Comedian: Bo Burnham
Release: October 19, 2010
Label: Comedy Central Records
Comments: Bo Burnham was just a suburban kid at one time. He did the average 16 year old thing: starred in school plays, earned high marks, and made YouTube videos. He did the YouTube thing quite well. His videos were (and still are) hilarious, entertaining, and offending. Bo, now a sophomore at New York University, proves that the road from YouTube celebrity to accomplished touring, record-deal holding comedian isn’t one well-traveled. On Words, Words, Words, there’s a fine mix of studio and live material; the latter was recorded during a one night stand at Carolines on Broadway in New York City. Bo starts the record off by mocking modern pop music on the first two tracks. Bo sings on “Words, Words, Words,” “I hate catchy choruses and I’m a hyppocrite” after rapping about Oedipus being the first mother fucker. Touche. “Oh Bo” is full of hooks and modern “pop” structural techniques — autotune, cheesy choruses, break-downs, triumphant bridges, and the like. The breakdown on that tune is particularly effective. Bo mouths, “My success is your success! I know you may be thinking ‘hey if you really believe that, why don’t you use some of your money to help rebuild the neighborhood instead of putting spinning rims on a gold jet ski?'” but before Bo can answer them back, he jumps back into the silly chorus! “What’s Funny” features some of Bo’s best verses. “Fuck my life. I don’t fuck my wife. So fuck my wife and fuck my life…the radical feminists made my wife a man!” He humors himself with word play and advanced connections amongst people, places, and things and this brilliance alone make him one of the best in the game of musical comedy. “Men & Women” has Burnham comparing the two genders and coming up with some of the greatest shit you’ve never come up with! “Women can fake orgasms, but men can fake love!” “Men are like Nazis because they both caused the Holocaust.” “Men and women. It’s black and white with an area of gray for hermaphrodites.” For prime examples of irony, check out the aptly titled “Ironic.” “I got my girlfriend pregnant on my sterile uncle’s pull out couch!” is just one of the many. “Rant” is Bo’s diatribe on the subject matter of the Catholic Church. He runs through a description of the mass from the point of view of somebody listening to their iPod in the back pew before envisioning a church in which ” you can be a benedict if you’ve been a dick under benedict but you can’t have benedicts because there’s only one pope and only one dick.” Like statistics? “Theoretical Dick Jokes” is your track. “The average penis is 5.5 inches. And finally, the average penis length of a man who Googles “average penis length” is 3.5 inches.” Bo weighs in on being an artist on “Art is Dead”: ‘This show has got a budget/And all the poor people way more deserving /Of the money won’t budget. Cause I wanted my name in lights/When I could have fed a family of four/For forty fucking fortnights.” Finally, Bo proves he can do traditional stand-up as well! “What do you call a kid with no arms and an eyepatch? Names.” Everyone has to hear Bo. Look him up on YouTube or go out and buy this CD. The kid’s the man.
Grade: A/A+
