Bo Burnham Talks Social-Media Despair, Why Trump Is Joke-Proof
Bo Burnham is a product of the very thing that he hates. The comedian, known for his elaborately staged performances and caustic humor, got his start nine years ago by posting funny songs on his YouTube channel. But during a recent conversation with Rolling Stone, Burnham, now 25, was quick to rail against life in the Information Age. “You can’t escape anything,“ he said. “Like, all the shit that you could run away from in your life now follows you everywhere.”
The oppressiveness of social media is just one of the many topics Burnham skewers with skill in his latest special, Make Happy, which debuted on Netflix earlier this month. The show is more theatrical spectacle than traditional stand-up set, featuring dizzying lights, smoke cannons, tongue-in-cheek songs and a myriad of pre-recorded voice-overs that constantly interrupt, and sometimes even insult, the comedian. But Burnham pairs these splashy set pieces with quiet moments of honesty, during which he expresses his frustrations with the entertainment industry and its lack of substance.
The response to Make Happy has been impressive – Amy Schumer likened it to the Lemonade of 2016 comedy specials – but Burnham can’t help but feel uneasy about his growing fame. “The only value a celebrity has, or any artist or actor or anything, is the things that they make,” he said. “And for me, the things that they make, lately, feel like it’s completely secondary to them as a person.”
The irony isn’t lost on Burnham that his comedy bites the virtual hand that feeds him. “This stuff that I’m talking about can’t be commented on without being a little hypocritical,” he admits. “I fully embrace myself as a hypocrite.”
He spoke with RS about creepy fan interactions, poking fun at Kanye and why making fun of Donald Trump is pointless.
You launched your career by posting videos on YouTube. When you look back at that, is there anything you’d want to change about how you got started?
[Laughs] No, certainly not. I know that there’s a butterfly effect. Chances are, were anything to change, I’d be, like, in rehab or on the street. I definitely don’t want to touch it. The quality of the work when I was 16 … I’ve had my issues with it, but I’ve learned to forgive myself because I was 16 years old. Like, was the song about Helen Keller very tasteful or original? No, but I was 16, so I was figuring it out. Like, it happened the way it had to. Or not the way it had to, but the way it did. I try not to think about all that stuff.
Look at that quick, cogent first answer, not just me rambling on.
Your performances and your comedy tend to be pretty meta and pretty insider-y. What is it about typical, normal stand-up comedy that kind of turns you off?
None of it turns me off; I enjoy all of it. But people tend to think that, like, if you’re doing something in one genre, you’re saying like, “This is what it has to be.” Especially in stand-up comedy. When one form of comedy is really good, people are like, “This is what comedy is. If you’re not doing comedy standing in front of a brick wall, talking honestly about stories in your life, then you’re not a comedian.” And to me it’s like … I want it to be like music, where there’s so many genres, and there’s so many peaks and valleys of quality in different areas.