''Bo Burnham'' is the debut

album An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track cartridge, 8-track or Cassette tape, cassette), or digital distribution, dig ...

by American comedian

Bo Burnham Robert Pickering Burnham (born August 21, 1990) is an American stand-up comedian, musician, actor, filmmaker, and YouTuber. Burnham's work combines elements of filmmaking with Comedy music, music, Sketch comedy, sketch, and stand-up comedy, co ...

. Released on March 10, 2009 by

Comedy Central Records Comedy Central Records is a record label based in New York and owned by Paramount Global. The label specializes in stand-up comedy albums and is distributed by Alternative Distribution Alliance, a subsidiary of Warner Music Group. The label has ...

, the 2-disc album contains the

Compact Disc The compact disc (CD) is a Digital media, digital optical disc data storage format co-developed by Philips and Sony to store and play digital audio recordings. It employs the Compact Disc Digital Audio (CD-DA) standard and was capable of hol ...

musical album, and a

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...

with Burnham's ''

Comedy Central Presents ''Comedy Central Presents'' is an American stand-up comedy television series created for Comedy Central. It is the network's main half-hour program which highlights either one or a series of stand-up comedians each episode. In 2011, the series ...

'' special, all of his YouTube videos, and other performances. In a 2009 interview with ''

The A.V. Club ''The A.V. Club'' is an online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was created in ...

'', Burnham explained that most songs on the album were similar to his

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

videos because "I wanted it to still have this very small, homegrown, kid-in-his-bedroom feel. I wanted to show respect for the online community". The live portions of the album were performed and recorded at Burnham's September 18–21, 2008 gig at the Tempe Improv in

Tempe, Arizona Tempe ( ; ''Oidbaḍ'' in O'odham language, O'odham) is a city in Maricopa County, Arizona, United States, with the Census Bureau reporting a 2020 population of 180,587. The city is named after the Vale of Tempe in Greece. Tempe is located in t ...

Track listing

# "I'm Bo Yo" (Studio) – 3:55 # "My Whole Family..." – 3:58 #* The cult hit that "propelled Burnham to Internet stardom"; originally debuted on YouTube, . # "Bo Fo Sho" – 3:08 #* Originally debuted on

, # "Love is..." – 3:58 # "The Perfect Woman" – 3:26 # "High School Party" – 2:52 #* Burnham recorded an accompanying

music video A music video is a video that integrates a song or an album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device intended to ...

for the iTunes Store in 2008. # "Klan Kookout" – 2:45 # "New Math" – 3:36 # "I'm Bo Yo" (Live) – 3:31 # "A Love Ballad" – 2:33 # "Rehab Center For Fictional Characters" (Studio) – 3:19 # "Welcome To YouTube" (Studio) – 3:33 # "

Bonus Track An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track or cassette), or digital. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early 20th century a ...

" (Hidden track) – 2:01 Notes * "The Perfect Woman" and "Klan Kookout" have since been removed from digital platforms. * "Bonus Track" is a hidden track.

DVD

The DVD accompanying ''Bo Burnham'' contains an uncensored version of Burnham's ''

'' episode, the music video for "High School Party", his original videos from

, and his live 10-minute performance at the Tempe Improv.

Reception

Critical response to ''Bo Burnham'' has been mostly positive. ''Punchline'' magazine's John Delery praised both album and artist, calling the former "hysterical", and the latter as "the sole teenager in America these days that can speak in longhand."

About.com Dotdash Meredith (formerly The Mining Company, About.com and Dotdash) is an American digital media company based in New York City. The company publishes online articles and videos about various subjects across categories including health, hom ...

's Patrick Bromley spoke well of ''Bo Burnham'' within its genre of musical

comedy Comedy is a genre of dramatic works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. Origins Comedy originated in ancient Greec ...

, saying that while the novelty or shock value of the traditional

comedy album A comedy album is an audio recording of comedic material from a comedian or group of comedians, usually performed either live or in a studio. Comedy albums may feature skits, humorous songs, and/or live recording of stand-up comedy performan ...

wore thin with repeated listenings, ''Bo Burnham'' was so dense with

wordplay Word play or wordplay (also: play-on-words) is a literary technique and a form of wit in which words used become the main subject of the work, primarily for the purpose of intended effect or amusement. Examples of word play include puns, phone ...

and double entendres that it begged for repeats. Though Bromley was less generous with Burnham's "edgy humor", he felt the teenaged comedian worked best with his

self-deprecating Self-deprecation is the act of reprimanding oneself by belittling, undervaluing, disparaging oneself, or being excessively modest. It can be used as a way to make complaints, express modesty, invoke optimal reactions or add humour. It may also be ...

material. The

Recording Industry Association of America The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...

(RIAA) certified ''Bo Burnham''

gold Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...

( video longform, for having sold 50,000 units) on May 27, 2010.

Chart positions

References

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bo Burnham (Album) Bo Burnham albums 2009 live albums Comedy Central Records live albums Stand-up comedy albums Spoken word albums by American artists 2000s comedy albums