Years:  2010
Genre:  Comedy, Stand-up
Country:  United States
Language:  English
Starring:  Bo Burnham
Run time:   63 minutes
DVD distributor:  Paramount Home Entertainment

     You don’t need to be familiar with Heizenberg’s Uncertainty Principle, the works of William Shakespeare, the lyrics of Eminem, the legend of King Midas or the sexual proclivities of sea otters to enjoy Bo Burnham’s Words Words Words, out on DVD October 16th from Paramount Home Entertainment.  But it would help to have a really vast knowledge about everything in the world.

     For example, the stand-up special begins with a couple of jokes about Noam Chomsky and a strap-on.  Sadly, I assume that far more people know what a strap-on is than know what a Noam Chomsky is.  But you kind of need to know both to find it funny. 

     Either way, whether you’re worldly and learned or an illiterate shut-in, you’ll miss large portions of Words Words Words.  The jokes come so fast and rapid-fire that you can’t help but miss one while you’re laughing at another.  In a rap song obviously inspired by Eminem, I laughed hard enough at the line about a gay sea otter (I blow dudes outta the water) that I missed about a full verse of the song.

     In my opinion, this is the best thing a stand-up comedy DVD can do – tell more jokes than I can handle at one time.  That means I can watch it over and over and still get something new out of it time and again.  Which means it’s well worth the purchase.  Also, it’s all about words.  And I’m a word nerd.  There are some word jokes that just don’t work well when I remember them later – “if you take the ‘bat’ out of the ‘basement’…you get semen” – work great in the special because Burnham has such great delivery and stage presence. 

     This one is a must for comedy fans – especially those who have followed older comedians for years.  Burnham takes old jokes from older comedians and turns them on their head – and in many cases, makes them much funnier.  It all works, it’s all great, and I can’t wait for the next Bo Burnham DVD.

This entry was posted on Friday, November 5th, 2010 at 8:12 am and is filed under 2010, Comedy, Stand-up. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.