FAKE FRIENDS spinoff ep 1: Repeat Stuff and empathetic satire

- Yeah, and I have a bit in my act, that
sort of makes fun of Justin Bieber

and some of these young pop stars.

Basically, it's a song that mocks
the way that those songs are written

which I think is... What the songs
basically do is they...

they're love songs to girls and they
describe the girls

as vaguely as they possibly can,
so that every girl can think

that that song is about them.
So it's like...

It's like "I love how your fingerprints
are different than everybody else's"

And like "I love how your eyes
have that, like,

blue-ish, brown-ish, green-ish color."

" And, like, your torso has an arm
on either side of it"

or like, whatever...

That seems sort of harmless, but then
it kinda gets a little darker

and sort of accuses these young
pop-artists of being part of the cycle

where girls, who read magazines,
feel terrible about themselves

cause it says, you know: "you
should be skinnier,

you should be prettier". They feel
terrible. And then these pop stars

tell them that they're perfect,
and that they're beautiful

and the songs, they buy the song
and ten the pop-star is

on the cover of the magazine, so
they buy a magazine again so then...

And it sort of gets like this vicious
cycle... And I basically... like...

... sort of implying that he's
working for Satan, or whatever...

"Oh, hello, Satan!
eats microphone"

(audience laughter)

- Little shout-out to Justin!
How's Satan? Yeah...

- That's great.

Unless something else that
I find more engaging

or more important comes along
I do plan to continue making episodes

of Fake Friends proper past
episode 4, but either way

there are a ton of topics
related to parasocial relationships

that I feel would be better-suited
to smaller standalone videos.

Like I got a lot of comments
asking about k-pop or idol culture

and those would warrant a longer video,

but if I hadn’t included
PARO in episode 2,

that’s the kind of topic that would fit as
something shorter and more self-contained.

The Fake Friends episodes are long and dense
and are my attempt at bringing together

a bunch of seemingly unrelated topics
to show a broader picture

of how these relationships have infected our lives.

The spinoff episodes will be
more self-contained and closer to

a regular video essay than a sprawling documentary.

The two shortest and most accessible
pieces I’ve found in the past two years

of research that cover parasocial
relationships the way that II view them

are the original Horton and Wohl write-up
from 1956 and the music video

for Bo Burnham’s song “Repeat Stuff”.

It’s a fun video to watch and
not think twice about. But part of why

I find it so valuable
(and worth devoting a

a whole 40-minute video to)

is how dense it is and just
how much is going on,

including what didn’t register
the first time I watched it.

Or the second. Or the third.
It’s not only one of my

favorite music videos, but as
I watched it rewatched it

and grew to appreciate just
how much work went into it

it's become on of my favorite short
films as well.

You really should watch the full
music video before watching this analysis.

I’ll link the music video,
the earlier version from

his comedy special, and an even earlier
youtube upload in the description

so you can watch all three version
I'll be talking about, if you want.

The other two are more
optional. But the music video

functions as a fun, dark short
that goes unexpected places

and it’s also best to hear
the final version of the song

before you listen to me
talk about its evolution.

Burnham, especially as he
has gotten older versus when

he was an edgelord teen
youtube star,

has done a great job with
taking subjects where an easy,

demeaning joke could be made
and instead applying some

level of nuance and empathy.

The song "Art is Dead"
is off of his special "words words words"

Repeat Stuff is off of his
special "What" as is "Sad".

In his next special, "Make Happy",
there are three great

examples of this as well-
"Lower Your Expectations"

"Pandering", and "Kill Yourself".

There are other songs
and other examples

but for brevity’s sake
I’m sticking to six.

(because, as we all know,
I am known for my brevity)

For all of these songs, you
start with one surface-level

joke, whether it’s parody
or a cliched joke

or a shock value joke or... whatever.

Art is Dead is the most serious
of all of these examples

but it does still take that
surface premise- art is dead now,

modern performers are shallow and immature

and adds an unexpected layer of
self-deprecation and self-loathing

entertainers are entitled,
whining monsters,

and Burnham is one of them.

"Sad" takes hacky shock
sadness jokes,

some of which are,
admittedly, kind of funny,

and subverts them in the last verse,

implicating both Burnham
as a performer for exploiting tragedy

for cheap laughs AND
his audience, who

has been laughing along the entire time.

