The summary provides a concise 3 sentence overview of the key points from the document. It states that the video is a challenge to the form of corporately owned pop stars who tell fans to feel good about themselves, which makes the fans love the celebrity and buy their media, while the same media is what made them feel bad about themselves. It also explains that the pop stars do this in a vague way aimed at the whole audience, and implies they are working for Satan.

1. Task 3
Secondary Research
Abygail Jones

2. Summary: The article is a quick overview of the success and
personal life of Bo Bunrham along with his views on his own
shows and what he hopes to achieve in the future i.e. film
making and writing – it’s a mixture of quotes from interviews,
his shows and his work (i.e. his poetry book) along with the
writers personal opinion – the actual article is based off of an
interview between the author and Bo Burnham himself.
Further Research: I can focus on how his fame was almost accidental as he only posted his first video as a comical
farewell message to his elder brother and it ended up going viral – which wasn’t even a big thing back in those days
(2006) – I can focus on the age gap and the other possible opportunities for fame he had before his ‘accidental fame.’
I could also talk about his views on his own shows, now that he looks back on it he mentioned that Words, Words,
Words had quite a different outcome than he had desired. Or how he views his fan base, he usually creates jokes about
how his fan base is predominantly prepubescent girls etc.
News

3. The majority of the quotes within this article are directly from Bo Burnham
during the interview between him and Alice Jones, such as: ‘A lot of the time I’m
propelled into the next thing by a discomfort or a distaste for the thing before…’
Other quotes come from places such as his live shows, such as: Words, Words,
Words (released October 9th, 2010 by Comedy Central Records
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Words_Words_Words) with quotes such as, ‘I’m a
‘young comedian’. I hate that term,” he would sulk. “I prefer prodigy.’
There is also quotes from the author, Alice Jones, who states things such as:
‘The funny thing is, prodigy is the right word for Bo Burnham.’ and, ‘twisted love
child of Ben Folds Five and Eminem, or Tim Minchin on speed.’
All of these quotes come directly from the Independent Newspapers website,
www.independant.co.uk and the article written by Alice Jones, Wednesday,
November 6th 2013.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/comedy/features/the-many-
faces-of-bo-burnham-8923276.html

4. Summary: A very brief yet detailed adaption of an
interview between Bo Burnham and Brian Logan,
here, Bo explains his personal views on his own
comedy along with some deep, dark, emotional
reasoning – this interview gives you a quick but
intricate explanation of the real Bo Burnham as
opposed to the personas he puts on for comedic
effect during his acts – the interviewer manages to
almost break Burnham out of his shell – or at least
that’s how he’s adapted it.
Ideas for further research: I’d like to look in to the ‘anti-
High School Musical’ idea that Bo keeps mentioning
within interviews, I’d like to find out as much as I can and
expand on it so I could write about it in my own factual
writing as there hasn’t been any indications to what it
could be about other than it would be a possible
screenplay.
I’d also like to find out about the darker side of Bo, the
real Bo – why he chose the name, what his fame means
to him, what kind of audience he’d prefer over the 16
year old girls and so on.
I’d also like to look in to the potential he had at an
American college – as he turned this down to do comedy,
I’d like to know if he regrets it in any other way than he’s
already mentioned – I’d also like to ask him how he would
deal with the ‘hate’ that he gets from other comedians
and who, out of the ones he’s received praise from and
met, is his favorite.
Talking about his inspirations and aspirations would also
be a good research point – it would really let readers look
in to the life and world that is Robert Pickering Burnham.
Tags: Bo Burnham, comedy, music, singer,
songwriter, comedian, Brian Logan, Article, Facts,
The Guardian, www.theguardian.com, celebrity,
celeb, movie, actor, stand up, one man show, Words
words words, What. , 24/aug/2010, Robert Pickering
Burnham, Art is dead, Rehab for Fictional
Characters, songs, Culture, Edinburgh Festival, 2010,
I’m, Honest, for, two,minutes

