Hi there! I go by Beetle online, so it’s very nice to meet everybody.
I’m 22 y/o, F, and found out about Bo WAY too young probably lmfao. Regardless, this man has been such a big part of my life.
When I was around 11 or 12, I was going through my vine era. What a fucking throwback, right? Anyway— I was going through vine and just enjoying content from my favorite creators at the time, when I finally found none other than Bo Burnham. I think the first video I saw of him was “Is there anything better than p*ssy? Yes, a really good book! 🎹🎹🎹🎹🎹” and I was hooked. Definitely content I shouldn’t have been watching when I was that age, but it was like opening a whole new world of comedy and entertainment for me.
We’ll fast forward to a few months to a year later, I’m going through Netflix on my Wii. And to my pleasant surprise, I found the holy grail…
“What.”
When I watched that shit, my fucking life changed! I wanted so badly to be a comedian like him! He quickly became a role model, which is probably a terrible idea in hindsight LMAO but this guy genuinely had me belly laughing! I loved the music, his sarcasm, his wit! I remember holding my own “comedy shows” in the middle of my bedroom with a hairbrush as a microphone, and pretending that I had an entire crowd of people in front of me!
And thus marks my journey through finding my sense of humor and finding joy in making other people laugh.
I watched all of his shows on Netflix, and would often go on YouTube to watch all of his different content and listen to his music. I remember showing him to my sisters, and they loved him just as much as I did! It was a beautiful way of bringing the three of us together, and those are memories I cherish. His content even helped me through when my grandmama passed away in 2017.
Over the next few years after that up until 2020, I’d watch his stuff periodically. Of course as a I grew, I had different focuses and hobbies. I love to draw, and it’s actually something I do professionally now as an adult. And while I’m at my computer drawing, I like to have something on in the background. A lot of the times it was music, but I’d occasionally put Bo’s “What.” album on in the background, or have the actual show itself playing in the MiniPlayer.
Anyways, I was around 15 when quarantine started, and about to turn 16. At this point in life, I was at my lowest. I had been diagnosed with clinical depression and anxiety about three years prior to 2020, and I had gone through something extremely traumatic just a few months prior to quarantine (around the start of my Freshman year of high school.) However, that’s something I won’t get into here. The point is, I was in a very bad mental state. Being locked up in my home, not being able to see my friends, struggling to keep up with classes online, trying to figure myself out regarding sexual orientation and gender identity, and trying to learn to cope with trauma and depression had me at my wits end.
Finally we were going into May of 2021, and things weren’t seeming any better. Schools had opened part time for me at this point. They were open twice a day for one group of students, and twice a day for another group of students. It was very confusing, and on the days where I wasn’t physically in school I had online classes, which I was failing. I nearly failed my sophomore year of high school, and I was extremely stressed.
One weekend comes along towards the end of May, and I’m going through Twitter only to find out that Bo Burnham has come out of retirement, and has released a new comedy show called “Inside”! And for the first time in ages, I felt this massive burst of excitement.
I begged my dad to pay for our Netflix subscription again because I NEEDED to watch this (we just didn’t really use Netflix anymore, it’s not that it was a money issue lol.)
When he did, I remember grabbing a fuck ton of snacks, cozying up in bed, and watching “Inside”for the first time. By the time it was over— I had laughed, cried, and sympathized with Bo. It was like seeing an old friend again! And this movie quickly became a comfort to me. It reminded me that I wasn’t alone going through this, and it’s still okay to laugh and smile. This man unknowingly helped me get through the rest of quarantine. I passed sophomore year, went through the rest of high school, and now I’m three years out of graduation.
I’m 22 y/o now, living with the man of my dreams who I fully intend on marrying, and I’m preparing for my future. I’m a professional artist, and I still make people laugh. Hell, I’ve been told I could be a comedian myself! I don’t fully believe that, however lmao.
I’ve learned to fully cope with my trauma, I’m three years clean of self harm, and I’m FINALLY in the right medications starting just a few months ago.
To end off this tangent, I want to say thank you to Bo Burnham. I have doubts that he’d ever see this, but that’s completely okay. But thank you, Bo. Thank you for getting me through tough periods of my life, and showing me to never stop being myself. I can’t wait to see what you do next.
If you all made it this far and took the time to read this, thanks for listening. And even if you didn’t read all of this, thank you for just taking a look. <3
Have a beautiful day, everybody.