Let's Do the Time Warp Again, it ranks as one of the most unfortunate events in the history of the Rocky Horror "community".