5. All of these quotes are directly from the article, ‘Bo Burnham:
I’m honest – for two minutes’ written by Brian Logan, a
journalist for The Guardian. The quotes are either directly from
the interview between the journalist and Bo or it’s the opinion
of the author, Brian.
Quotes such as, ‘I was trying to think what my show would be
like it I was myself in it…’ come directly from Bo Burnham,
speaking his opinion on his own shows and what his view is.
Other quotes such as, ‘Burnham flits between personae so
swiftly you can’t keep up.’ are the opinion of the writer.
All of these quotes come from the article on The Guardian
Website: www.theguardian.com/ written on Tuesday 24th
August 2010.
http://www.theguardian.com/culture/2010/aug/24/bo-burnham

6. Summary: It’s an article based solely on
his MTV show, ‘Zach Stone is Gonna be
Famous’ the article is an interview
where Bo tells the interviewer his
personal view on the shows synopsis,
characters and production process – it
also gives the reader/fans factual
information on what was going through
his head when he came up with the
ideas. What he fails to tell us about is
how it was like working with the other
characters.
Ideas for Further Research: I’d like to
find out about how Bo got on and
interacted with the other characters
during the production process, I’d also
like to dig deeper in to how he came
about deciding on the character, Zach
Stone’s personality.
I’d also like to find out more about the
time period as Bo briefly mentions it
within this article but doesn’t expand.
I’d like to look in to why the show was
cancelled, it was previously mentioned
in a different article on a different news
website – I’d like to investigate the
cause further.
Tags: Bo Burnham, Zach stone is gonna
be famous, MTV, TV Show, interview,
New York Magazine, Magazine,
Vulture, Comedy, Q&A, YouTube,
5/1/2013, Elise Czajkowski, Michael
Cera, Zach Stone, Robert Pickering
Burnham, characters, Fame, Celebrity,
opinions, TV, people, comedy week

7. All of these quotes are taken from the interview between Bo Burnham
and Elise Czajkowski, the writer of the article I have extracted these
quotes from.
The article is predominantly quotes directly from Bo Burnham, for
example: every answer to every question from the interviewer, i.e.
‘Yeah, I think we filmed the pilot, like, two years ago?’
There is also quotes from Elise, for example: the first paragraph, ‘
“Internet sensation” to become one of the most inventive and
imaginative comedians working today.’
All information has been taken directly from the New York Magazine
sub-website, www.vulture.comand from the article written by Elise.
http://www.vulture.com/2013/05/bo-burnham-zach-stone-is-gonna-be-
famous-interview.html

8. Summary: it’s a very well written article based on an
interview with Bo Burnham, again, he’s talking about his
views on his shows and his comedy. This time, however,
the journalist goes a little more in depth with
explanation in comparison to the other news articles,
for example: he manages to get Burnham to explain why
he chose comedy, how he learnt to play the
piano/instruments, what his comedy is getting at and
which university/college he chose to go to and why he
did not.
Ideas for further research: Much like the other articles, I’d like to look in to
why Bo didn’t go to college/university – most of my questions have been
answered here but if I could find out more it would be good.
I’d also like to find out more about how he felt when his first video, ‘My
whole family…’ went viral, does he regret it? Does he implore it?
I’d also like to find out more about how he feels about his fans, he’s
mentioned in previous articles that he wished he had a larger variety other
than, ‘prepubescent girls’ but he wouldn’t keep doing comedy if it wasn’t for
the benefit of the fans.
Tags: Bo Burnham, comedy, music, stand
up, news, article, Mark Monahan,
7/Nov/2013, telegraph, culture, interview,
people, England, Ireland, USA, culture
news, comedy news

9. All quotes taken are from the article derived from the interview
between Bo Burnham and the journalist, Mark Monahan.
The quotes are a mixture of direct quotes from Bo Burnham himself
during the interview or the opinionated view of the author, for
example: ‘Comedy itself is (however subtly) the main agenda, with
Burnham constantly challenging our expectations of him…’ is the
authors opinion whereas, ‘A playful want to shake people out of their
illusion as to what comedy is’ is a direct quote from Bo himself.
All quotes have been taken from the article on the telegraph
website, www.telegraph.co.uk
They’ve also been taken directly from the article, ‘Bo Burnham
interview: ‘People my age want something real’ by Mark Monahan.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/comedy/10432898/Bo-
Burnham-interview-People-my-age-want-something-real.html

