This document discusses comedian Bo Burnham and provides details about his career and comedy style. It notes that Burnham began his career by uploading comedy videos to YouTube at age 16, which went viral. Though he was accepted to Harvard, he chose to pursue a career in comedy. The document analyzes Burnham's unique comedy style, which incorporates music and challenges social norms by questioning things others wouldn't. It provides examples from his shows of twisting meanings in innocent stories to seem non-child friendly. The document concludes by discussing a finale from Burnham's recent show that left the audience questioning whether they truly know Burnham.

1. 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

2. 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.