Pop Culture Mondays/7.6.21
By: Brooke Hammerling
Tags: Tiktok, Fire, Bo Burnham, Pop Culture, Zuckerberg

LET ME INTRODUCE YOU TO BO BURNHAM:

It is possible you have NO idea who this man is. Not the face nor the name. Then again it is possible you are vaguely aware of his name and his existence. And if you have a TikTokker IN the family you may have heard his name but likely at very least heard a part of one of his songs. According to Wikipedia, Bo is an “American comedian, musician, actor, film director, screenwriter, and poet.” I mean this gives me an identity crisis like NO one’s business because like I don’t even think I can say I am even ONE ANYTHING let alone 6 somethings. OK, fine I can say I share being an AMERICAN with him and that’s that. But the kid IS talented and he grew up on the Internets as he was born in 1990 and he started his career on the YouTube racking up HUNDREDS of millions of views. In case you are unsure, that’s a lot of views. He actually wrote and directed the film Eighth Grade (wow I have not typed the word “eighth” in a long time and I am not going to lie…that took a FUCK TON of tries…but I digress…) and I really loved aka was shook by that film.

WELL, ENTRÉ COVID and lockdown and what better forum for CONTENT is there for a writer/director/actor/musician/poet/comedian? SO voila…he has a Netflix special called INSIDE with Bo Burnham and it is weird and wild and poignant and traumatizing and hilarious all at once. I have read a lot of OTHER people writing about it and they do a much better job so I have linked to those stories at the bottom but in the meantime you come here for VIDEOS so videos I shall give you. Here is the trailer:

OK before I get to more of Bo…humor me as I go down a little musical theatre journey. I was a theatre kid…every play I could be in I would be in it but as many were musicals and I had little actual singing talent, but I can speak sing REALLY well, SO I learned that the narrator role was the KEY role in many ways. You were the STORY TELLER. You set the tone. You are the MC like PT Barnum…some GREAT “narrator” roles include:

JOEL GREY/CABARET:

OR the incredible André De Shields as Hermes in “Hadestown” (OMG HE IS AMAZE):

And speaking of PT Barnum…if you have NOT watched The Greatest Showman (BIG SCREEN TV, LOUD AS FUCK SPEAKERS) then you must do nothing else this week than this, we have Hugh Jackman, PCM GOD, as PT BARNUM himself:

SO I digress (and there are many more examples) but the point is, my feeling is Bo is sort of a modern-day take on this…and even mimics the sound in his hit song from his solo show (shot entirely by himself in his apartment during lockdown) AND it is a truly genius and correct take on the INTERNET. I assure you, watch this, Bo as the narrator of the Internet:

HOW GOOD IS THIS? It’s baffling how good it is. And terrifying. It is not joyful but it feels good but then bad. Here are some others:

AND FOR ALL THAT IS GOOD AND HOLY is this the funniest yet truest take ever… “White Woman’s Instagram” for which I am particularly guilty of especially the posts of dead parents like look I can be honest, this speaks to me and I am actually the worst. HALF OF YOU, my darling readers, ARE GUILTY of this. Don’t ever stop:

OK ok last clip but if you have a TikTokker you have heard this “sound” so now you get context and truly there are some amaze references in here:

Sorry I lied but this was important AND FRANKLY, this should be the new theme song of Kara Swisher’s and Scott Galloway’s PIVOT podcast don’t you think?

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