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Meet Caroline Timoney, the TikTokker whose joke ended up in a Taylor Swift song

October 7, 2025

Caroline Timoney began posting on TikTok in 2020, but it was 2021 when she created a video with such joie de vivre that it was elevated from a TikTok bit to a part of the public lexicon: “Listen, I can’t give any more information, but I fear I may have girlbossed a bit too close to the sun.” The video has 7.6 million views, and the audio has been used more than 24,000 times.

Since then, Timoney moved from the East Coast to Los Angeles and built a following for her quick, expressive comedy style — the kind that’s as much about her timing and eyebrows as it is about her punchlines. Online, she’s known for capturing the humor of awkwardness and self-delusion; offline, she’s working full-time and performing at a monthly stand-up gig with her friend and collaborator Hannah Schoen (“I would never be able to do it without her”) called Babe Stoppp, balancing late-night shows with a full-time day job.

Recently, her now-famous phrase resurfaced as a lyric on Taylor Swift’s newest album, The Life of a Showgirl. While many people in her comment section were quick to suggest she “lawyer up” and “get her bag,” Timoney told Mashable she’s just thrilled to see a line she coined in college live on like this.

Timoney chatted with Mashable about her evolution as a comedian, using TikTok as a stand-up tool, battling creator burnout, and watching her viral phrase turn into something the entire internet now repeats.

SEE ALSO:

Did Taylor Swift swipe a lyric from a TikTok creator?

You have been popping up on my feed for at least four years. When did you start posting on TikTok?

My very first [TikTok] was [posted during] the classic COVID-2020 summer. I had just finished my freshman year of college, and I started posting very sporadically. I would say the “girlboss too close to the sun” audio, which was in 2021, I did between my sophomore and junior years, that gave a bump to my account. And then I would post comedy stuff every day, mostly front-facing stand-up-style comedy and sketches. I do stand-up, so it was a great place to figure out how to make comedy and develop a voice. I was on the improv team at Georgetown in college, and a lot of the people in my sketches are people from the improv team. I had a lot of people to collaborate with and make comedy with back in college.

Having a community to post with must have made it so much better.

Yeah, totally. I also love the TikTok style — it just goes to random people. I still don’t post Reels to my Instagram. That seems so scary to me. That’s horrifying. Because it’s people from middle school seeing. I don’t want this going to you guys. Unless it gets a ton of views, then maybe you can see it. But I love that TikTok goes to random people, and if it’s not good, it won’t be seen by anyone, which is the dream.

You’ve been posting a lot less lately. Is that on purpose?

I’m working full-time now. I moved to LA after I graduated from college, and I haven’t had as much time since I’ve been working. And I also do stand-up live around LA, so that’s also taken up more of my time. And aside from all of it, I go through phases with content. Keeping up with posting every day for five years? I stop having much to say, or I just go through phases of creativity.

It sounds like you don’t force yourself. When you’re stretching for content, how do you come up with ideas?

I’ll just be walking around, going about my day, and the idea will pop in my head, and I write it in my Notes app. I have a whole long list of things. Sometimes if I have a free night or something, I’ll go back through and try to work on a bit.

I have a Notes app for my story ideas, too, but I find that when I go through it later, it’s all trash. 

Half of mine is literally just like, “biscuit” or “people are friends, but then they’re not friends.” And I’m like, what can I possibly mean by that? I remember writing it down and cracking up and being like, “I’m a genius.” What are you talking about? It’s half of the struggle. As long as I put enough stuff on there, there’s something that’s not awful or can be made into a better idea.

How do you see the relationship between what you’re posting on TikTok and what you’re working on for your standup?

It’s actually pretty similar. Sometimes I use the TikTok bits that I have, and I’ll expand them in my standup. I find it much harder to bring my stand-up sets to TikTok because my stories are so much longer with a lot of asides, so it’s hard for me to edit them into something that would work on TikTok. It just wouldn’t make sense, or the flow wouldn’t work, or it is just too long. They’re definitely the same kind of tone: I talk about similar things like observational comedy, dating, whatever. But my stand-up is so much longer.

I do a monthly stand-up show, and whenever that comes back around, I make a new set. So it’s always nice having random TikToks that I can pull at or use as inspiration for a longer bit.

When I look at many of your TikToks, one of the tools that I think you use really well is your eyebrows, which seem very aligned with TikTok and less aligned with stand-up.

Truly. I always say if I get Botox, I’ll be ruined. My eyebrows are everything. And they’re oftentimes way more expressive than I am, or I feel. They’re doing whatever those guys are doing. 

