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All about that funny business.
“I’m personable AF,” says Caroline Goldfarb, the funny woman behind the highly shareable, get your through your day Instagram @officialseanpenn. In the age of PC, heightened person as brand awareness, and highly stylized digital content, Caroline says she tries not to take the meme game too seriously. “I don’t think about shareable,” she admits, “I just throw something up that I know my friends would like.”
She got her start doing “endless amounts” of stand-up in high school in LA and throughout college at Northwestern University. “My only goal in life for as long as I can remember has been to be professionally funny,” says Caroline. Explaining that she’s “always wanted to combine my natural affinity for performing and my obsession with pop culture into being a hybrid of my heroes.” Those include, but are hardly limited to: Wendy Williams, Joan Rivers, Kathy Griffin, and Howard Stern. Meeting Stern she says, is at the top of her career to-do. At the moment however she’s had “a detour into *fire* success on Instagram.” The place where Caroline kills “the internet content game with original art and amazing celeb commentary.”
If you think she’s serious, consider that the 26-year-old knows her audience and knows it well. “When I discovered I had hit something, I didn't let it lie. I exploited my natural ability to thoughtfully and artfully analyze, process, and comment on pop culture,” she says. And she’s turning said ability into an “international merchandise empire, a popular podcast, a development deal with MTV, and a successful writing career.”
“When I discovered I had hit something, I didn't let it lie."
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Consider also that it happens to be true. Caroline is simply bold enough to say it. In fact she’s bold enough to say a lot of things. “I'm a walking female support group,” she shares. “I love women and I live to entertain them. I don't give a rat’s ass what men think of me or whether men think I'm funny.”
Nor does she shy away from some real-good-text-your-BFF-about-it-self-love. “RuPaul said it best,” she shares. "’If you can't love yourself, how in the HELL are you gonna love somebody else??’ At the end of the day YOU are your biggest advocate in the world, and you have to love everything about yourself and believe you are capable of anything to make others believe in you.”
To her point, she shouts those things out-- list form. “Things I love about myself: That I'm an exotic half-Persian goddess, that I'm always the funniest person in a room, that I have a sparkling personality, that I'm well-read and super intelligent.” She says should could go on.
Still, she can’t get it all right. “I want to be like Martha Stewart and wash my ceilings and iron my sheets,” she says, “but it feels impossible to get on that level.” And she does have certain boundaries. She won’t make fun of women’s bodies, kick people they’re already down, and doesn't like making fun of people with mental illnesses or disabilities. When the Obama/Biden friendship memes were making their social rounds Caroline said that they were “just too real.” A casual statement that’s more nuanced than some followers might expect. “Seeing all the vicious jokes about Trump and laughing at him pre-election almost made me feel like I was doing a part in preventing him from getting elected by making him into a joke, taking away his power. Where we now see that it really did exactly the opposite.” Adding, “ I feel like we all need to seriously reevaluate how we take part in the world around us and stand up for what we believe in, beyond making or laughing at political memes. To me, dealing with the fact that Obama and Biden are leaving office and our political climate and society is potentially going to seriously change by making a series of *not even really that funny memes* is a waste of time.” (She did post a photo of Obama on the 10th of this month captioned, “Gonna miss u…” followed by a pic of Trump having what looks like urine dumped on his head. “Tinkle Down Economics #Watergate2,” she captioned, in reference to the infamous golden shower leak.)
Caroline is wearing Keds' Kickstart Perf Leather.
“Many comedians are highly smart, observational people who have the superpower to observe the world and point out the improbable ridiculousness of everyday life,” notes Caroline. “There are lots of different kinds of comedy, from the low-brow (Kermit memes) to the high brow (Political satire, a perfectly crafted stand-up set) but if it makes people laugh it has an important place in society!”
Instagram’s reigning meme queen is slightly resigned (“pretty much OK with”) to the fact that she’s known as Official Sean Penn, but believes “I'll naturally and gradually establish myself as Caroline Goldfarb, a bad-ass comedienne with a banging internet presence. Amazing careers aren't built in a day!”
And to the people who say she should stop selling merchandise with celeb’s faces? Caroline says sorry, not sorry. “I'm never going to stop making pencil pouches with Larry David's Face on them.”
Styling provided by Reservoir LA. Hair and makeup provided by Glamsquad. Photography courtesy of Light Lab and Woodnote Photography.