I believe the title Make Happy is grammatically incoherent. In order to make a “correct” sentence two nouns need to be added. The sentence would be “[Subject] makes [direct object] happy”.
In this case, both the [Subject] and [direct object] could be either Bo or the audience. This gives four options: Bo makes the audience happy, Bo makes Bo happy, the audience makes Bo happy, and the audience makes the audience happy. There could also be any combination.
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My life’s in a different place now, but for five years I had no selfish reason to be alive. The only reason I had to not kill myself was how much I believed it would hurt people.
As I went through a day, I made no attempt to make myself happy, because I didn’t know what I could do to accomplish that. The only goal I had after getting out of bed was to survive long enough to get back in.
Bo closes the live performance by telling the audience, “Thank you, good night, I hope you’re happy.” I have no idea what Bo was going through at the time, but the way he said that sounded almost exactly the way I did when I told myself, “I hope they’re happy I’m alive, because that’s the only way me still being here is worth it.”
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At the beginning of the special, Bo “gets introspective” and sings: “I can’t wrap my mind around exactly why I’m here. I know you paid money. I should be funny. Other than that, don’t know why I’m here. To make you laugh, right? That’s only half right.”
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I view the title Make Happy as an open-ended question about who’s supposed to make who happy. My answer is simple: I don’t know. But I hope there’s more to it than existing solely to maintain the happiness of others.
