In case you haven’t heard, there’s a silly someone behind the scenes of a certain Carnegie Mellon Instagram meme account. I’m talking about the one and only @cmufunny account manager, who takes time out of their day to distract overwhelmed students here at Carnegie Mellon from the work that their hearts are in.
The account owner agreed to allow the Tartan to interview them, albeit anonymously. The goofy person behind the account shared that they decided to start it during finals week in December 2024, while “noticing how depressed everyone at this school is,” the account owner said. “I wanted to create reels to entertain students. This is the origin of @cmufunny.”
No one outside of @cmufunny’s small circle of friends knows that they are responsible for the account. “A small collective of my close friends will help to come up with reel ideas, which helps a lot to uphold the daily upload schedule,” they said. “But outside this circle, no one knows that I run this account. It is a secret operation.”
I asked @cmufunny what they planned to do once they graduate. Are they going to pass on the account? Or will it die the moment they graduate? “We will have a ritual similar to choosing the next Dalai Lama,” they said. “When the time comes, we will select the chosen one. The chosen one must pass our LeetFunny interview test as well.” Their LeetFunny interview test will be the “brain rot version of LeetCode (a popular coding interview practice website), where we test prospects on whether they are suitable to lead the @cmufunny account.”
Now, you may be wondering, how does someone come up with so much comedy every single day? And then find the time to create and post a reel on top of the intense Carnegie Mellon workload? The @cmufunny account manager answered these questions: “My usual process is to create a bunch of reels one night, so then I won’t have to actually create one every day. Ideas come from me and close friends in the collective. If there are funny events that happen at Carnegie Mellon, we create one for that day and post it.”
I’m sure we all have a particular post of our own that stands out as the funniest or most entertaining. Well, naturally, the creator is also no stranger to favorites. The @cmufunny account manager said, “Our best-performing reel is the ‘I’m from the Bay Area’ reel, so of course I am proud of that,” they said. The Bay Area reel in question has 740,000 views. “However, anything related to the legendary Greggo or reels from our infamous El Gallo feud are among my favorites.”
So, if you happen to have Instagram, consider taking a break from midterms and homework to check out @cmufunny for a little amusement in your life. Of course, you could also use it as a reason to procrastinate (though I’ve definitely never done that…).
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