Bo is a comedian doing mainly parody songs (he's also pretty good at mime), around themes ranging from mental health to the entertainment industry. This is a spoken part of his "Make Happy" show. Curious to know your opinions about it. It is immediately followed by the last song of his special (video above): an impression of Kanye West, talking about the same themes.
Hey, if you guys are having a good time, make some silence. [silence] Cool. [audience laughing] Uh… What’s this show about? What am I talking about, you know? To… to summarize the show, though… "Me! Me! Me!" But… if you take one thing away from my show… I hope it’s a T-shirt. We’re selling them out there. This is all a front for the brand.
But what is this show about? [...] It’s about… performing. I try to make my show about other things, but it always ends up becoming about performing. I started performing very young, as a teenager, you know, professionally. And as a comedian, what you’re supposed to do… You’re supposed to talk about what you know. And what I knew always was performing. So to talk about… [chuckles] traffic or laundry felt incredibly disingenuous. But I worried that making a show about performing would be too meta. It wouldn’t be relatable to people that aren’t performers. But what I found is that I don’t think anyone isn’t. Could we get the house lights up for a second? And could you… Let the lights on stage… Let the artifice fade away. Now we’re all the same. I mean, you’re all facing this way still. [audience laughs]
You know, I look out at… I look out at you and, um… It’s a very diverse crowd. I mean, more European than I would’ve hoped, but… we’ll get there. If I look at the young people… You know, and I feel like… I was born in 1990 and I was sort of raised in America when it was a cult of self-expression. And I was just taught, you know, express myself and have things to say and everyone will care about them. And I think everyone was taught that and most of us found out no one gives a shit what we think. So we flock to performers by the thousands ’cause we’re the few that have found an audience. And then I’m supposed to get up here and say, “Follow your dreams,” as if this is a meritocracy? It is not, okay? I had a privileged life and I got lucky and I’m unhappy. [audience laughing]
They say it’s… it’s like the me generation. It’s not. It’s not… [stammers] The arrogance is taught or it was cultivated. It’s… it’s self-conscious. That’s what it is. It’s the… It’s conscious of self… [stammers] Social media… it’s just the market’s answer to a generation that demanded to perform. So the market said, “Here, perform everything to each other all the time for no reason.” It’s prison, it’s horrific. It is performer and audience melded together. What do we want more than to lie in our bed at the end of the day and just watch our life as a satisfied audience member? I know very little about anything, but what I do know is that if you can live your life without an audience… you should do it.
And now you’re thinking… “How the fuck are you gonna dig the show out of this weird hole?” Oh, you want me to be funny and make a point? Nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah. Batman.
His "Repeat Stuff" boys band parody perfectly captures the dangerous impact of parasocial interactions on teenagers. Actually, it made me discover this whole topic, as the song puts words to something I was barely aware of before, or at least that I could not describe as precisely as he does.
EDIT: lyrics from the bridge:
I’m in magazines full of model teens so far above you. So read them and hate yourself. Then pay me to tell you, "I love you". I love you. And the parents will always come along, because their little girl is in love. And how could love be wrong?