Bo Burnham's Make Happy - Part Two

Age: 29 years, 8 months, 22 days   My emotional state is dependent on the way I perceive I make others feel. Many interactions in my life can be reduced to the following: [I do something]+[A person smiles or frowns]+[I’m happy if they smile or sad if they frown].
  It’s been this way for as long as I can remember. The first memory I have of one of my grandmothers is when I gave her a drawing that said, “I love my Grandma.” She smiled. I was happy.
∞   In the “Kanye rant”, Bo says, “I want to say what I think, and not care what you think about it.” When he says this, I hear someone wanting to talk about the issues of their life, but they’re scared it will hurt the people they’re talking to.
∞   I reached a point where I was thinking about killing myself every day, and I didn’t know how to talk to people about it. If I told them I was thinking about killing myself they would be upset, which would then make my emotional state worse.
∞   I believe the last two minutes of the “Kanye rant” stand alone from the rest of the special. I can’t be certain, but I believe Bo is being both literal and honest to the moment he’s in. I see two things that might make this belief more relevant.
  There’s a shot during the rant that shows Bo adjusting something that looks like an audio processor. To me, this shot signifies how the rant was written and practiced before the special was recorded.
  In the middle of the Netflix version of the special, there’s a continuity error where he changes shirts between shots. I believe this indicates the performance is the same every night.
  If my interpretation is valid, the rant has three characteristics: it was written beforehand, it was the same every night, and it’s honest to the moment he’s in. The only way I can see these three things being true simultaneously is if he’s felt the same way every night for an extended period of time.
∞   I spent three years trying various forms of mental health treatment. My issues became more tolerable, but they didn’t go away. Eventually, I accepted there isn’t something that will resolve my problems in a short time frame.
  If I told someone I was feeling suicidal, they wanted to fix the problem quickly. Since my issues were chronic in nature, there was nothing they could do to improve my situation as fast as they’d like. It hurt whenever someone asked me, “How are things today?” because I never had an answer that made them smile.
∞   Towards the end of the special, Bo addresses the audience to discuss what the show is about. With a sarcastic tone and body language, he says, “What’s this show about? What am I talking about, you know? To – To summarize the show though: me, me, me.”
∞   If I told people I was struggling to talk about my issues, I would often get a response along the lines of, “tell me how you want me to talk to you.”
  I see two potential problems with telling a sick person “help me help you”. The first is it requires the sick person to find the strength to complete the “help me” half of the directive. The second is if the “help you” part is unachievable, the sick person is repeatedly put in the position of helping the person that’s trying to help them.
  The more I talked to people, the more they tried to help. The more they tried to help, the more I hurt. Despite knowing this, I never told anyone how much the act of talking hurt. I couldn’t imagine a scenario where this wouldn’t hurt them tremendously, which would then make me feel even worse.
∞   After singing a song about the struggles of straight white men, Bo says, “If you were offended by that, it was ironic.” This sentence is interesting because the conditional clause adds no value. The main clause is true in all conditions.
  It’s similar to saying, “If it’s Wednesday, the sun will rise in the east.” The sentence is technically true, but the sun will rise in the east even if it isn’t Wednesday.
  I don’t believe Bo made a mistake by adding the phrase, “If you were offended by that,” to his sentence. I think it’s more likely he included the unnecessary conditional to highlight the fact that what a speaker says and what a listener hears are independent.
  When it comes to the song about straight white men, no matter what reaction an audience member had, he was being ironic.
∞   I don’t believe anyone was making my issues about themselves. Even if I claim their response to what I said was focused on them, my reaction to their response was focused on me. Trying to separate what one person says from what the other person hears is a two-way street.
  Historically, I’ve tried to reach a perfect understanding of what someone is saying to me. The issue is I will never completely hear what they’re saying. I’m beginning to learn that instead of trying to respond to what I believe someone said, I should only talk about what I heard.
  As I’m writing this sentence, I’m scared of how the people I’ve talked through my issues with will react to what I’m writing. If you’re reading this and it upsets you, all I can do is requote Bo: “What’s this show about? What am I talking about, you know? To – To summarize the show though: me, me, me.”
∞   Another relevant piece of the continuity error is that Bo draws attention to it. Because the live audience couldn’t experience this the same as the Netflix audience, I believe this bit is included to let the Netflix audience know the special is as much of a direct communication to them as it is the live audience.
∞

To the 2015 version of Bo that just walked off the stage in New York: It was great to hear you speak. Hang In There.