An analysis of the work of creator Bo Burnham and Dan Harmon.

1. Film 303
Final Dossier
By Joey Pethan

2. Burnham & Harmon
The Masters of Meta
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3. About Bo Burnham
• Started at the age of 15 posting videos to YouTube
and his videos went viral.
• This led to him getting booked at comedy clubs.
• Recorded a performance in London for Comedy
Central’s The World Stands Up January 2008 (aired
in June of that year). He was only 17 at the time.
• Has done three stand up specials, a book of poems
(Egghead), a short-lived tv show (Zach Stone Is
Gonna Be Famous), and has written/directed a
feature film (Eighth Grade).
• He is only 29.

4. His Style
Bo is very Avant Garde as a stand up comedian.
His work contains the irony and intellectualism of postmodernism yet also
implements more optimistic elements of humanism and romantism. He appears to
have moved onto another phase past the cynicism of postmodernism into an entirely
new and mostly unexplored cultural zeitgeist.
His focus is mainly on both that of the current media landscape, and introspection and
the search for true happiness in the modern world.
Despite not even being thirty yet, he has gone through several stages in his comedy
career. His three comedy specials each seem to encapsulate each phase of his work.
Phase 1: Words Words Words and Postmodern Cynicism.
Phase 2: what. and the search for meaning.
Phase 3: Make Happy. The other side of postmodern culture and creating your own
meaning.
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5. His Influences
• While he takes some inspiration from
American comics, Burnham is much more
similar to the eastern style than that of the
western style of traditional stand up comedy
that most are accustomed to.
• He is fascinated by the work of Dutch absurdist
Hans Teeuwen, known for using a black sock
puppet.
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6. His Subject Matter
• Self-Reflection: Bo’s most appealing qualities are his transparency and
introspection, which molds him into an authentic, relatable figure
that has made him popular among younger audiences, who have
grown weary of “manufactured” celebrity figures.
• The Cult of Celebrity: Fame isn’t worth it.
• Social Media Culture: How it has made everyone a “performer.”
• Finding Happiness: It is possible, but it requires personal
responsibility.
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7. Part 1:
ART IS DEAD
An analysis of Words Words Words

8. “It’s all an illusion…”
Burnham’s primary goal in Words Words Words was to
expose the façade of entertainment. In his first non-
comedic song ever, Art is Dead, he rants about how this is
all now just a business. In the age of the internet and
YouTube, “comedy” is just a way for narcissists (Lele Pons,
Lilly Singh, Logan Paul) to make money without spending
years of their life dedicated to perfecting a craft.
“We’re rolling in dough while Carlin rolls in his grave.”
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9. Art is Dead meaning:
• Everything is commodified now, and in our everything-is-marketable
world, free expression has been monopolized and hijacked.
• Performing isn’t an escape, it’s an addiction.
• It’s rewarding those who refuse to be mature and take responsibility.
• Through this song Burnham vents his frustration and guilt about his
life as a performer.
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Le0vB1TgOjw
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10. PART 2:
MAYBE GOD
DOES NOT
BELIEVE IN YOU
what. and the death of meaning.

11. “We’ll stop beating this dead horse
when it stops spitting out money.”
• In From God’s Perspective Burnham doesn’t blame the current state of the world on a higher power, but on
humanity itself. We all want a better world, but what are we doing to actively create one? Our sense of meaning is
up to us, but we aren’t excersizing any agency.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2kPwVSc-00
• We Think We Know You shows Bo’s internal struggles and the way that we preemptively put people into boxes
before giving them a chance.
• He looks to the heavens for answers…crickets.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQTZVnDE2Qw

12. Part 3:
Living Without an Audience
Make Happy and the other side of Postmodernism

13. “I was born in 1990 and I was raised in America when it was a cult of self expression. And I was just
taught, you know, express myself and have things to say and everyone will care about them. And I
think everyone was taught that and most of us found out no one gives a shit what we think. So we
flock to performers by the thousands cuz we’re the few who have found an audience. And then I’m
supposed to get up here and say ‘follow your dreams’ as if this is a meritocracy? It is not, OK. I had a
privileged life and I got lucky and I’m unhappy. They say it’s like the “me generation.” It’s not. The
arrogance is taught, or it was cultivated. It’s self-conscious, that’s what it is; conscious of self. Social
media is just the market’s answer to a generation that demanded to perform. So the market said,
‘here, perform everything to each other all the time for no reason.’ It’s prison. It’s horrific. It is
performer and audience melded together. What do we want more than to lay in our bed at the end
of the day and just watch our life as a satisfied audience member. I know very little about anything,
but what I do know is that if you can live your life without an audience…you should do it. And now
you’re thinking, ‘how the fuck are you gonna dig the show out of this weird hole?’”