10. YouTube
Summary: it’s a challenge to the form, the video is trying to get a point across that
corporately owned pop stars tell their fans to feel good about themselves which, in turn,
makes them love the celebrity even more and buy the media that the celebrity appears in,
which is actually what made them feel bad about themselves in the first place as it’s what
tells them they should be ‘skinnier or prettier.’ What’s more, he explains they do it in a very
vague way so it’s not focused on one person, it’s aimed at the whole audience, things like, ‘I
love your hands cus’ your fingerprints are like no other…’ he also implies that these pop stars
are working for Satan.
Ideas for future research: I’d like to look in to interviews with Bo vs. Justin Bieber, he was in
one of his shows and became offended when Bo performed this particular song which gets
at Bieber as he is a corporately owned pop star.
I’d also like to get his views on this song and what ideas he was thinking of when he created
the lyrics for it, he’s obviously trying to prove a point – how well did he think it did? At the
same time, he’s also having a little dig at himself, in other songs such as, ‘Art is dead’ where
he sings about how he’s doing what he loves and he’s successful and makes all this money
from fans, but he’s basically exactly the same as the rest of the media, trying to do the same
thing.
Tags: Bo Burnham, lyrics, YouTube, video, funny, comedy, issues, Repeat stuff, Justin Bieber,
Satan, art is dead, music, song, sing, challenge to the form, pop stars, pop music, piano, A-Z
Lyrics

11. All quotes are taken directly from
the lyrics of Bo Burnham’s song,
Repeat Stuff from his CD, What. And
all screenshots are taken from the
official Repeat Stuff music video on
Bo Burnham’s personal YouTube
channel.
https://www.youtube.com/channel
/UC81hVmI5eEBIt3s3HQpJd_w
This particular example is from the
website, A-Z Lyrics.
http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/bob
urnham/repeatstuff.html

12. Summary: It’s an interview between Conan and
Burnham where Bo explains exactly what the song,
‘Repeat Stuff’ is getting at – in a rather humorous way,
he explains how the media tells girls to be ‘skinner or
prettier’ and they turn to their icons/idols to tell them
they’re beautiful so that they go out and buy the exact
media that made them feel bad in the first place – he
jokes that the artists do it in a very vague way to apply to
every girl rather than just one. During a show Justin
Bieber and Selena Gomez were actually attending
(without anyone knowing) Bo plays this song which is
aimed directly at the kind of pop stars like Justin – he
also slightly implies that he works for Satan.
Ideas for further research: I’d like to look in to Justin
Bieber’s side of the story to see how he actually felt – if
there is any media at all that dictates his opinions on his
own songs and his own access to media.
I’d also like to look at the lyrics of some of Bo’s other
songs, especially ‘Art is dead’ as it explains this exact
point again whereas he aims it at himself rather than
other pop stars.
Tags: Bo Burnham, Justin Bieber, Selena Gomez, Conan,
Team Coco, YouTube, TV Show, interview, video,
comedy, comedian, song, sing, song writer, singer,
performer, performance, stand up, TBS, chat show, host,
celebrity, fame, famous, satire

13. Conan: “You did a show recently and Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez were in the audience, is
that right?”
Bo: “Yeah, uh, I didn’t know that they were there, I didn’t know he knew my stuff, I didn’t know
Bieber personally”
Bo: “I have a bit in my act that sort of makes fun of Justin Bieber and some of these, young pop
stars, basically it’s a song and it mocks the way that those songs are written, what the songs
basically do is they – they’re love songs to girls and they describe the girls as vaguely as they
possibly can so that every girl can think that, that song is about them. It’s like, ‘I love how
your fingerprints are different than everybody else's…”
Conan: “Did you find out if they were mad or anything?”
Bo: “Well, the thing is…that seems sort of harmless but then it gets a little darker and I sort of
accuse these young, pop artists of being a part of this cycle where girls read magazines, feel
terrible about themselves…”
Bo: “and I guess…I sort of implied that he was working for, Satan or whatever…”
Bo: “When I found out that he came to the show, I sort of just felt bad because its like, this poor
eighteen year old kid like wanted to get out for the night, like with his girlfriend, they snuck in
to the theatre, like through the back when the house lights are dimmed and he like, grabbed
her hand and looked in to her eyes and then I just…tooled on him for ten minutes.”
Conan: “He was in a crowd, in a show where no one had mentioned him and uh, now you ruined
it he’s skulking out…”
(These quotes were taken from the YouTube video of the interview between Conan and Bo
Burnham when he’s talking about his accidental brush with Justin Bieber, May 3rd 2013
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sdvxEuQkH8)