I’ll get to "Repeat Stuff" in a minute.

"Lower Your Expectations"
has elements of

“men are like this, women are like this!”

battle of the sexes gender essentialism,

but it’s more an exploration
of the unrealistic expectations

put on any gender, including
how these expectations

can be contradictory - societal
expectations of men to be both

gentle feminists and
chivalrous tough guys,

women to be both
model-level attractive

and down-to-earth and humble.

It’s a critique of culture,
of impossible heteronormative

standards of what LOVE
is,

and it’s not putting people
down for not meeting these expectations

It also ends with Burnham
making fun of himself for even

pretending to know about
life and love at his age.

"Pandering"

is a parody of
modern country music,

but rather than making
fun of poor people or southern people

or people who live in rural areas,

Burnham focuses on how rich
musicians, well,

PANDER to a working-class
demographic that they

have nothing in common with.

As someone, who gre up around
a lot of working-class southern people

I appreciate the avoidance
of easy-hit jokes.

At times those jokes are there there

but hopefully they are more
at the expense of this persona

of a wealthy musician,

or maybe at the expense of
country-songs like this one

which always rubbed me the wrong way,

"Pandering" is about a respect for
art regardless of its origin

I think country music gets a
bad rep, you know, why

it that when Bruce Springsteen sings
about a fucking turnpike

- it is art, and when someone
sings about a horse - it' dumb.

Apparently, I dunno...

I think some of the greatest songwriters
of all time are country-artists

Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson, you
know,

they've been writing honestly.
That is art! And I wold never bash that.

The problem is: with a lot of
modern country music

what is called "stadium country
music", it's sort of Keith Urban

brand of country music

is that it is not honest

- And it's what we do, anyway.
it's what you're doing

you create, we create, these
guys are creating

and I get to do it with music

And a respect for human beings,
regardless of how much money they have.

And it makes of both the impulse
to write-off a genre or a region

as "redneck trash" and the people
who play into these stereotypes

as outsiders and manipulate their
audience, the same way

pop-star Burnham in "Repeat stuff"
does to teenage girls.

How a lot of country music has
a creepy, vaguely rape-y vibe to it

And how the songs are
formulaic and exploitative

and have no real respect
for their audience

One of my favorite parts
of the song isn't a particularly

clever rhyme of reference

It's just Burnham saying "I don't like
dirt!"

It's worth noting too that
while Burnham is playing

a character here, he still talks
in the first-person

There's also a similar joke about
dumb Alabama rednecks elsewhere

in the special - here it is in full.

We just played in Alabama, they ust
liked the lights, I didn't even need

to do jokes!

"Motherfucker's got moving candles!".
No... Not quite

Alabama was actually nice. You're
elitist pricks.

Is that fun?

And here's a clip from
Burnham's guest appereance

on "Parks and Rec" in 2014.

Where he plays a sort of
"Repeat Stuff", "Pandering"

hybrid country-youtube star, who
uses vague allusions to his mother

and the troops to get views.

- His latest song, "Beutiful, like my
mom (support the troops)" has like

2 million hits on Youtube!

- Bunch of dirty hecks!

Next is "Kill Yourself".

In my political correctness
video I criticized

George Miller for making "kill yourself"
song and used a clip of Burnham

regretting his own Helen Keller
jokes because of how those could've

been used to bully a deaf person.

For "Kill Yourself", which speaks on
inspirational pop songs and how

you shouldn't turn to pop-music
or pop-artists to sustain you emotionally.

They're only there to use you for
your money. After all,

it's about how you are sold
overly simplified narratives

and simple solutions for
complex problems

that you should seek actual
professional help for.

- ... that life's toughest problems
don't have simple answers.

You shouldn't just be "Brave",
you shouln't just "Roar"

you shouldn't "kill yourself"

Burham goes pretty far out
of his way to state that he

understands depression.

But I understand that it's a
sensetive subject and you're probably just

hearing me say that...

Briefly hints that he has struggled
with mental health issues himself

I've dealth with... I don't want to be
insnensitive

Says that if you're depressed,
you should seek a therapist

And then jokes that if you can only
find meanng for your life in

Katy Perry songs, then, well, never mind.
You should definitely just kill yourself.

