Bo Burnham - The Art of Lying For Good

Since the dawn of YouTube, internet stars have burned bright. Yet most seem unable to sustain, and by the process of comedic natural selection, disappear. YouTube, an unforgiving medium, is the platform on which Bo Burnham ignited his flame. The evolution of Bo Burnham can be tracked by virtue of his virality. At the age of 16, he posted a video of a comedy song, filled with corny offensive puns for a select group of friends. As is often the case with offense, it went viral. Overnight he was thrust into the spotlight, armed with an agent and a knack for words. He took a year off before college to tour the United States – headlining for comedy clubs. A developing teen, his polarizing style of comedy served as a backdrop for the struggles of his own creative growth and evolution.

His material divided the masses neatly into a few groups. The politically correct indignants, the freedom of speech heretics, and the exclusive minority of comedians who formed a society Bo wanted to belong to, who believed his meteoric rise to fame and headline status was unearned, and his act – a gimmick. Over the years, You can see his development, not just as a young adult, but as a responsible entertainer, through his multiple comedy albums, his comedy specials, and finally his newest special, ‘Make Happy.

For years psychologists and sociologists have toiled unhappily in the search for the ever elusive ‘happiness’. Perhaps the most telling element of this desire is the fact that, even today, there isn’t a consensus as to what happiness is. Malcolm Muggeridge, a journalist who lived and worked in the 20th century, once said that this endeavour was the most ‘fatuous’ of those that could be undertaken. A prominent satirist, Muggeridge went on to add “This lamentable phrase – The pursuit of happiness – is responsible for a good part of the ills and miseries of the modern world”.

I believe there is something to be inferred from the variety of definitions of happiness, and it’s indices. Maybe there’s something unifying about the fact that happiness, after every research study and test, is still an abstract. It is still elusive, seemingly even unattainable. Maybe the metrics we use to judge happiness, from Maslovian benchmarks to vocabulary assessments, are inadequate because it divorces us from the connective tissue between us and everyone around us – Context.

Bo Burnham’s comedy special Make Happy is a study of what it takes to be happy, or what it is that is driving us to the pursuit of it. Bo’s one man show talks about topics ranging from happiness to love, and from music to celebrity status, but if you pay really close attention, just below the surface of the water, you can see the soil upon which Bo has painstakingly built his show. When the water, the shimmering façade is drained, you see that what Bo is really talking about, the metric that matters most to his belief, is Honesty. I’m inclined to believe him.

Art, as many artists will tell you, is not designed to show you something, but rather to make you feel something. This is something that is very close to the ethos of Bo Burnham. His early material was written to be incendiary. It was meant to engage, perhaps even enrage, his audience. The taboo nature of his work forced people to pick sides, leaving no one left in the middle to ignore him. In recent interviews, Bo has talked about his now tenuous relationship with society, fame, celebrity status, and comedy.

On the podcast ‘WTF with Marc Maron’ Bo talks about the difficulty growing up on the internet. He addresses the untamed internet and his regret with some of the work of his youth. In the conversation Bo talks about his own difficulties growing up and does something I have never heard a comedian do. He talks about the guilt that comes with knowing a piece of his could have been used against someone with a serious disability.

‘Make Happy’ arises from this uncomfortable realisation, and his journey to tackle the celebrity conundrum of giving fans what they want, while being the artist you want to be. He tackles the concept of honesty in the show, not by being offensive, but by being the offence. He personifies the construct and his show is performed by this character in an attempt to get audiences to confront the deeply rooted societal flaws.

Bo Burnham has written a love letter to honesty, by performing what is akin to hate mail to society. While his show is funny, to reduce it to a comedy special would be a disservice to the depth and complexity of his performance. Bo creates one man shows that weave together lights, sounds, music, mime, and countless other performance tools, to produce an hour of unforgettable material. He uses the full range of technical equipment available to him to create a show that is unlike any other out there.

If there is one thing that Bo excels at, it is creating a piece of work that is singular, coherent, and uniform from start to finish. He may abruptly switch topic, but he doesn’t leapfrog between different underlying themes that he has based his show around. The very first portion of the show is an energetic ballad to the concert conversation dynamic, of call and response. The show forces the audience to engage by giving them a series of questions to respond to. A study of the first few minutes might actually be sufficient to understand the nuance and brilliance of this show. The show’s success relies squarely strength Bo’s tenacity and the faith that audiences can be relied upon for one thing - Which is to do precisely what everyone else is doing.

In the opening few minutes Bo has established his performance oriented style, his brash – often offensive – content, and his ability to make crowds acknowledge the shortcoming in society on their own. In the midst of bass heavy music, elaborate lighting sequences, and highly enthusiastic blocking, he makes a nuanced plea for honesty by inviting the audience to join him, knowing full well that they are programmed to be anything but.

This is a theme that underlies every piece in the show. Whether about love, country music, or late night television, under the jokes, under the artifice of the stage, ‘Make happy’ implores the audience to grow past the triviality of talk show games, to participate in real moments, and to respect themselves enough to not accept banality from the entertainment industry.

There is a lot we do not know about life, and it seems that every new discovery is rendered archaic immediately by the incessant progress of time and society. Perhaps if we learn to uncouple ourselves from being a passive audience in the theatre of life, and make an honest effort – to be honest – maybe then, we could stop making hate, and make happy instead.