How do you balance social media, stand-up, and working full-time? 

It’s been challenging for sure. The last thing I want to do when I get back from work is write stand-up. Performing is fine, I don’t mind going somewhere, but if I have to sit down and really work, I’m dreading it. That’s why it’s nice having my monthly show, because it forces me to have some sort of deadlines. It has been like a strange transition [from college to work and] putting my comedy into an adult schedule. I still think it would be hard for me to fully not work. I need some sort of structure to my day. So, to just be like a full-time standup comedian would also be hard.

How do you handle burnout? What helps replenish your creativity?

I go through phases. Working with friends has been amazing. Whenever I have friends that I really laugh with and we can really work on a bit, it feels fun, and I feel like myself, and I feel like I’m doing my favorite thing. It just goes through such phases, especially with TikTok. I have friends who are TikTokkers who, every other week, they’re back to like, “I really need to be better about posting.” Even if you have a hot week or a few days of TikToks doing well or posting frequently, and then you get off of it a little bit, you’re back to feeling like you’re not doing enough again. 

But having a social media presence has helped me a lot, I would say, starting out in the comedy scene in LA. It helped me a lot getting on shows and knowing standups before I moved out here. It was really nice to already have that going.

How’d you find out your joke made it into a Taylor Swift song?

The day before [The Life of a Showgirl was released], I received texts from three different people who had listened to a leak of the album. We were like, “‘Girlbossed too close to the sun’ is in it.” And I was like, “What?” I also lowkey was not believing it — slash was like, “That feels like something that someone could have made up.”

I could see how someone would think that would be in a Taylor Swift song. So I was really not believing it. The next morning, I woke up first to 100 text messages on my phone. I’m from the East Coast, so most of my friends were already up. It was a really insane day the rest of the day.

Are you a Swiftie? 

I’m a total Swiftie, a huge Swiftie. She has been my Spotify number one for the past five or so years. I went to the Eras Tour. I’m a huge Swiftie, so I was just so excited by it more than anything. I was just truly so, so excited and really shocked. I was like, “This is crazy.”

Did that feel different than when Candace Owens used it?

I didn’t hear about that until comments where people were like, “[Taylor Swift is] referencing Candace,” which she could be doing. She could be referencing Candace, who’s referencing the phrase “girl boss too close to the sun.” I do feel like the phrase became such a public phrase. I’ve had friends say it to me, who maybe first heard it from my TikTok audio or from a friend repeating the phrase to them, and they don’t necessarily know that it’s me. But it’s cool to have contributed to the public lexicon. 

Do you ever find yourself saying, “I made that up,” when people say it around you?

If someone says it around me, I’ll pull [the video] up. 

I made a TikTok video about it two days ago, and I was calling my sister. I was like, “I don’t want to be annoying.” I had friends text me about the video and be like, “Wait, were you joking about that?” I was like, “No, no, I actually did make the phrase.” 

What about people denying that you created the phrase?

Some comments [are] like, “She didn’t make the phrase. I’ve been saying that for years.” And it’s like, well, you said it for years because I made it up years ago.

I was getting really heated about random comments. There are 2,000 comments on that video. I shouldn’t be scrolling through them, something will make me mad. I was feeling a little defensive of my phrase, as much as it is public. 

And again, I don’t have any legal stake in it. All of the comments are like, “Sue, sue, sue, sue, sue.” I don’t think that’s possible. And again, I do think it’s so public. But I’m so proud of my little phrase that I wrote. And I do think I do have some ownership over the fact that I came up with that. And I think it’s cool, but I don’t think I trademarked it or should or could trademark it.

There is some precedent, though. 

Oh, really?

Yeah. Mina Lioness tweeted, “I did a DNA test and found out I’m 100 percent that bitch” before Lizzo released her album Truth Hurts, and Lizzo ended up giving Lioness a writing credit on the song. 

Wait a second.

Yeah, that was a tweet. 

That is an interesting example because that actually feels similar.

But I will say I am not trying to do that. Just because I really do think it’s such a public phrase. But that is cool. I genuinely am just excited. I’m not suing Taylor or Candace Owens. I understand people can quote. But, again, I haven’t fully wrapped my mind around all of it. 

I’m just excited that a phrase that I created ended up having such a life of its own, made its way into culture, and into a Taylor Swift song. I think that’s the coolest thing ever. I don’t want my whole thing to be “I’m trying to get back at Taylor Swift for stealing my line.” I don’t think it’s stealing.

It is just the coolest. I was really in a rare form on Friday. I was shocked for 24 hours straight.

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