Bo Burnham rose to fame after posting songs on his YouTube page with satirical, funny slants. He signed to Comedy Central Records and released his debut EP, "Bo Fo Sho", in 2008. In 2009 he released his debut album, Bo Burnham, a collection of his most popular songs on YouTube. Burnham toured extensively during this time, gathering material for his first official Comedy Central hour. "Words Words Words" was released in 2010 at the House of Blues in Boston, to critical acclaim. Following this, Burnham wrote a book of poetry Egghead, which became a New York Times Bestseller, and wrote and starred in his own mockumentary, Zach Stone Is Gonna Be Famous on MTV. He also spent three years writing what., which was released on YouTube and Netflix for free on December 17, 2013, with money Burnham made from touring used to finance the special. The YouTube video has garnered 19 million views. Burnham experienced 12 panic attacks while touring for what., though he had never had panic attacks prior to this. This influenced the writing of his next stand-up performance, Make Happy''.
Album
what. was released by Comedy Central Records as a music download on both Amazon and the ITunes Store on December 17, 2013. The album features 5 new studio songs, 4 of which were not included in the special.
Track listing
Reception
Reception to what. has been positive. Mark Monahan of The Telegraph writes, "If his Edinburgh debut was more impressive than it was laugh-out-loud funny, this lightning-fast, constantly wrong-footing, even more ambitious follow-up is supremely both", and gave the show 5 out of 5 stars. Brian Logan of The Guardian gave the show 4 out of 5 stars, describing it as a "full-frontal assault of music and meta-comedy that leaves you gasping for air", with "not a line out of place, nor one that isn't in there for destabilising comic effect", though Logan noted that "Burnham's comedy has a depressive streak, and his material is often base". Another writer in The Guardian summarised the show by writing, "Burnham mixes the utterly base with the sophisticated, meshing hip-hop-influenced songs that reference Shakespeare, and feature plenty of dick jokes." Jason Zinoman of the New York Times writes that the show has a "manic satirical style", which is "ambitious, and sometimes inspired" but contains "a tension at the core of this show that remains unresolved".
Chart positions
what. debuted on the BillboardComedy Albums chart at position #2, on January 4, 2014, peaking at #1 on January 18, 2014, and remaining on the chart for 77 weeks. It was on the Independent Albums chart for 4 weeks, peaking at position #31. what. had first week sales of 10,000 copies.