Part of makes me this song less
able to be weaponized

to bully some kid, or less likely
to encourage an actual suicidal person

are the ways he couches the jokes
in empathy and the ridiculous

and over-the-top suicide methods
that he suggests.

The only parts of "Kill yourself",
that I would criticize, actually,

are the extremely hack jokes
about AIDS

and Oprah being fat

which in 2016, almost seem like
Burnham was being intentionally unfunny.

Overall, though, the juxtaposition
between an empathetic

and supportive Burnham and the
one suggesting suicide methods works.

- I feel like you pulled back.

Maybe it's on account of the fact,
that I'm telling you to kill yourself,

but for a moment

Especially, because he pushes
the edge of the "Kill yourself" line

then softens it, then pushes, then
softens again.

I definitely feel like, if he
had written this as a teenager

it would've been less empathetic.
And without that sharp juxtaposition

between the empathy and the suicide
joke, it would've been less funny

and less effective overall.

I do find his work and his songs
funny. But even if they weren't funny

to me, even if, objectively, you
don't get the laughs out of them

that I do, I wanted to break down
what he's doing with his body of work,

and the way that he handles these jokes -
Not just smugly rampaging through

our culture and striking down easy targets

but navigating satire with empathy
for young people.

and downtrodden people and
people with mental health issues.

And over and over taking aim at
himself just as much as everyone else

if nor moreso.

- How does he do it? How does he
pretend to do it?

How does he remain contrived? I'm
not honest for a second up here!

Art is a lie! Nothing is real!

A comic can be funny and
have ocassional moments of insight

when they're indiscriminately shotgunning
everything, as many comics do.

And don't you dare criticize them!

- This could be a little offensive, but,
you know, my motto is:

if you can laugh at one group of
people, you gotta be able to laugh at

them all. Ya know?

This song is gonna seem terribly
offensive, but, eh, remember: it's satire

and please, don't kick the shit
out of me.

Jeez...

In 2009, when he was 18, Burnham
was protested against

at Westminster College in Fulton,
Missouri.

An article from the Columbia Daily
Tribune states:

About 15 protesters, including
members of the Gay-Straight Alliance,

Black Students Association,

International Club and
the Cultural Diversity Organization

held signs and rallied outside
Champ Auditorium,

where the concert took place.

The article then mentions Bo being
uncomfortable while interacting

with a disabled fan, after his act that
repeatedly mocked disabled people

(though the fan was clearly
fine with offensive humor,

and it's possible that the author
was reading some into the situation).

In a 2009 Boston Herald interview, which
I paid 4 dollars to access, because

even the archived version was
behind a paywall,

Burnham said: "It's so ironic,
because gay bashers were the ones

labeling me in high-school", and
"I try and write satire that's

well-intentioned, but those
Intentions have to be hidden.

It can't be completely clear.
and that's what makes it comedy"

But then, 7 years later, in a 2016
CBS interview

on political correctness he said:

"Well, I just think, like, comics are
cry-babies and like, give me a break.

You get up there and you talk
for an hour and then they have

and impulse to be heard too?

If it's rock n' roll, then who cares
what they think about it?

And truly, like, political
corectness with young people

for me, it's an over-correction.
For a serious problem, like bigotry

and racism, but no comedians
are being thrown in jail

They're getting, like, lit up on twitter
maybe a few times, they go through

you know, and that's wrong
and maybe bad sometimes.

But again, this is from people, who
have had their opinions heard relentlessly

Hours every night, all the time,
and then a blogger gets up

and expresses their opinion in a blog,
and it's like: what?!

How do you not understand that
the audience has the same impulse that you do?"

Don't kill yourself!

I don't like explaining jokes, but
the joke where I tell everyone to kill

themselves might deserve an explaination.
DO NOT!

And if you're offended, do not
write a blog. I apologize immediately!

"Sorry!" - right away!

You know, my mother is a hospice nurse
so it's hard for me to look at, you know

a couple college kids with signs
outside a comedy show and think that

I'm... you know, up against anything,
structually.

It's rare, and more rewarding to find
someone who started out that way,

then grew up and uses his
platform and his art to tackle what

upsets him and disturbs him in
a wider culture.

Crafting clever or shocking juxtapositions
and ripping open contradictions.

