On Thursday, Bo Burnham, seemingly my generation's favorite comedian, had a show premiere on MTV. I actually had no idea that Bo Burnham was up to anything - since his stand-up special Words, Words, Words, he had pretty much disappeared. However, he showed up on Reddit to do an AMA to promote his new show and, as a fan, I made sure to tune in. And so did Frank!
So we decided to have a mini e-mail discussion about it. Hope you enjoy.
Frank: I was expecting a raunchier humor before I watched the pilot episode of Zach Stone. I was disappointed. As a Bo Burnham fan who’s seen him live twice, I was confused about why the show wasn’t making me laugh. During his live shows, Bo jokes about rape, religion, race, but Zach Stone is Gonna Be Famous mentioned maybe two “Bo Burnham” lines that could be considered funny. The jokes Zach did succeed at were recycled from Bo’s live shows. Bo throws glitter at all of his shows, makes a joke about “losing control of his stools” before he sits down at a piano, etc. The rest of the show left a lot to be desired in terms of “Laugh out loud” moments.
It makes sense for Bo to make a show about getting famous for basically no reason because that’s how he became famous in the first place. But it’s hard to sympathize with Zach as a character because Bo’s already famous in real life. If the show was going for an authentic feel, they should have picked someone who wasn’t already famous. If the show’s going for a “mocking every person trying to become famous” feel, then it’s just not funny. And why the hell did Zach’s friends have the same boring personalities as sidekicks from Disney TV shows? I think I actually like Alan Twitty from Even Stevens better than the characters they’ve introduced so far. His best friend was sheepish and didn’t say more than two sentences. His “girlfriend” has no personality whatsoever so far. I understand that it’s the first episode, but I pictured bigger and better things for Zach’s posse from the get go.
As a character, I do like Zach Stone. He’s a way for people who would be slighted by Bo Burnham’s music to digest the “mocking society in an offensive way” personae. If the show wants to succeed, it needs to get raunchier. Take the woman out of the casket and dance around with her. Accidently grab her boobs. Then drop her on someone in the audience. Zach Stone isn’t “Bo Fo Sho” enough for me, but hopefully it gets better as more episodes air.
Garrett: Ok, so I get what you're saying about your missed expectations. I was reading Bo Burnham's AMA on Reddit, though, and he said that the reason he wanted to make this show was because it wasn't a fictionalized version of himself or anything like that. He didn't want to be Bo Burnham, he wanted to create an entirely new character. So the jokes he makes are supposed to be made by Zach Stone the character, who happens to be acted by Bo Burnham.
The problem, I think, is that Bo Burnham the comedian breaks through more than he may have intended. In his stand-up specials, Bo delivers his jokes in a certain way, and the delivery is the same in the show. He doesn't seem to be able to break out of his mold. I think that to be more successful he needs to really commit in one way or the other - as you said, Bo Burnham fans are disappointed because his style isn't coming through enough.
I also think there's a problem with the show being on MTV - Bo Burnham the comedian and Bo Burnham the writer are much raunchier than what's allowed on cable. MTV is one of those weird enigmas where you can show a sixteen year old using her pregnancy to get famous, but you can't use curse words or show drug use or anything like that. It's why the US version of Skins was so unbelievably bad. Jamie Brittain was the creator of the UK version, but just wasn't allowed to show the same hard-hitting content that he could in England. Bo Burnham has to work around the network that he's on and that may be a big problem for him moving along.
Frank: I watched Conan's interview with Bo Burnham and when Conan asked about Bo insulting Justin Bieber, Bo responded by saying, "Yeah I have a bit where I make fun of all the Bieber songs describing the most general girl ever, so that they apply to pretty much anyone." Bo is mocking today's pop songs, which are creating ridiculous expectations about love for teen girls and guys. Bo has the same mentality with Zach Stone. He's mocking the way reality shows are by making a fake reality show and a fake character who isn't as funny as the real Bo. Whether this is intentional or unintentional, it doesn't matter. But it's good in a way. I'm glad that he's creating a satire about how incredibly hard it is to become famous unless you're really good at something. But Bo is good at multiple things: singing, beat-boxing, playing piano and guitar, and gut-bursting comedy. You can't pretend to be ordinary, untalented Zach Stone when Bo Burnham is a fucking genius and everyone knows it.
He needs to shine through as Bo. He can't do that on MTV. He needs to find an outlet that will allow him to express himself. As for the Skins comment, I agree. I feel like Bo needs to move to the UK and release a raunchier Zach Stone and then have it appear on Netflix so that I can actually laugh at it because right now, American Zach Stone ain't cuttin' it.
Garrett: It's also tough because Bo is clearly much more talented than everybody around him in this show. I don't know where MTV finds their supporting actors, but they're all atrocious. The entire show relies on two factors: can Bo Burnham carry the entire show on his shoulders, and can he do this while walking the censorship line? I, for one, think Bo Burnham is creative enough to make the character of Zach Stone funny. There's a social commentary in this show, as you said, about the idea of fame and what it means to people. Maybe the reason the show works is because an already-famous comedian is pretending to be one of those people we see all the time, trying to do everything they can to be famous in spite of themselves and their established relationships. Bo does seem to understand the ridiculousness of our society in that we reward fame regardless of how it's obtained, and I think his characterization of Zach is pretty on point with that.
But Bo Burnham wants to be himself too much. The already-famous, near A-List comedian who everybody knows the style of. Therein lies the issue with the show - it's not that I don't find it funny, I just think he's gonna run out of material to put on the censored MTV.
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