''Bo Burnham'' is the debut

album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

by American comedian,

Bo Burnham Robert Pickering "Bo" Burnham (born 1990) is an American comedian, musician, songwriter, actor, and filmmaker. His comedy work often combines musical, sketch, and stand-up elements with filmmaking. Following his success as one of the earliest ...

. 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 r ...

, the 2-disc album contains the

Compact Disc The compact disc (CD) is a Digital media, digital optical disc data storage format that was co-developed by Philips and Sony to store and play digital audio recordings. In August 1982, the first compact disc was manufactured. It was then rele ...

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 kin ...

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 e ...

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

The A.V. Club ''The A.V. Club'' is an American 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 cre ...

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

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

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 , settlement_type = City , named_for = Vale of Tempe , image_skyline = Tempeskyline3.jpg , imagesize = 260px , image_caption = Tempe skyline as se ...

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 of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a m ...

in high-definition for the

iTunes Store The iTunes Store is a digital media store operated by Apple Inc. It opened on April 28, 2003, as a result of Steve Jobs' push to open a digital marketplace for music. As of April 2020, iTunes offered 60 million songs, 2.2 million apps, 25,00 ...

in 2008. # "Klan Kookout" – 2:45 # "New Math" – 3:36 # "I'm Bo Yo" – 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 issued on compact disc (CD), vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early 20th century as individual 78 rpm records coll ...

– 2:01

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."

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

comedy Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or 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. The term o ...

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

comedy album Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or 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. The term o ...

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 entendre A double entendre (plural double entendres) is a figure of speech or a particular way of wording that is devised to have a double meaning, of which one is typically obvious, whereas the other often conveys a message that would be too socially ...

s 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 u ...

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 with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile met ...

( 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