Over and over trying to call
attenton to wide-spread exploitation

that we accept and ignore.

In a 2013 interview with Vulture
he said:"I don't think it's very

cynical to be critical of the
media. Being critical of what pop-stars

and celebrities say seems obvious to me.
I hope it's level-headed. I find pop-culture

and celebrity to be very cynical. When
I'm being critical about it

I hope I'm not being too cynical about it.
Realistic, I think.

Or, hopefully, just showing what people
swallow without thinking about it

just because they have real jobs. Where I
have this silly job, where

I think about it all the time.

It's not like Burnham is afraid to
offend anyone either.

Or that his stage persona is strictly
sensitive and gentle, and thoughtful

If I fuck a kid, I'm a pedophile, but if
a kid fucks me - I'm a pedophile, again?!

Twice in a week?

Part of the persona, even as
he's gotten older, has been using

offensive humor to push the people in
his audience away.

Bo Burnham: Macaroni and...
Audience: Cheese!

Our favorite chips, salt and v...
Wow!

Who said it?!

And while I wouldn't consider it the
strongest aspect of his work,

it does make the moments of empathy
seem sincere, rather than compulsory.

OK, now for the actual
subject of the video! Sort of!

I'm gonna talk about the song first,
then I'll get to the music video.

This interview was uploaded to
Youtube on May 3rd 2013.

His special "what" dropped on
December 13th of 2013

on Youtube and Netflix. As did the
seperate perfomance of the show

that's on the album. Which, as
an additional track, included

the studio version of
Repeat Stuff.

That being the exact same version
later used in the music video.

The full music video for "Repeat Stuff"
dropped on September 24th 2014.

These are the earliest versions
of the song I can find on Youtube.

Both from a performance at a Trocadero
Theatre in Philadelphia

on December 4th 2010. Meaning,
here he's 24, here he's 23, here he's 22,

and here he's 20 years old.

He might've started writing the song
when he was 19 or even younger.

I'm not sure. I mention all that both to
show that this was an evolution over

a period of at least 4 years to get
to the final music video

and that Burnham was very, very young
when he first started it.

There are only a handful of uploads
of older versions of "Repeat Stuff"

on Youtube. The first few are
shorter than the final version

"This song is a work
in progress."

And Burnham draws attention to the song
being unfinished.

- How do you get out of a song
you haven't finished?

Sound-man, hit the third track for me
please, hit the third track

He also says "my producer", instead of
"my agent".

These segments here were
eventually cut.

And the "girl with no arms" bit
was more aggressive and less funny.

There were other minor changes
over time, before the finished version

came out on "what". Apart from a Jason
Derulo joke,

- Jason Derulo...

the only real difference in the
song, between a "what" version

and a studio version used in the
music video, is Burnham pretending

to perform oral sex on Satan.

- Oh, Satan, you taste so good!

and making weird noises...

versus in-the-studio version, where
layered distorted voice clips are used.

"I am a servant of dakrness"
Repeat stuff, repeat stuff...

The effect is similar, though.
The "what" version even has visual

elements that are repurposed for the
music video. Gentle blue and magenta

lights are used for most of the song.
With sudden red light blasting

accompanied by nazi salute as an
over-the-top gag highlighting the evil

and exploitative nature of these
performers. The "what" version allows

for further audience implication. The
nazi salute comes partially as a joke

at their expense. Just as he's
gotten them to enthusiastically sing along

- Repeat stuff, repeat stuff, everybody!

- Come on, louder, I can't hear you!

His voice is a little different as well.
In the "what" version the juxtaposition

between his faux-carefree pop
star voice and his evil voice

is more played-up and both are more
cartoonish. One - sillier

Repeat stuff, repeat stuff, repeat stuff...

and one - more menacing.

Fuck em! Who needs em!

All of the songs, I've mentioned here,
are in some way about exploitation.

"Repeat Stuff" included, but it has a
larger scope

The surface-level joke here is very
clear and easily accessible.

Pop-stars pump out repetitive, simplistic
hits, and are part of a machine

that traps young girls in a cycle
of self-loathing and turning to them

for love and comfort, in
exchange for money.

