We Think we Know Bo!

In my personal opinion, Bo Burnham is a genius – a legend, a true asset to stand up comedy – his lyrics never fail to make me laugh (no matter how many times I’ve listened to them before) I can always turn to him when I’m sad or in need of a good chuckle. Though I am a young girl and one of the many that follow him, my reason is that his comedy is golden; it’s tastefully offensive, I’m not a fan merely because of the looks, I’m here for the sophisticated lyrics, the enthralling act and the overall allure of Bo Burnham’s comedy brilliance. Robert Pickering Burnham was born August 21st 1990, 18 years later he graduated from St. John’s preparatory School, during his time there he was involved in theatre (surprise, surprise). According to sources, there was no one at St. John’s who seemed surprised at Bo’s budding career or his somewhat questionable creativity, in fact, Bo is doing pretty darn good for such a young age, he’s recently been appointed the title, ‘the future of comedy’ by fans and journalists alike. So let’s talk about Bo’s wondrous and whimsical journey to success! It starts at the tender age of sixteen when Bo uploaded his first ever YouTube video, entitled, ‘My Whole Family think I’m Gay’ which was intended as a humorous message to one of his elder siblings, however, the video went viral and began receiving thousands of views and hits in just a few days. According to an interview for the Telegraph, Bo’s ‘first impulse to create comedy’ stemmed from him seeing it as a way to, ‘get girls, be liked’ and to, ‘deflect his own self consciousness.’ Lets talk about this, because to start off with, that’s a pretty shallow statement for the genius behind songs such as Art is Dead (calls attention to media flaws whilst pointing out his own) and What’s Funny (talks about his profession, includes quite drat comments on his own act). Maybe that’s how he used to view his window to comedy, but now he seems to cherish I, why? Because he’s able to release songs that explain his views on certain subjects or his own feelings/emotions, songs that prove this include: Rant (has a pop at religion for all the right reasons), Art is Dead, Repeat Stuff (explains loopholes in modern day media and associated problems) and many more. I talk about ‘Art is Dead’ a lot which has a very good reason, it’s one of the songs that cuts deep with hidden meanings and twisted lyrics, such as: ‘I must be psychotic, I must be demented to think that I’m worthy of all this attention…’ he explains that he’s almost guilty for the fame – he knows what he has and he knows its good but he just wants to be seen as a regular person, especially off stage where he seems to struggle the most, he almost invariably reminds the audience that he is not the same person on stage as he is off stage – without the personas he puts on, on stage, he’s a shy, introverted person. Something that astounds me about Mr. Burnham is the fact that he ‘worked eight hours a day’ to get in to the university/college of his dreams and say that he got in, yet he never went. This man has a vast intellect, he is extremely smart and it surprises me (and probably many others) that he chose to pursue his comedy career rather than go to the ‘college of his dreams’ (Harvard). He does mention in an interview for the Guardian that during the first year of comedy, he felt like ending his life, this was due to the various posts made by friends on social media about their

time at college, not only this but other comics looked down upon Bo as they saw YouTube as an ‘illegitimate route to stand up’ and the abundance of young, female viewers only attracted to Bo for his typical YouTube boy style didn’t help (that would be the style with the floppy hair + the nerdy look). Something that pulls at my heart strings is this particular quote, ‘…no one hates me more than I do, no ones more self conscious about me than I am.’ Bo Burnham’s comedy is unique and honest as opposed to many stand up comedians, although they give him a tough time, they should probably use that to learn from Bo’s techniques instead, you know why? It’s because he brings musical instruments to his act accompanied by tastefully offensive content which makes not only makes people laugh, but is genius and unique in comparison to the standard making jokes at nobody in particular for sixty minutes of their life. I think what makes Bo Burnham’s comedy unique is that it’s very challenging to the form – it goes against moral standards and dares to question things that others wouldn’t, (during Binary Reality he questions the location of ‘sour patch parents’ and if Goofy is keeping a mentally handicapped person as a pet, seems as all the other animals can talk, except Pluto) it’s very risky business – for example: during his show, Words Words Words, during a bit entitled, ‘Binary Reality’ he twists the meaning of innocent Disney films to seem corrupt and non child friendly, ‘I think Disney teaches girls, young girls such important lessons - in princess fairy tales, like, Cinderella! It doesn’t matter where you come from or how poor you are, you know, as long as you’re incredibly hot…’ and, ‘snow white, which encourage children to give midgets nicknames…’ During his new show, What. he performed ‘finale’ which involved three separate personas speaking to Bo - one was a female who claimed to be his friend from years ago and seemed to come back only because Bo now has his fame. Another is an agent who offers Bo some advise on how to relate more to the audience, though it’s clear Bo is doing his own thing, as opposed to changing himself of the public interest and the last persona is a ‘typical prep’ boy persona who not only makes slanderous comments against Bo, but tries to call him out on his alternate on-stage, off-stage personas and comes to the conclusion that they make absolutely no sense – which are used to create a musical number from their statements, it ranges from, ‘Bo, oh my god’, ‘Mr. Burnham’ and ‘Fag’ which swiftly changes to ‘we think you’ve changed bro‘, ‘we know best’ and ‘you suck’ which then also swiftly changes to, ‘we think’, ‘we know’, ‘you’. This is one amazingly intricate and extraordinary message; personally, I was left speechless and covered in goose bumps. Although it was a very clear message to the fans, it’s caused somewhat of a supportive uproar among the fan base, it’s a question, a statement – however you want to view it – and that is: we think we know Bo.