14. Factual Artifacts
Summary: Bo’s Wikipedia page covers
various areas of his life, this includes:
‘personal life, career and performance
credits.’ this piece of factual writing
gives a fan the ability to expand their
knowledge on all things Bo Burnham.
Its also there to refer to if a journalist
or someone is covering a story on him.
The page doesn’t really give us any
direct quotes from Burnham himself
and it’s entirely factual – no bias or
opinionated writing what so ever
which makes it a very reliable source.
Notes for further research: The only
thing I could really look in to here is the
opinion of Bo on his shows and his
fame which has already basically been
covered with the articles I previously
looked at.
I could also look in to other lyrics –
especially from Words Words Words or
What. This would give me a great
insight as to how he’s changed his
comedy style over the period of a few
years.
Tags: Bo Burnham, Wikipedia, comedy,
music, artist, MTV, Comedy Central,
YouTube, Video, lyrics, song, sing,
comedian, satire, vocals, guitar, electric
piano, ukulele, singer, songwriter,
musician, actor, musical career, Robert
Pickering Burnham, USA, 2006-2014

15. All quotes are directly from the Bo Burnham
Wikipedia page which received it’s factual
information from various sources, including
news and magazine interviews which makes
the factual information 100% legit – the last
time the Wikipedia page was modified was
11 November 2014 at 1:25am.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bo_Burnham

16. Summary: it’s a brief overview of Bo Burnham and his success,
this includes: a variety of media (i.e. Facebook and Twitter),
promotional offers such as his CD (What.), other
comedians/similar comedians, Bo’s YouTube videos and his
personal YouTube channel along with factual writing such as: an
‘about Bo Burnham’ section for viewers/readers to find out
more information without having to use Wikipedia or
potentially an unreliable source – especially when writing
articles or other forms of factual media.
Ideas for further research: I’d like to look in to what kind of
record deal Comedy Central offered Bo and what kind of
contract he was on when he produced and starred in his own
MTV show, ‘Zach Stone is gonna be Famous.’
I’d also like to find out more about his high school years – I’d
like to find out what it was like, if he had a best friend, what he
aspired to be before comedy came in to his life, does he
consider himself smart?
I’d also like to look at his book of poetry, ‘Egghead: Or you can’t
survive on ideas alone’ it would give me further insight to his
lyrical genius.
Tags: Bo Burnham, Comedy Central, Stand up, Comedy,
Comedian, music, lyrics, lyrical genius, entertainment, videos,
YouTube, fame, fortune, culture, community, factual, Robert
Pickering Burnham, What. , Words words words, House of
Comedy live, House of Blues, Boston, Bostonian, Boston
comedian, October 16th 2013, Video clips, clips, twitter,
Facebook, social networking, Zach stone is gonna be famous,
MTV, TV show, actor, song writer, singer

17. All quotes and images come from the
Comedy Central Stand-Up website – this
piece of factual writing is quite a brief,
yet informative summary of Bo
Burnham’s career – all quotes seem to
be factual, especially as it’s the official
Comedy Central website which makes
the information twice as legit.
http://www.cc.com/comedians/bo-burnham

18. Primary Research

19. https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/F7BV9WQ
I’m using surveymonkey.com to create a questionnaire that fans or
even Bo Burnham can take to give me the answers I desire.
I’ve put my survey up on a range of social networking sites
including Twitter, Tumblr and Facebook.

20. Answers
Tags: Bo Burnham, survey,
surveymonkey, answers,
questions, name, full name,
respondent, comedy, comedian,
fan, Tumblr, social networking,
website
Summary: This question was
created so that when I refer to the
answers, I can put a name to the
quote which makes it more reliable
and believable, it’s a way to see
how much of an impact he’s had
on other countries and nations too
– it also references them so that if
they were interested in something
to do with Bo, they could go and
look at my work and see that their
own quote was actually in there.
Tags: Bo Burnham,
Surveymonkey, Tumblr,
comedy, comedian, answers,
Q&A, fan, social networking,
respondent, questions
Summary: There is a distinct
pattern between the answers,
it’s either that someone
recommended or showed Bo
Burnham’s work to someone
else, it was suggested or
found on YouTube, it was
down to his vines or it was
down to Netflix – the majority
of answers point towards his
special, What. being on
Netflix.