The video adds other aspects in addition
to this - axes of exploitation on display

in the music video are on the
basis of race, gender, age, ability and income

An audience member is only valuable
as far as they can consume his product

or be used by him to sell his
product to consumers. Take this bit-

For the record, little girls who
don’t have arms CAN use itunes,

being disabled doesn’t preclude
you from enjoying pop music

and being just as exploited-

While Burnham clearly meant it as a
dig at sociopathic capitalism

I have known enough disabled
people that enjoy music

that I figured I’d mention it.

The actors in the video who are black or
mixed race are shown literally dancing

at Burnham’s command for Burnham’s
amusement, and him using “swag”

is both a funny juxtaposition of slang
vs his satanic monster character AND

an example of how white
pop stars appropriate black vernacular.

The change bit is weird- I guess, like,
a visual gag, it’s more silly than anything

but maybe also an implication of
pennies paid for the work

black artists put in, and as a further
gag he says “what the fuck”

here not even understanding them
or what is happening.

Burnham is also playing multiple
characters and incorporating multiple

layered personas in this video.
There’s the persona that little girls fall

in love with- the Bieber-esque Bo,
there’s the behind-the-scenes cult leader

Satanic monster behind that persona, and
there are a surprising number

of incorporations of Burnham
himself or his original persona

separate from the video.

The Bieber parody is that surface-level
joke and most of the non-satanic

lyrics are from this point of view.

“Repeat Stuff” sounds similar to Bieber's
song “Baby”

and the video is in part a parody
of his “Confident” music video.

There’s a little bit of insidiousness to
the character though it doesn’t start overt

for example, he’s androgynous in a way
that lowers the guards of female

fans and as a cover to mask
how sexually exploitative he is.

There are jokes about an agent
performing oral sex on him

but it’s not homophobic. Rather,
it’s a web of sexual predation on all

sorts of people, - men around him,
women in his video, a young girl, whatever.

Where the video gets wild and visually
interesting is when Satanic Cult

Leader Burnham comes in.
He is Satan in human form.

His music is a plague and his purpose
is virgin sacrifice.

As far as people his own age, he’s
surrounded by a cult of sycophants

engaged in bizarre, child-like behavior.

It’s a funny juxtaposition to have a
bunch of people in their late teens

and early twenties playing with toys-
especially because the only actual

fans shown are very young- it reminds
me of tobacco ads that target children,

or a corporate idea of what
kids would like or want.

The cult all also literally drink
kool-aid together, emphasized

by this group suicide pantomime
that I always found pretty funny.

There are multiple overt references
to the illuminati. I don’t know if they’re related

or if it’s some other weird reference,
but this guy’s hand signal reminded

me of Jay-Z’s roc-a-fella records diamond
hand sign that paranoid conspiracy

theorists have insisted is related
to the illuminati or satan or whatever.

The video also has a bunch of
one-frame text inserts, being

subliminal messages are a cliched
aspect of brainwashing conspiracy theories.

Some of the messages are silly jokes,
but many of them involve encouraging

the pursuit of money and fame,
tying back into the key themes

of the video and of Burnham’s
typical message.

There are a few satanic symbols and
references throughout the video,

some overt and some more subtle.

Did you notice that the cross he wears
and puts in his mouth is upside-down?

Even more extreme are the
comparisons to Hitler.

There are the illuminati nazi armbands,
the hitler speech in the background

the actual nazi salutes- it’s played
for shock laughs and to catch

the audience off guard in the "what"
version but is more a piece

woven into a wider tapestry
of evil in the music video.

The color symbolism that carried over
from the what. version,

while simple, is really effective, and it
builds out a solid and

consistent color palette for the video.

I really like the look of the video
and the costume design and the visual motifs.

Whether intentional or not, the opening
shot reminds me of Halloween and Bo’s

outfit and a jumpsuit worn by Michael
Meyers are a similar shade of navy.

My favorite cut in the entire
video is this one.

All of these songs I have talked
about have juxtapositions played

for comedy, but the one here
is genuinely sad and creepy.

You have Bo moving and dancing
and being silly, leaned back on the car

with casual body language,
then you cut to him just looming

over a girl’s corpse, staring
directly at the camera.

It’s made even more effective by a later
shot with the same setup

but of Bo dancing, incorporating
both the violence

and the manufactured carefree silliness.

