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You Don't Want To Be Famous
Or: Why Bo Burnham Makes Me Sad Cry During A Comedy Show
Blake Bottrill
October 07, 2024
If the formatting looks slightly different this week it is because I’ve switched newsletter platforms! Don’t worry, nothing else changes for you.
In a world where Gen Z’s top job choice is influencer, this is a topic that holds a special place in my heart. I’ve done my best to push back on the dangers that come from being famous as a job. And, tried to dissuade people from living their life in service of an audience online. Even if the audience is 50 friends from your high school. The majority of 1st, 2nd and 3rd hand accounts of people I’ve seen living these lives are all secretly or not so secretly miserable.
Let’s look at one of the most prolific examples…
I’ve danced around my love of Bo Burnham a couple of times in previous newsletters.
To me, his story is the original parable about internet fame, its consequences and the almost heroism of self-awareness.
For anyone unfamiliar Bo Burnham is one of the earliest successes of YouTube in 2006, just a year after the platform launched. His musical comedy journey started in his bedroom and evolved into multiple comedy specials, a TV show and producing a critically acclaimed teen Dramedy, Eighth Grade.
I’ve never seen another 99% score on Rotten Tomatoes.
The first window into Bo’s self-awareness happens in his 2010 special, Words, Words Words.
“I must be psychotic. I must be demented. To think that I'm worthy of all this attention. Of all of this money, you worked really hard for, I slept in late while you worked at the drug store. My drug's attention, I am an addict, but I get paid to indulge in my habit.”
The human proclivity for colonization didn’t stop in the 18th century when we ran out of land masses. The powers and medium changed.
It's no longer countries and land…
It’s companies and attention.
As a result of this land grab for attention, everyone who participates in it is forced to play varying levels of the game. From the slight embellishment of a title or story to Herostratic Fame and nuisance influencers who become famous by doing things like derailing a train.
Because people can’t have their attention in two places at once, the game becomes winner takes all. The incentives drive players of the game towards the most outrageous topics, titles, activities and niches.
All in what has been affectionately called, the race to the bottom of the brainstem.
The problem is almost all of these incentives run in the opposite direction of a properly aligned moral compass.
The result?
The most raw line I’ve ever heard from anyone famous. Never mind that it’s in a comedy song at the crescendo of a comedy special called Make Happy.
"Come and watch the skinny kid with the steadily declining mental health, and laugh as he attempts to give you what he cannot give himself"
This isn’t an act. This is Bo giving the audience a small autotuned glimpse into his real life as he has openly talked about having panic attacks on stage during his Make Happy tour.
He precedes it earlier in the song with another 4th wall breaking moment:
“The truth is my biggest problem's you, I want to please you. But I want to stay true to myself. I want to give you the night out that you deserve, but I want to say what I think and not care what you think about it. A part of me loves you. Part of me hates you.”
If you have spent any time in a creative domain — internet driven or not — that last passage should tickle something deep inside of you.
The reward waiting for you at the end of your journey to becoming famous is almost universal from my chronically online understanding. A misaligned moral compass — often resulting in mental health challenges — and living a life or creating content that isn’t true to yourself.
Don’t worry though, the likes soothe the pain.
“Thank you, good night. I hope you’re happy.”
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