i can't believe we didn't have a bo burnham thread y'all just wait till i get back from the grocery store and then i will have THINGS to SAY
thinking about bo burnham brings back a specific time and set of feelings for me. hard to separate the actual art from the personal context. idk. i liked what.
I've been meaning to look at his new stuff. I have the first album he released, and I used to love his shows on Comedy Central-- it's really weird realizing that this 17 year old highschooler is like. An adult. Who is successful at comedy. (New Math is probably my favorite of his older songs, though My Whole Family is a close second.)
when i realized bo was only two years older than me it fucked me up for about an hour but like man i have many incoherent rambly feelings about Make Happy, but one of the coolest was getting to see how far he's come, how much he's matured in his art. like i fell in love with his style of comedy from the very first second i heard Words Words Words (i used to have the album on my ipod for years), it was the first time i heard someone who just... appreciated language and wordplay the way i do, and he was funny and now he's grown up and he's lost a lot of the like... preciousness he had in his first show, for me. i'm so proud of him!! while also a little sad that he seems to be going Through Some Shit, and kinda glad that i'm not alone in the whole Going Through Some Shit thing rn also it's legitimately weird that there is a whole segment who only know him as "oh that one guy who makes the funny vines"
I LOVE BO OK I need to see Make Happy, and I wonder if anyone has like... a place I could watch it? Honestly the dude is really funny, he's one of my favorite comedians
it's on netflix, i'm not sure where else edit: just remembered that this one's a Netflix Original, so pretty much just netflix is your options
i found the finale on youtube, which i feel like is a pretty good summary of the entire show this was the moment that blew my whole goddamn mind open
His finales are always incredible. What. was an excellent commentary on stage persona vs reality, and then literally transforming what people say about him into a piece of music? Holy shit. And then Make Happy doubles down on that and really smacks you in the face with that whole trend if not fact of comedians being very damaged people.
i went and rewatched what. last night after posting that because it's been a couple years since i've seen it and just, i forgot like Left Brain, Right Brain? honestly it was so amazing, like basically the show turns into a theater performance and it is so good. and then yeah, the finale. "We Think We Know You. We Think We Know You. We Think We Know You." i read in an interview that he really likes including elements of theater and that the meta about performance keeps cropping up in his work as like... like a theme... because he feels that pointing out the artifice while simultaneously embracing it is the only way he can be honest about what he wants to say. i thought it was interesting.
i really like just how... i dunno. he seems honest about what he's saying. his comedy is super relatable to me.
okay i've been trying to organize all my Thoughts and Feelings about bo burnham and his shows for the past few days and i am STILL STRUGGLING, and also playing all the songs from Make Happy on repeat and i just. i don't know, i don't know where to start. i guess first of all his actual singing has improved so much in the past few years. he's always been a decent singer but he did REALLY lovely things with his voice in this show. he was much..... sharper, i guess? compared to how he seemed in what. more sharp edges and less wide-eyed Youthful Enthusiasm i have seen a lot of speculation that Make Happy will be his last special (or at least the last one for a long time), and i believe that. it seems like his biggest struggle as a performer is maintaining his honesty and integrity and still managing to entertain, especially if you look at all his criticisms of other artists who compromise themselves for the sake of their audience. anyway i have lost count of the number of times i've watched "can't handle this" and i can't fucking believe how brilliant it is, and i can't fucking believe that i am saying that about a song about pringles cans and burritos but. musically, visually, emotionally, it is so amazing ANYWAY i am on my phone so this is getting exhausting to type and i STILL don't know how im feeling or what i think but i'm probably gonna watch the whole special again today and i will almost certainly cry at the end
