My first attempt at a fanzine article

1. We think we know Bo!
I don’t know about you, but after the finale for Mr.
Burnham’s, What. I was left speechless and covered in
goose bumps – it was a very clear message to his fan,
however, it’s caused somewhat of a supportive uproar
amongst fans, a question, a statement – however you
want to view it, and that is: we think we know Bo.
Robert Pickering Burnham was born on August 21st,
1990 to Scott and Patricia Burnham; he’s the youngest
of three – his elder siblings are Pete and Samm
Burnham who are currently in their second years of
university and law school.
Bo graduated from St. John’s Preparatory School in
2008, during this his time there he was involved in theatre and the campus
ministry program; according to sourced, no one at St. John’s is surprised at
Bo’s creativity and the fact that he’s pursuing his dream – which is to make a
name for himself.
At the tender age of sixteen, Bo put his first video up on YouTube, entitled,
‘My Whole Family thinks I’m Gay’ – it was meant as a humorous message to
one of his elder siblings, however, it ended up going viral and Burnham was
receiving millions of hits in just a few days.
During an interview with a journalist for the Telegraph, he mentions that his
‘first impulse to create comedy came from him seeing it as a way to get girls,
be liked and to deflect his own self-consciousness’ – this seems pretty
shallow for the genius behind lyrics such as, ‘My drugs attention, I am addict,
but I get paid to indulge in my habit…’ – seems pretty honest for someone
whose only in it for the popularity: this is where we start to see the other side
of Bo.
Burnham applied for several universities/colleges – according to an interview,
he ‘worked eight hours a day so I could get into the college of my dreams
(Harvard) and say that I got in – and I never went.’ Bo chose to pursue his
comedy career – even though he has done impeccably well in this area, I
wonder if that’s something that he often regrets? He answered this question
for fans in an interview for The Guardian, he mentions that during the first
year he felt like ending his life due to the various posts made by friends, in
college on social networking sites, such as Facebook – not only that but other
comics looked down on him as they found YouTube to be an, ‘illegitimate
route to stand up’ and that the only reason for his fame was the abundance of
prepubescent female viewers who ‘didn’t understand comedy,’ he then goes
on to say, ‘no one hates me more than I do, no ones more self-conscious
about me than I am.’
This definitely pulls at my heart strings a little bit, Bo’s comedy is unique in
comparison to a lot of stand up comedians – this is because he is
accompanied by various instruments and he uses music to make people
laugh rather than make jokes at no one in particular for 60 minutes.

2. I think what makes Bo Burnham’s comedy unique is that it’s very challenging
to the form – it goes against moral standards and dares to question things that
others wouldn’t, (during Binary Reality he questions the location of ‘sour patch
parents’ and if Goofy is keeping a mentally handicapped person as a pet,
seems as all the other animals can talk except Pluto) it’s very risky business –
for example: during his show, Words Words Words, during a bit entitled,
‘Binary Reality’ he twists the meaning of innocent Disney films to seem
corrupt and non child friendly, ‘I think Disney teaches girls, young girls such
important lessons - in princess fairy tales, like, Cinderella! It doesn’t matter
where you come from or how poor you are, you know, as long as you’re
incredibly hot…’ and, ‘snow white, which encourage children to give midgets
nicknames…’
Another example would be, during his show, What. he performs a piece
called, ‘Andy the frog’ the idea was to make it seem like a children’s bedtime
story, mixed with a selection of long, convoluted similes but he puts a bit of a
dark twist on to the entire thing with things such as, ‘So Andy followed the
beautiful frogs footsteps in to the forest. He then came across a turtle.
“You can’t pass!” said the turtle.
“Please?” said Andy.
“NO.” said the turtle.
(And uh, this is the first long, convoluted simile.) Then, there was a rustling in
the bushes, and like a man who had been shot in the chest with a rifle, the
turtle was shot in the chest with a rifle.’ The only problem with some of his
lyrics is that they are so extreme or are just below the boundary of ‘not okay’ it
feels almost bad to laugh at the jokes he tells – and I think that’s genius!
Most of his lyrics are created as politically incorrect slurs at things such as:
media, pop stars and love songs – these issues are especially highlighted
during his performance of the song, Repeat Stuff with lyrics such as, ‘But
more than all of that I love the fact that you are dumb enough, to not realize
everything I’ve said has been said before, in a thousand ways in a thousand
songs, some with the same four chords…’ and, ‘just to make sure that they
spread it like the plague, so I describe my dream girl as really, really vague…’
however, during a particular show, it appeared Justin Bieber was in the crowd
and as the song was mostly aimed at young pop stars such as Biebs,
although there was no particular banter about the whole thing, Bo assumes
that Bieber took a little offence – or he felt bad that this teenager comes out,
sneaks in to a theatre to watch a comedy show and gets slammed on for a
good five minutes and to make matters worse, he was with his now ex
girlfriend, Selena Gomez.
In my personal opinion, Bo Burnham is a genius – a legend, a true asset to
stand up comedy, his lyrics never fail to make me laugh – I can always turn to
him when I’m sad or in need of a good chuckle and though I am a 17 year old
girl and one of the many that follow him, my reason is that his comedy is
golden, it’s genius, his looks are a bonus but it’s not particularly what I focus
on and it hurts a little bit for him to say that he’d like a wider variety of fans –
not that I don’t want him to succeed but I find it a little unfair when most of his
fans, especially young girls, follow him because they actually understand his
comedy and find it amazing and wonderful and you cant help falling in love
with him – he’s an absolute legend and I hope he seriously knows the majority
of his fans aren’t just there for the looks or to boost his ego, they’re there

3. because they genuinely enjoy the comedy he creates – he must realize that
somewhere because he thanks his fans for supporting him and he continues
to create music and do shows – if he was truly unhappy with the fan base,
he’d stop.