It’s rare that a comedy special makes you think hard about the performing world, about your relationships, and gives you concern for the happiness of the performer. Make Happy does all this at once, wrapped up like a burrito that is too full. Bo Burnham is a skilled comic and his combination of rapid-fire songwriting and meaty observations about modern life are captivating. He is someone who pushes the norms of what one would expect at a late-night show. A comedian who instead of just talking at you the whole time, brings out his theatrical side through fast paced songs and bits.
There were plenty of burst out laughing moments, clever classic Bo Burnham songs that mocked the state of “mainstream” problems and the way the public thinks. Then there were some very serious mentions of mental health, depression, and trying to appease an audience searching for something more in life.
Bo has made mention in past specials about the way he acts onstage verses off. One can clearly see the difference from when he is performing a song or doing a skit to when he is speaking directly to the audience from a personal standpoint. When he is performing, he comes across as someone who thinks they know everything, as if speaking down on the audience in a way, but he isn’t trying to be mean. But then on the other hand, when he is talking to the audience about problems he has in his life, he seems so small, squatting down center stage to be at the eyelevel of the audience, but yet very passionate and real with his words. Making him seem like just a normal person and not this big famous comedian that the world knows him for. He is really quick with his wits, when audience members shout things from the crowd like when one shouted, “I love you”, to which he responded with “No you f**king don’t” almost immediately. The way he expresses himself when doing a skit is with such confidence, but some people take it as him being egotistical or arrogant. He puts on an act for the audience because that is all he has known in his life, is performing. I think that’s what brings in the audience, his ability to speak about such controversial topics with a certain amount of confidence, it grabs the people’s attention more.
In Make Happy, he breaks from this persona to talk personally with the audience about his life and views on the performing world. He says in the special, “We flock to performers by the thousands, cause we’re the few that have found an audience. And then I’m supposed to get up here and say, ‘Follow your dreams,’ as if this is a meritocracy? I had a privileged life and I got lucky and I’m unhappy”. Bo made it very clear in the special he has some problems going on in his life and although he has this audience of people who follow him, it hasn’t made him any happier. If anything, it feels like a prison as he mentioned in the special. While he was saying these things, he talked with such passion over the fact that people should be able to live their life without an audience. Social media completely diminishes that kind of life. We post to social media in hopes of getting likes and getting others attention.
Throughout the special, Bo Burnham breaks down modern music. Talking about different genres like hip-hop, rap, pop, and country. He starts with hip-hop, commenting on how the genre tends to focus more on killer beats rather than meaningful lyrics. Then he moves onto country, explaining the hypocrisy of these millionaires wearing expensive cowboy boots, pandering to a working-class existence that they are not a part of (Hugar). Even changing his voice to sound like he was from the south, made the performance truer to how these country artists sing. Most notably, one of his best performances was tackling a trend within the pop world of the typical inspirational pop song. In the special, he mentions songs like Katy Perry’s “Roar” and “Brave” by Sara Bareilles that offer false hope. He does this with a song that has a chorus encouraging the audience to kill themselves. Bo is quick to explain after that he does not actually mean it, just that he was making the point of if you are looking for answers to your problems in the pop music top 10, you are looking in the wrong place (Hugar).
The ending on-stage performance critiques his own material. He constantly is breaking down the formulas within our favorite songs, showing how they are made and expressing how the artist actually felt through the lyrics. He performed this bit with so much passion and sincerity. At a point in this performance, Bo breaks from his normal comedy routine to sing about his real-life problems. Through this one can feel his passion as he sings about his biggest problem being the audience. He wants to please them and give them a night out that they deserve but he wants to stay true to himself and sing about these things and not care what the audience will think about it. As he is singing about this, he changes the pitch of the autotune over his voice, emphasizing what he is saying, that “I don’t think I can handle this right now”. One of the more powerful lines he says is “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.” He is expressing how he cannot make himself happy but can give it to others, and the irony in that of him being a comedian and not being able to give himself the same thing he gives an audience is surprising and ultimately sad to think about as an audience member.
Finally, at the end of the show, Bo walks offstage and something unexpected happens. It’s just Bo with a piano, and he begins the final song. The basis of the song is “are you happy”. Hearing the tone of his voice and just how sad he truly is, completely broke my heart. Probably one of the only times I think I have actually cried during a comedy special. This really symbolized the difference between what the audience sees on stage versus what they don’t offstage. All-in-all it was an incredible performance, unique, hilarious, and insanely deep. A refreshing new look into your standard stand-up comedy routine.
Citation:
- Hugar, John. “Bo Burnham Combines Anxiety and Absurdity to Brilliant Effect on Make Happy.” TV Club, TV Club, 20 July 2018, tv.avclub.com/bo-burnham-combines-anxiety-and-absurdity-to-brilliant-1798187997.