21. Answers
Tags: Bo Burnham, comedian,
stand up, Q&A, answers,
respondent, Tumblr, big fan, fan,
personal opinion, personal
question, celebrity, famous, music
Summary: This question was
really designed to see how much
of an impact Bo has had on
people, how much time, money,
effort etc. they’ve devoted to his
existence and how much they
would be willing to devote – there
is considerably more positive
responses rather than negative –
out of 17 people, only 4 don’t really
consider themselves big fans.

22. Answers
Tags: Bo Burnham, idol, icon,
iconic, negative, positive, answers,
Q&A, Questions, fans, fan base,
Tumblr, survey monkey, humor,
satire
Summary: There are significantly
more positive responses in
comparison to negatives, it is a
little bias because its mostly fan
blogs and fan sites where the
people who answered my
questionnaire came from, other
than that, there is a variety of
reasons why people do or don’t
see Bo as an idol.

23. Answers
Tags: Bo Burnham, personality,
work, describe, description,
personal opinion, personal,
opinionated, Q&A, Questions,
Answers, comedy, comedian,
Tumblr, Surveymonkey.com
Summary: A lot of people would
describe his work as clever and
thought provoking however, it’s
quite offensive as it’s satirical –
that doesn’t stop them admiring his
work. They also describe him as
as a friendly, shy person who often
puts on a show, a persona, if you
will – that masks his true self from
the audience, so much so that he
can’t tell if the audience is enjoying
it or not.

24. Answers
Tags: Bo Burnham, extreme,
jokes, personal, opinion, Q&A, Art
is dead, cookout, music, comedy,
comedian, shock, bad
Summary: There is a lot of
different responses, however, a
few fans have a similar opinion or
the same quote – this raises the
question as to whether a lot of
people have a problem with this
and if so, what does that mean for
Bo’s work? Other than that, they’re
being very honest with their
responses, I know exactly what
they think about Bo and some of
their opinions also appeal to that of
mine.

25. Answers
Tags: Favourite, Quote, Bo
Burnham, Surveymonkey.com,
Answers, Q&A, Question, Answer,
Art is Dead, Songs, Comedian,
Comedy, Lyrics, Stand up, Tumblr,
Messages
Summary: Nobody who answered
picked the same quote twice, this
further emphasizes how good Bo
Burnham’s comedy pieces are.
There are a lot of different opinions
on him too – the quotes are from
either his old or new shows –
some of them are comedic and
some of them are quite deep and
actually spoke to the audience.

26. Answers
Tags: Negative, Positive, Opinion,
Bo Burnham, Comedian, Comedy,
Q&A, Questions, Answers, Why,
Tumblr, Surveymonkey.com,
variety
Summary: This is a pretty straight
forward question so the answers
are either ‘positive’ or ‘negative’ –
although there are predominantly
more positive views towards him in
contrast to the negative – a few
people give a longer answer as to
why they are negative or positive
towards him.

27. Answers
Tags: Zach Stone will never be
Famous, TV Show, MTV, Bo
Burnham, Comedy, Comedian,
Q&A, Questions, Answers, DVD,
cancelled, how, did, you, feel,
opinion, personal
Summary: There was a lot of
disappointment towards the cancellation
of the show although some answers
were indifferent whether that was
because they didn’t see the show or
didn’t know it existed. There was only
one or two people who thought that it
was ‘good’ that the show ended –
whether this was because it ‘didn’t suit
MTV’ or ‘he wouldn’t know where to go
from there.’

28. Answers
Tags: Influence, Idolize, Idol, Bo
Burnham, yes or no answer,
explanation, personal opinion,
Comedy, comedian,
singer/songwriter, Inspiration,
inspirational, Q&A, Question and
Answer, Surveymonkey.com,
Tumblr
Summary: There was a mixture of
responses, Bo either influenced
someone to do something like
comedy or just generally made
them feel better or he didn’t
because they were a new fan or
they didn’t give a long response.