Bo Burnham is a comic, poet, musician and social commentator wrapped into one. I fell head-over-heels in love with the comedian when I first discovered him through his early material on YouTube which he started when he was only 16 years old. Before he was discovered in the mainstream light, he had mostly silly songs such as "Rehab Center for Fictional Characters" and "My Whole Family Thinks I'm Gay." But as he expanded from the YouTube world, he started doing comedy that spoke out on issues in our generation and began to speak for us as a whole. While a lot of his material is inappropriate and vulgar in nature he still manages to provide meaningful insight on society while still managing to be funny and clever. In his newest comedy special "Make Happy," which was released on Netflix at the beginning of this month, he touches on issues in a somewhat comedically darker way that will cause the audience to truly think about what he is saying.
In his first comedy specials, "Words, Words, Words" and "What." he sang about certain issues that we face such as bullying, self-confidence and human rights while presenting them in a humorous way. Among the material that's just goofy, he also presents social commentary that truly makes you take a step back and consider what he is saying. In his "What." album, the song "Repeat Stuff" discussed the vapid nature of popular love songs on the radio and how they are all tailored to be extremely vague to cash in on a girl's emotions for the sole purpose of a company making money. In "Make Happy," Bo once again discusses the issues in today's music industry. He sings a mock country song using all of the clichés found in country music. He parodies hip-hop in how it is more important that they have a good beat as opposed to meaningful lyrics.
Other bits in "Make Happy" that relate to our generation included the song "Straight White Man" which talked about how "tough" it is to be a straight white man when it clearly isn't, and in the song he acknowledges issues women, people of color and the LGBT community face. Another song, "Lower Your Expectations" rang some truth to the modern dating world and how we all think we deserve a perfect partner even though perfection can never be attained. But if we lower our expectations, we can achieve love because even though life sucks, love can make it a little better.
In addition to the music in "Make Happy" the parts where Bo spoke directly to the audience left the biggest impression on me. He discussed that being born in 1990, he was raised in a generation that was constantly told to express themselves, and that people will always want to listen to what they have to say. As he grew older, he found that no one really seemed to care. He explained that as a generation we demanded an audience for our thoughts and the response to that was social media. We can "perform" for each other, all the time for no reason. He leaves us with the questioning if this makes millennials an arrogant generation or if we are just responding to the environment we were raised in.
Not only is Bo Burnham talented musically, he has become a voice for a generation which sometimes may feel largely ignored. While some of his material may seem silly on the exterior, a lot of his comedy rings truthfully in the lives of young adults. Bo Burnham has made us laugh yet again with his newest comedy special, while also making us think.
