I started crying during a comedy song where there is a verse about a breakfast burrito and a Pringles can.
Let me explain.
Bo Burnham, a 25-year-old comedian and web star, has been performing and recording for almost a decade, creating irreverent, sometimes controversial, almost always funny comedy songs. Burnham created for Netflix “Make Happy,” perhaps the oddest and most brilliant piece of comedy you will watch this year.
Just listen to maybe my favorite line in the show (from the point-of-view of a “straight, white man”):“We used to have all the money and land / We still do, but it’s not as fun now.”
Burnham, before he launches into his last song, tells the audience that everything he writes ends up being about performing. The commentary throughout the show, about gender politics, privilege, and the music industry, really distills into this idea: What does it mean to be a performer?
Does he answer the question? Maybe. The commentary about stadium country, ‘inspirational’ pop ballads, hip-hop, and the flaws of “lip sync” ballad culture are all hilariously on-point, and at times poignant -- but the real magic comes when Burnham talks about his own generation, and his own relationship with performance and his audience.
We get glimpses of what Burnham really thinks of this odd celebrity culture throughout the show, but in this last song, you get his thesis. Somehow, intermingling between verses about not being able to fit his hand inside a Pringles can and having his tortilla break at Chipotle, Burnham gives us a messy answer to that impossible question:
“I can sit here and pretend like my biggest problems are Pringles cans and burritos. The truth is, my biggest problem's you. I want to please you, but I want to stay true to myself. I want to give you the night out that you deserve, but I want to say what I think, and not care what you think about it. Part of me loves you. Part of me hates you. Part of me needs you. Part of me fears you. And I don't think that I can handle this right now... Look at them, they're just staring at me. Like 'come and watch the skinny kid with a steadily declining mental health and laugh as he attempts to give you what he cannot give himself.'”
Great comedy often comes from pain, whether it’s Tig Notaro's brilliant, heartbreaking set at the Largo, discussing her mother's death and her own battle with breast cancer, or Chris Rock's sets discussing racism in America.
So should you watch “Make Happy”? Yes, and not just because it is smart, but because it is really funny. Before the last song, I was gut-achingly laughing out loud, and yes, with tears coming out of my face. What Notaro, Rock and Burnham exemplify is that we don’t have to gloss over the tough stuff to laugh -- maybe we need to laugh. Then we can move on from there.
Thanks for sharing your own pain with us, Bo Burnham, and thanks for making me laugh. I’ll try to “make happy.”
