Bo Burnham is not only a genius comedian, but also the voice of our generation. He started his career on YouTube in 2006 but that was just the tip of the iceberg. He released his newest comedy show titled 'Make Happy' on Netflix this June and let me tell you, it is pure gold. He thinks up his bits with such purpose and so much passion and the best part of his comedy is how honest and genuine it is. Bo leaves no rock unturned, he speaks about religion, race, pop culture, daddy issues, and people's reaction to his fame. He delivers these well thought out jokes through his music and his lyrics to are so witty, charismatic, thought provoking, and also a little vulgar. When you put all of these factors together you get the most amazing comedy experience!
Bo delivers most of his jokes and bits through irony. He will go on and on about how we should kill ourselves and I'm sure that he has gotten some serious hate for that, but you have to appreciate the irony of it all. Of course he doesn't want us to kill ourselves, he is just using humor to get the point across. His message from that song is that we won't be able to answer life's hardest questions with something so trivial as a overplayed pop song. If we are feeling sad, depressed, or lonely telling us to be brave and to just roar won't solve anything
He also touches on racism and sexism in his song called 'Straight White Man.' This song is mainly about the "struggles" of being a straight white man, which we all know are slim to none. Bo has a knack for taking something that we all are aware of, rarely talk about, and put it into a catchy song to make us laugh and gain a different perspective from what we all have been told.
In his song 'Lower Your Expectations' he explains what people of this generation refuse to do. He tells the people that we have an obsession with perfection, we all want love, but we only want it as long as it's perfect. We want the perfect girl that's smart but not too smart, sexy but not a slut. We want guys who believe we are equal, but will always pay for everything, super hot but also sensitive. We have this idea of the perfect man or woman in our heads, but as long as we hold onto that image, we will never find love because that level of perfection just isn't attainable. But, if we lower our expectations we will find the love we all so deserve and make our lives a little bit better.
Bo also opens our eyes to things that we may have never thought of, such things like; how valuable our attention is, how we only have ideas bases on other peoples ideas, everyone is a performer, and finally are we happy?
Your attention is a valuable thing
He explains that our attention is something that should be valued, taken seriously, and not wasted on useless bits of entertainment with no substance. We as a society have gotten so used to just watching or listening to things that don't matter, that don't require any thought but something just to pass the time. He is telling us that we deserve more than what are are getting, our attention is too valuable to be wasted.
I only base my ideas on other people's ideas
When we have an idea or an opinion on a particular issue, it's often based off of someone else's idea or opinion. How often do we have an idea that is so organic that no one else has thought of or influenced? That's really hard, especially when you put how in tune this generation is with the internet. We are constantly being subjected to other people's ideas or opinions. I don't really take this as a negative thing because it takes a village right?
Everyone is a performer
Our generation is now in the digital age, we have so many social media outlets to put ourselves out there for the world to see. Doesn't that make us all performers? Each of us are sharing a little piece of us in order to gain a following and that is exactly his point. Our profile on Instagram, all of our tweets, post on Facebook and Tumblr is a forever refreshing performance.
Are you happy?
He asks, "On a scale of one to Zero, are you happy?" There are so many aspects of life that lead to this question. Are you happy with the friends are surround ourselves with? Are you happy with everything you have achieved? Are you happy with the choices that you've made for yourself? Have you reached your happiness? As people are main goal in life is to find whatever makes us happy, we obsess over it. We think that we will find our happiness in pleasing others such as our parents, friends, peers, and our audience but working so hard to please others, often takes away our own happiness.
Bo brings up the point that the kids just like him, that were raised in the 90's were told that we could create, perform, and people would really care about what we had to offer. He admitted that he, along with a lot of millennials, realized that's just not the case, people don't care. He raises the question if we are a generation that is so self-centered all we are about is performing, or are we just living the way we were thought was expected of us?
Bo Burnham isn't just a comedian; he is an artist, musician, and the voice of a generation. His style may come off as crass, or silly but the heart of his show is so honest and is relatable and understood so well by our generation. He is making us laugh, but best of all, he is making us think.
