Day 845: Inside (The Songs) by Bo Burnham (Album Choice: barfood)
I don't watch a lot of standup in general, so I couldn't give you an answer on the quality of any specials without feeling dishonest and/or underqualified. Most of the people I hear referred to as greats such as
Louis C.K,
Bill Burr or
Alex Jones/Bill Hicks I don't find to be funny onstage whatsoever, and I find these guys funny in their roles OFF the sta
ge. Louie was one of the most important television shows ever (before the whole masturbation thing) and definitely changed the landscape for what constitutes a sitcom permanently, I think
F is For Family is hilarious and heartwrenching, and of course, the conspiracy theory on the last guy is hilarious.
But anyways, onto this album.
I have not watched any of
Burnham's other specials, so I can't even make that comparison. What I do remember him for most recently is his role as a pediatrician in
Promising Young Woman, which I think he nailed, but most importantly, he created and starred in the MTV one-season wonder
Zach Stone Is Gonna Be Famous, which is still fucking hilarious and should've been on Comedy Central or FXX or something, not the fucking
Jersey Shore/Teen Mom/Ridiculousness channel for crying out loud.
This album is two-thirds as long as the Netflix special, which seems crazy upon first glance but from what I can tell this guy's specialty is combining music with standup so that's less odd when put into context. It also makes sense why so many of these songs seem to end without so much as a fade out, instead just smash cutting to silence or into the next song immediately. And as a standalone special without the accompanying visuals or spoken setups/punchlines, this is... not my thing. Another guy I know described it as woke
Million Dollar Extreme Presents: World Peace and he's honestly pretty right. This shit isn't funny most of the time, and I can't even tell if it's trying to be funny or if he's just trying to be didactic in hopes of getting any potential audience to nod and agree. The production is also very, very bland. Some of the more synthesizer heavy songs are fun, but not all, and a majority of the more folksy singer-songwriter cuts didn't even make me crack a smile.
I'm gonna have to revisit this album after I watch the special, in the meantime
Best Track:
Bezos I
Rating: 4/10