Burnham is very tall- google says 6’5”-
and normally he plays up being

skinny and lanky in an effeminate
way with dancing or slapstick

(in a 2013 interview with NPR he said

"The comedy club environment, unless
you're very careful about it, it's kind of

creates a very tough, very, I think,
masculine comedian

that can be very combatant on it,
you know, twelve PM Satruday show

and the crowd's getting a little
rowdy. As opposed to I think I was able

to make this sort of weird, slightly
androgynous theatrical comedy

that would've been squashed had I
brought it around the clubs.

This shot is the only time I’ve seen his
height used deliberately to look

hulking and intimidating. He
works as the video’s villain not

in spite of his lanky physicality
but because of it and I could see

the aesthetic and the character working
in a more traditional

narrative horror short or feature film.

There are also some small weird shots and
jokes that I liked.

Why does this person’s hoodie
just say “hoodie”?

These posters on the girl’s wall
are references to two of Burnham’s

old music videos- "words words words"
from september 2010

and "oh bo" from october 2010.

This shot is so funny.

What are they even doing? What
are you all doing?

I tried to see if 1213 has any meaning
but only found weird angel stuff.

In the vocal montage you can very
quietly hear him insulting his audience.

His face on magazine is so dour and
serious.

I know they probably had to
reverse this in editing,

but why is this guy walking backwards?

Artemis looking into the camera
before this cut is so brilliant.

It's such a great touch.

And, well, during the course of making
this video, I also discovered my own mystery

one that I did not expect.

So, if you did what I suggested
and watched the youtube upload

of Repeat Stuff, did you notice
that something was off

when I used this clip at the
beginning of this video?

t’s from an alternate version
of the "Repeat Stuff" music video.

There’s a discrepancy. Could
it be a conspiracy???

The illuminati?!

So I don't know much about the technical
specifics or the industry standard specifics

of this overall, but I've seen a
lot of times where someone

who worked on a music video will
have an upload of that video

on their personal vimeo account
as part of their portfolio

separate from the popular and official
youtube upload.

Vimeo is a more professional website and
compresses videos significantly

less than Youtube does, so, when I
am looking for versions of music videos

or short films to use in essays,
I will check both youtube and vimeo

for uploads and try to use
whichever one looks better.

At some point I watched the vimeo
upload of "Repeat Stuff"

on the channel of Rami Hachache,
the music video's director.

Since I had seen the youtube version
a million times in the past year

and since I’m a neurotic,
obsessive, I IMMEDIATELY

noticed a difference between
the two uploads.

It's a clip I had never seen before
and the color balance is completely off

so it stands out a lot and I feel like I
would have caught it just on that even if

I wasn’t as familiar with the
other cut. It's at around 1:21 in both

versions. I rewatched a couple
times and I think I kind of caught

that the clips before it were
different as well. So being a

very normal person who definitely
does not have too much time on my hands,

I grabbed both versions at 1080 and I
synced them up and layered

one on top of the other in the timeline
with the top one at around half opacity

I sat there and I watched the whole
video. This starts at around 1:12

if you are watching the full videos.
Even all of the subliminal text bits

match up. The only discrepancy was
the one I had noticed.

And a few clips preceding it.

I really like in the vimeo version
the way his body language

makes a nice transition from
from him looking down with his arms out

and how it adds movement and
connectivity between two cuts

where before it was pretty
arbitrary.

And I got really curious.
Why is this here?

I feel like it's a better transition,
but the color is off and that makes

it look unfinished, even though
the timing of the cut is great!

Here's a comparison of me doing
around two minutes of rough

color correction work in premiere
to show the difference and

how easy it would be to fix.

Why wasn’t it fixed? Especially if the
rest of the video looks and sounds exactly the same.

Apart from the end of the Youtube
version, having a Burnham ad tacked on

The Vimeo version also has a nice,
professional-looking thumbnail

that the youtube version doesn’t.

So, here came the real challenge.
I wondered, was the director's version

uploaded prior to the youtube version,
hence the unfinished shot?

Or was it uploaded after, since
they would, of course, want to premiere it

on Burnham's youtube channel
for maximum views and impact?

Youtube has a date clearly visible:
"Published on Sep 24, 2014"

but on vimeo it just said "4 years ago".
4 years ago under the video,

4 years ago on a bunch of
comments. "4 years ago" doesn't help me!