14. • In his third and final special, Bo seems to seek out a solution to
the loss of meaning found in his two previous specials and in
pop culture in general.
• He tell the audience that finding happiness and meaning is
possible, but there is something holding us back. That
something is the seemingly universal need among all people to
perform. To live as heavily curated versions of ourselves
through social media. We have to appear as “better” than we
actually are.
• Bo’s biggest niche was that his performances were always
about the very nature of performing itself, because on some
level, everyone could relate to it. But that’s not what life
should be. Life is about the human experience, not the
applause.
• To truly be happy, perhaps the solution is to embrace
imperfection, simplicity, and even at times disappointment.
• We shouldn’t seek meaning from the validation of others, but
instead create meaning for ourselves.
• Instead of taking a step back from postmodernism to
modernism, Bo pushes through postmodernism into a new
terrain.

15. The Final Shot
At the end of his “trilogy” Bo leaves us with one final shot.
It’s the light at the at the end of the tunnel.
Not a mansion, not a crowd of adoring fans.
It’s a partner, a dog, and their life together.
That is, perhaps, all we need.
And the whole world doesn’t need to see it.

16. An Introduction to
Dan Harmon
• Born in Milwaukee (there’s a win right off
the bat) and attended Marquette
University.
• Was a member of ComedySportz
• Most known for creating the shows
Community and Rick and Morty and was
an uncredited consultant on Doctor
Strange.
• He was the focus of the documentary
Harmontown and hosts a podcasts of the
same name.
• Known for his “Story Circle.”
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17. How He Operates
• He has a deep love for pop culture and implements all his
work with references and familiar tropes.
• He loves to subvert tropes, but unlike most postmodern TV,
he does it while adding meaning to it.
• He is a master of combining homage with parody.
Examples of this include episodes of Community
- Abed’s Uncontrollable Christmas
- Remedial Chaos Theory

18. Abed’s Uncontrollable
Christmas
• The episode is in “Claymation,” referencing the holiday classics of the
past, but it’s revealed that it’s all an delusion from Abed. In fact, the
entire episode is in his point of view.
• The school phycologist, Duncan (John Oliver) attempts to find the
cause of Abed’s delusion (with the ulterior motive of getting a book
deal).
• It seemingly starts out with the goal to “save Christmas” but it soon
becomes a case of “delusion vs reality” as in the end, it is revealed
that the cause of this delusion stems from Abed’s personal life.
• His mother, who visits every year to watch Rudolf with Abed, is not
coming, and now has a new family.
• Upon hearing this Abed “freezes” into a catatonic state, as the
meaning of Christmas is now stripped away.

19. • In the end, Abed is brought
out of his catatonic state
when the group rejects
Duncan and sings a song
about what Christmas means
to each of them.
• The episode ends with the
group watching Rudolph the
Red-Nosed Reindeer
together as a new family.
• The meaning is simple.
Christmas can have
whatever meaning you want,
as long as you create one.

20. Remedial Chaos Theory
Harmon has a fascination with the concept of alternate timelines, a
concept that he would later make into a focal point on Rick and Morty.
In the second episode of the third season, he fully utilizes this concept
and uses it as an example of how the structure of a community (get it?
Like the show) can prevent chaos.

21. • As Jeff rolls a die to determine who goes
downstairs to get the pizza, he creates seven
different timelines.
• As a different member goes downstairs,
there’s is a different outcome. This represents
what qualities each member of the group
brings to the table, and what happens when
the group momentarily loses all of those
qualities.
• Example: Abed’s absence causes the group to
fight (He’s the group’s heart). Jeff’s absence
causes the group to happily sing and dance to
Roxanne (He’s the group’s cynic).
• The point Harmon makes in this episode is
that life only has meaning if you have the
right people in your life.

22. The Show in General
Community is about …community. A group of outsiders who, at the start of the show, are all pretty
lost in life and each carry their own insecurities.
The group consists of a lawyer who lost his license, a lonely old guy who’s been multiple divorces, a
recently divorced single mom, a former jock, an autistic movie buff, a valedictorian, and a social
justice warrior.
On paper, this group shouldn’t exist. But over the course of the series, they drop their facades and
become a family. By the end of the show they move forward in life because of their Community.

23. CONCLUSION

24. Burnham and Harmon Both seem to mirror French philosopher Albert Camus.
Camus argued that there wasn’t any inherent order and meaning to the
universe. However, what set him apart form other “nihilists” was that he
didn’t see that as a reason for despair, in fact he encouraged people to take
the opportunity to create their own meaning.
He referenced the myth of Sisyphus, a king destined to push a boulder up a hill
only to have it roll down to the bottom and continue the cycle for all eternity,
representing one’s struggle against the absurdity of life.
Camus argued that one must imagine Sisyphus as happy, for this act give him
purpose.
That is what both Harmon and Burnham argue as well.
We must be responsible for our own happiness.
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25. Sources
• https://www.gq.com/story/dan-harmon-rick-and-morty-profile
• https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/camus/
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hVkJHIIrpM
• https://genius.com/Bo-burnham-art-is-dead-lyrics
• http://www.boburnham.com/store/