''what.'' (also called ''Bo Burnham: what.'') is a 2013 stand-up comedy routine and album by American comedian and musician Bo Burnham. It is his first show following his 2010 comedy special '' Words Words Words''. Like the majority of Burnham's live work, the show consists of

musical comedy Musical theatre is a form of theatrical performance that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance. The story and emotional content of a musical – humor, pathos, love, anger – are communicated through words, music, movement ...

prop comedy Prop comedy is a comedy genre in which performers use humorous objects, or conventional objects in humorous ways. The stages and films term "prop", an abbreviation of "property", refers to any object an actor handles in the course of a performance ...

miming A mime artist, or simply mime (from Greek language, Greek , , "imitator, actor"), is a person who uses ''mime'' (also called ''pantomime'' outside of Britain), the acting out of a story through body motions without the use of speech, as a the ...

, observational jokes, and the inversion of established comedy clichés. It received positive reviews. The live performance debuted at the Regency Ball Room in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

on December 17, 2013, while the album is derived from a live performance of the same set at the Barrymore Theatre in

Madison, Wisconsin Madison is the county seat of Dane County and the capital city of the U.S. state of Wisconsin. As of the 2020 census the population was 269,840, making it the second-largest city in Wisconsin by population, after Milwaukee, and the 80th-lar ...

. In addition to the live performance, the album has five studio tracks: "Repeat Stuff", "Eff", "Nerds", "Channel 5: The Musical", and "Hell of a Ride". Unlike the other tracks, "Repeat Stuff" was performed during the live show (as a piano-only version) and was later released as a single with a music video. ''what.'' was released on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and 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 Google, and is the second mo ...

and

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fi ...

on December 17, 2013, and the album was released via iTunes the next day.

Background

Burnham rose to fame for posting songs on his

page with satirical, funny, and offensive slants. He signed to

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 ...

and released his debut EP, ''

Bo fo Sho ''Bo fo Sho'' is the first EP released by American comedian Bo Burnham. The six-track comedy EP was released on by Comedy Central Records, and charted well across the ''Billboard'' charts. Production After performing on Comedy Central's '' ...

'', in 2008. He released his debut album, '' Bo Burnham'', in 2009. He toured extensively during this time, gathering material for his first official Comedy Central stand-up hour. '' Words Words Words'' was recorded in 2010 at the

House of Blues House of Blues is an American chain of live music concert halls and restaurants. It was founded by Isaac Tigrett, the co-founder of Hard Rock Cafe, and Dan Aykroyd, co-star of the 1980 film ''The Blues Brothers''. The first location opened at Ha ...

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

and received acclaim. Burnham later published a ''New York Times'' Best Selling book of poetry titled '' Egghead: Or, You Can't Survive on Ideas Alone'' and wrote and starred in the mockumentary series ''

Zach Stone Is Gonna Be Famous ''Zach Stone Is Gonna Be Famous'' is an American mockumentary sitcom created by Bo Burnham and Dan Lagana that aired for one season on MTV from May 2 to June 29, 2013. The series stars Burnham as Zach Stone, a recent high school graduate who opt ...

'' on MTV. Burnham spent three years writing ''what.'', which was released on YouTube and

for free on December 17, 2013, with money Burnham made from touring used to finance the special. The YouTube video has over 24 million views as of August 2022. Burnham experienced 12

panic attack Panic attacks are sudden periods of intense fear and discomfort that may include palpitations, sweating, chest pain or chest discomfort, shortness of breath, trembling, dizziness, numbness, confusion, or a feeling of impending doom or of losing ...

s while touring for ''what.'' but had never had panic attacks prior to this. This influenced the writing of his next stand-up performance, ''

Make Happy ''Make Happy'' is a stand-up comedy routine written and performed by Bo Burnham which he performed live in 2015 and 2016. It was directed by Burnham and Chris Storer and a recording of the show was released on Netflix on June 3, 2016. Similar to ...

'' (2016), after which he quit live comedy until returning with ''Inside'' (2021).

Album

''what.'' was released by

as a download on both

Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek mythology * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon (company), an American multinational technolog ...

and 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 ...

on December 17, 2013. The album features five new studio songs: "Repeat Stuff", "Eff", "Nerds", "Channel 5: The Musical", and "Hell of a Ride". Unlike the other tracks, "Repeat Stuff" was performed during the live show (as a piano-only version) and was later released as a single with a music video which has gained over 16 million YouTube views as of October 2021.

Track listing

Reception

Reception to ''what.'' has been positive. Mark Monahan of ''

The Telegraph ''The Telegraph'', ''Daily Telegraph'', ''Sunday Telegraph'' and other variant names are popular names for newspapers. Newspapers with these titles include: Australia * ''The Telegraph'' (Adelaide), a newspaper in Adelaide, South Australia, publ ...

'' writes, "If his Edinburgh debut was more impressive than it was laugh-out-loud funny, this lightning-fast, constantly wrong-footing, even more ambitious follow-up is supremely both", and gave the show 5 out of 5 stars. Brian Logan of ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' gave the show 4 out of 5 stars, describing it as a "full-frontal assault of music and meta-comedy that leaves you gasping for air", with "not a line out of place, nor one that isn't in there for destabilising comic effect", though Logan noted that "Burnham's comedy has a depressive streak, and his material is often base". Another writer in ''The Guardian'' summarised the show by writing, "Burnham mixes the utterly base with the sophisticated, meshing hip-hop-influenced songs that reference Shakespeare, and feature plenty of dick jokes." Jason Zinoman of the

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

writes that the show has a "manic satirical style", which is "ambitious, and sometimes inspired" but contains "a tension at the core of this show that remains unresolved".

Chart positions

''what.'' debuted on the '' Billboard''

Comedy Albums Comedy Albums is a ''Billboard'' chart that lists the "top-selling spoken word and musical comedy albums" each week, as ranked by sales data compiled by Nielsen SoundScan. The chart debuted as Top Comedy Albums in October 2004 (simultaneously wit ...

chart at position #2, on January 4, 2014, peaking at #1 on January 18, 2014, and remaining on the chart for 77 weeks. It was on the Independent Albums chart for 4 weeks, peaking at position #31. ''what.'' had first week sales of 10,000 copies.

References

External links

*
what.
at

* {{Authority control 2013 albums Comedy albums by American artists Stand-up comedy albums 2010s comedy albums Bo Burnham albums Films directed by Bo Burnham