So then I keep looking and
googling around

and I find this this random blog post on
some blog called "spiral of hope"

on how in order to see the date a video
was uploaded to vimeo

you have to download the video’s
XML file. So using their template

and changing the URL to match the video's
ID

I download the XML file of
the "Repeat Stuff" upload, and

there it is- "2014-09-24".
It went up the same day.

I learned nothing, basically, but like
the virtual woman segment of "fake friends 2"

I found it weird and interesting.

I really enjoy strange inconsequential
deep dive mysteries.

I wanted to be a detective when
I was a little kid and I enjoy

looking into stuff that nobody
else cares to look into.

I might try to reach out to and
interview Hachache

after I publish this video.

I'd rather get my own ideas and
interpretations out there before I talk to him

and if I do interview him I will
definitely bring up this tiny discrepancy

that I found really interesting.

Pop stars and boy bands can
be a safe and non-threatening

place for young people to have
crushes. I'm not demonizing young people

for being fans of pop stars or
demonizing musicians for making music

pop or not. But, while Nazi
iconography is a little extreme

for any satirical music video, I
do feel that all of the Illuminati

Satan stuff -
meant as cultural shorthand for evil

- is apt in describing the
tangible negative effects these

these relationships can have on
young people- being tricked into thinking

spending their parents’ money
on more merch and more

music will help fulfill
them or make them happy.

The first “demon eyes” shot
is this one

- on an explicitly sexual line
and played as a joke,

But the most shocking and
upsetting aspects of the "Repeat Stuff"

music video are how predatory Burnham is
in moments, where it isn't played up for laughs

Him looming over a corpse is
one and others are the creepy shots of him

outside of a teenage girl's room
where it’s almost implied that

he’s masturbating to her photograph.

The little girl has Egghead,
his real-life book of poems, by her bed.

Bunrham's persona with regard to
sex is usually portrayed

as him being non-threatening
and inept and immature.

I talked about his physicality being used
differently to express physical violence

The same can be said about
him being sexually predatory.

The beginning of the song praises the
girl Bo is speaking to for giving

her heart to him.

but by the end we see that it’s
not given, it’s taken.

She reaches out to touch him
with this stunned look of reverence

in her eyes and he murders
her and eats her heart,

surrounded by ephemera of
his own real-life career.

In the Vulture interview,
Burnham said, “...with “Repeat Stuff,”

so much of the pop songs have
absolutely no artistic function

and only function to sell
something to little girls.

That particular genre in my
opinion targets very precarious things

about little girls: their own
insecurity and self-esteem issues.

This poem is called "Ashley".

Little Ashley hung magazine spreads
on her wall, after picking the

magazines out in the mall.

Models and actresses, singers
and more, with cleavage and makeup

and glamour galore!

All of her heroes
were finally nearer.

Her whole room looked perfect -
except for the mirror.

"That to me is a little bit
predatory and a little bit evil.

I’m fine with things not being
original. I want hardcore

content to be the product of
someone’s beliefs and for them to

make something that
connects with people as opposed to

making something that is meant
to sort of trick people and just

sell them something, to have your
way with them and then leave them.”

Burnham’s treatment of sexual assault
language in this interview and in the imagery

in his video may seem flippant,
but I can see what he’s going for

not only with stars fostering trust and
love in fans to in return harvest fame

and money from, but also
real-world consequences for young fans

who DO meet their idols or famous
crushes and let their guard down or see

his person they’re a fan of
with rose-colored glasses who end up,

at the best, used and hurt and with
a new “don’t meet your heroes” mindset,

and at worst assaulted- this applies to
feminist comedians who

took advantage of fans or colleagues
as well as rock and pop stars who have

historically had a habit of
statutory raping teenage groupies.

- I can do whatever I want, all right?
If I want to shoot a paintball gun

at my dad, I'm gonna do it!

So. Why didn’t Burnahm come
up with a fake name

or character name for the video?

Jon Lajoie’s pop parody

uses his name as
a flashy background

but he plays characters totally
unrelated to his own youtube

music career sans one cameo, and
in “Pandering”, a music style parody

of a different genre,

- You know, like THAT genre?

Burnham is clearly playing someone
separate from himself.

