MovieChat Forums > Bo Burnham: Make Happy (2016) Discussion > Honestly, "What" was better.

Honestly, "What" was better.

posted 8 years ago by StillAtMyMoms
2 replies | jump to latest

His latest was way too preachy. I think I only laughed out loud twice; at the Flaming Cheetos bit and...already forgot.

Bo was striving to be deep and profound so much that he forgot why people watch him in the first place: To be funny. He needs to take a cue from the philosophy comedians, i.e. Hicks and Carlin, and learn how to balance his material with genuinely funny bits, along with poignant messages.

Granted, he's still young and has a lot of learning to do on how to improve his material, but honestly I got a sense of he's already becoming tired of stand-up, which is a shame because he is brilliant.

[–] candy-coated_bitch 8 years ago

That's subjective, really. I love both What and Make Happy equally, but on different scales. I love What. because of how funny and clever it is, and I love Make Happy for all of the emotions it evoked in me while watching it. The last 15 or so minutes of the special left me speechless. "Can't Handle This", with the lighting, the music, and the lyrics once he got serious halfway through, is in my opinion his best performance yet, and it will be a hard one to follow (although it will probably be his last one anyway, since he has so much as said he's pretty much done with this part of his career). And "Are You Happy" is such a poignant way to end the special. It sounds like a goodbye, and it probably is.

I get where you're coming from, but to truly appreciate Make Happy, you need to keep it separate from his other work, because this one is definitely different from the rest.

[–] patriotssuck 8 years ago

It was not as funny, and he seemed angrier, but I was fixated.