Do we talk about the bo burnham special here or in the stand up comedy thread or in documentaries. Any I think what he put together was pretty well done. A lot of time and effort went into that sob. Pretty talented guy.
I have lots to say about this. It's corny to say, but I've kind of grown up with Bo. I'm about to go full hipster here, but I remember watching his videos on BigBoys.com (which later turned into break.com, which itself, is now dead). This was pre-youtube. I think I've been watching Bo do stuff for about 15 years.
I was texting with Stevesie about it the other night. Stevesie loved the new special. I HATED it. Though I will say, from a technical standpoint, it's a complete triumph. To do all that by himself in one room is absolutely insane. He's unbelievably talented.
But the
content -- what a bummer. Gone are the days when Bo was making silly (but very sophisticated) raps littered with layered wordplay and shakespeare references that required a lot of listens to fully appreciate.
That is what I was in it for, man! Now he's a Mr. Serious Pants doing his best Carlin impression, talking exclusively about how bummed out he is and how awful the world is. That's all OK and fairly red meat for comedians, but there's GOTTA be some punch lines in there too! The part that made me really decide "I don't think I really like Bo Burnham anymore" is him repeating something to the effect of "all my stupid friends are having stupid children" -- well that may be true, but guess what, dingus, I bet your
stupid friends aren't all cynical and neurotic and miserable "tortured geniuses" like you.
I know he doesn't define himself as a "comic" anymore (which is pretty self-indulgent in its own right) but man, he's not kidding. The special was almost totally devoid of any punchlines at all. For an hour and a half, I could probably count the number of times I remotely chuckled on one hand.
Maybe this would've resonated with me more if I watched it last spring when pandemic malaise was in full force, but sitting through an hour and a half of that nightmare was not fun. It felt mostly depressing. Just couldn't relate to almost all of it. All that said, the reception seems to be fairly positive, both critically and by his fans (at least on his subreddit), so it's clear he's doing good work, it's just not for me anymore, which is a bummer.
I will say, the internet song ("can i interest you in everything all of the time?") was my favorite.