But here a deliberate choice was
made for the evil pop

Satan to be Burnham. In the
"what." version he's happily serving

Satan as an accomplice, but
in the music video he IS Satan.

It's next-level self-deprecation.

This is beyond brand recognition
or an easy go-to.

This is self-implication.

This shot of him- in a white T-shirt
at a piano-

is a quintessential Burnham image.

He wears the same shirt when he
smothers the girl to death with her own pillow.

How many of Burnham's fans, especially
when he was a YouTube star,

were teenage girls?

Here’s a clip from the track
“Out of the Abyss”

from the album performance of "what."
that I used in the intro

of the first episode of "Fake
Friends".

- I'm giving you attention, girl
that's wooing. Are you happy now?

- You love me? That's very nice.
You love the idea of me, you don't know me

but that's ok. It's called
a "Parasocial relationship"

- it goes one way, and is
ultimately destructive.

But please, keep buying
all my shit forever.

That's how it works! Capitalism!
I'm trapped! It's terrible!

I'm a horrible person! All right.

right after this aside, Burnham segues
into the album performance of "Repeat Stuff"

How many audience members
screamed at him that

they loved him despite his
rebuking them when they did?

My experience even with an audience
a fraction of the size of Burnham's

is that people like you a lot more more
when they perceive you as

being honest, even if what you're being
honest about is how your

audience sometimes scares you.

Or, in his case, if you feel
like you're exploiting them.

It's the quality of “heart” that
Horton and Wohl talked about.

So even as I insist that my
audience doesn't know me

and should be inherently
suspicions of the idea of emotional

intimacy with someone they're a fan of,
I get messages from strangers telling

me I'm a good person or asking me
for help with very personal life

problems that I'm not
remotely qualified to help with.

Many people told me my last big
video made them cry and changed how they

interact with media online.

That's great! That's awesome!
That's what I wanted!

to reach people emotionally
and intellectually.

but having that kind of power
makes me feel strange and uneasy.

When thousands of people trust
you and care about your

opinions and what you think
they should do in their day-to-day lives,

It's a responsibility I
wasn't really prepared for.

you have to take conscious effort
not to end up playing into it for

your wallet or your ego.
Not that I'm in any danger

of turning into a rapey Satan
monster and not that

Burnham 100% saw himself
as one either. It's just that the more

I grow my fan base the more
I can relate to Burnham's

anxieties and the more
I appreciate his work.

The "Repeat Stuff" music video has
over 100,000 views on Vimeo

and over 10,000,000 on YouTube.

I really appreciate how accessible
it is and how clear

the message it has is while remaining
uncompromising in its dark tone.

Hopefully, it didn't just preach
to the choir or fuel those making

fun of teenage girls for loving
pop stars, because if you spend any

time looking at it
there's so much more to it!

I've received dismissive comments
on the first Fake Friends from people who

found Burnham annoying but
that seems to have decreased

as I showed less of his song clips and
more of his self-loathing anti-fame rhetoric.

Like I said before, I don't care
if you like him or find him funny or not

I just wanted to share my appreciation
for what he's doing on a technical

level as well as an ideological one.

Most of the Vimeo vs YouTube
video discrepancy segment

was repurposed from a
patreon post I made while researching.

Thanks to Michael Brown for other
research help and a couple other

unnamed folks for help as well.

The genius page for "Repeat Stuff"
helped my research some,

especially with the Bieber parody aspect,
and it links this music video

by Axis of Awesome

- link in the description
- that explores the

“sung with the same four chords”
aspect of Burnham's parody.

I don't know much about the
mechanics of music and I

wanted to focus on writing
and filmmaking but that’s

worth watching for some further
elaboration on how derivative

a lot of these songs are
in their construction.

If you enjoyed this video and want to
check out more of my work,

I'd recommend the first two
"Fake Friends episodes and my essay

on political correctness and empathy.

Long time viewers might have
noticed that I was able to spend

more time on motion graphics,
visual effects, redoing voiceover,

and the like for this video,
and that I finished it relatively

quickly for a video of its length.

That's a direct result of my patreon
support growing significantly after

"Fake friends 2".

If you want to support my work,
I have my patreon for ongoing donations

and a Ko-fi for
one-time donations. Thanks!