Make Happy is a stand-up comedy special performed by Bo Burnham in the year 2016 at the Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, New York. He performs a series of discrete jokes and takes the audience on a journey of musical meta humour.
KEY FEATURES
He performed a number of bits in different kinds of music styles like hip-hop and country music. The switches from one premise to another without any segue were unorthodox and obvious, yet Burnham pulls this off smoothly. The beginning and the ending were another standout attribute of the show. There were brilliant moments where Burnham proved that he was always a step ahead of the audience. His bits included topics like racism, class struggle, and feminism. In short, it was a typical Bo Burnham show.
PERFORMANCE BREAKDOWN
The special begins with Bo waking up with clown makeup on his face and the TV is on, and a woman is repeating that her mother was always unhappy. A computer-generated voice says the saddest things while trying to establish the fact that the world is not funny. Bo enters the jam-packed auditorium and gives a musical performance, “Hell, yeah,” where he engages with the audience and gets them to respond to him, which includes absurdity and makes it entertaining. The audience loved everything about it and gave a loud cheer and claps.
Suddenly, he switches the mood and gets introspective and performs another musical, “Why Are We Here,” where he asks a few sad questions. In between the performance, he switches the mood and gives a short musical performance, suddenly stops it, and then the audience engages with him. It was followed by a few jokes around masturbation, and the audience showed their appreciation with yet another round of applause.
Bo suddenly moved towards his piano and started singing a song named “Straight White Man,” where he talked about his problems that are not really problems. The audience seemingly enjoyed every single bit of it. He subtly touched on topics like homophobia, racism, capitalism, and human rights. All the punchlines landed very well, and the audience showed their love with applause and cheers as the performance ended.
Bo goes on to make jokes about white people in monologue format and smartly gets the audience to say the N-word. All the jokes were received well by the people. It was followed by a baby voice in the background, and it was a musical in a self-deprecating format and was one of the most memorable bits of the entire show.
Moving into the next theme, he talks about rap and delivers a hip-hop track that mostly didn’t make any sense, including a children’s poem, just to prove a point that people will go crazy for anything with a good beat. It was followed by a number of meta jokes and weird things to prove that he is always ahead of the audience. It was followed by a musical number of “Yo Mama” jokes on a person named Rob from the audience, and everyone in the auditorium went crazy over it.
Without any context Burnham turns towards country music, where he performed another song in a country music style where he smartly pushed hilarious punchlines and pointed out the hypocrisy of the people. The auditorium felt like a country music concert while his jokes cracked the audience again and again. He goes on to talk about these musicians and how badly they treat women. If it wasn’t for the background music, you could hear the waves of loud laughter and hooting.
Moving on, he delivers a monologue on how all entertainers are liars and talks about celebrity lip-syncing, smartly taking it to class struggle. It was followed by an anecdote on public urination, and his act-out was the highlight of the bit. He smartly broke character to highlight that he is ahead of the audience.
He then jumps to the next musical performance, which was on the kind of men women desire and showed some contrast that was received well by the audience. He repeated the format on the kind of women men want and did a joke on penis that received a loud cheer from the females in the room. Then he said some wonderful things with hilarious punchlines. The bit ended with dramatic music, a light show, and a silly climax.
The next bit was on Alabama, followed by a silly and hilarious dance performance. The noteworthy feature of this dance was the expressions on his face. It was followed by a small bit on peanut butter in two different scenarios. The audience laughed at the top of their lungs. The performance went on where his wife enters the room in the form of a background voice, and the chaos made everyone laugh like crazy. He is so aware of jumping to the next theme without a proper segue that it doesn’t feel off-putting.
It was followed by a series of meta jokes where he talked about the audience and performer relationship. It was received very well by the audience. It was followed by a song that had an offensive hook, yet the audience laughed loudly. He clarifies that he didn’t actually mean it and apologises in a hilarious way. It was followed by a fun banter with the audience.
He goes on to sing another song about his breakup with his girlfriend. The song was actually a satire on men’s emotional intelligence. Everyone in the audience shouted for him. However, the switch at the end of this song was something that received the loudest cheer of the show.
It was followed by a monologue on “What is this show about,” including a number of meta jokes on self-expression. This bit received a few laughs, but the performance kept the audience hooked to him. He moves on to talk about Kanye West’s concert and sings a song about a Pringle can with auto-tune. It was followed by an anecdote about a burrito, and the audience went crazy for him. He shares a number of meta jokes in his song using auto-tune. The moment he said “thank you,” the audience gave a standing ovation for his brilliant performance.
The show ended, but the special didn’t. He gave a solo performance for the viewers who are streaming the special, including some meta jokes. He opens the door of the room and goes to his loved ones.
STRENGTHS
Just like any other Bo Burnham show, it is a beautiful amalgamation of meta and musical comedy. Burnham talks about various topics in a hilarious way, yet smoothly makes his point. He sings, dances, plays instruments, talks to a previously recorded voice, yet maintains his expressions like it’s child’s play. The repeated loud cheers are evidence of Burnham’s brilliance. He has put mental health issues in a witty manner.
WEAKNESSES
Burnham’s overemphasis on negativity might not resonate with some people. The dark and edgy humour can be offensive to some sections. The over-explanation of some jokes might be off-putting to certain viewers.
FINAL VERDICT
If you are familiar with Bo Burnham’s work, or want to try something edgy and a highly-rated comedy set, or want to watch a musical dark comedy—spare an hour of your life, close your room, grab a bucket of popcorn, and stream it on Netflix.