Bo Burnham - The Way the World Works

Hey, kids
Today, we're gonna learn about the world

The world that's around us
Is pretty amazing
But how does it work?
It must be complicated
The secret is the world can only work
When everything works together

A bee drinks from a flower
And leaves with its pollen
A squirrel in a tree
Spreads the seeds that have fallen
Everything works together
The biggest elephant, the littlest fly
The gophers underground, the birds in the sky
And every single cricket, every fish in the sea
Gives what they can and gets what they need
That is how the world works
That is how the world works
From A to Zebra
To the worms in the dirt
That's how it works

Hey everyone
Look who stopped by to say hello
It's Socko
Hey!
Where you been, Socko?
I've been where I always am when you're not wearing me on your hand
In a frightening, liminal space between states of being
Not quite dead, not quite alive
It's similar to a constant state of sleep paralysis

Socko, we were just talking about the world and how it works
Boy that sounds complicated
Do you have anything you'd want to teach us about the world?
I wouldn't say anything that you probably haven't already said yourself
I don't know about that, Socko
How about you give it a try?

Alright!
The simple narrative taught in every history class
Is demonstrably false and pedagogically classist
Don't you know the world is built with blood?
And genocide and exploitation
The global network of capital essentially functions
To separate the worker from the means of production
And the FBI killed Martin Luther King
Private property's inherently theft
And neoliberal fascists are destroying the left
And every politician, every cop on the street
Protects the interests of the pedophilic corporate elite
That is how the world works
Really?
That is how the world works
Genocide, the Natives say you got to it first
That's how it works

That's pretty intense
No shit
What can I do to help?
Read a book or something, I don't know
Just don't burden me with the responsibility of educating you
It's incredibly exhausting
I'm sorry, Socko
I was just trying to become a better person
Why do you rich fucking white people insist on seeing every socio-political conflict through the myopic lens of your own self-actualization
This isn't about you
So either get with it, or get out of the fucking way

Watch your mouth, buddy
Remember who's on whose hand here
But that's what I--
Have you not been fucking listening?
We are entrenched in--
Alright, alright
Wait, no please!
I don't wanna go back
I can't go, I can't go back
Please, please, I'm sorry
Are you gonna behave yourself?
Yes
Yes, what?
Yes, sir
Look at me
Yes, sir
That's better

That is how the world works
That is how the world works
I hope you learned your lesson
I did and it hurt
That's how it works
No!

Bo Burnham is an American comedian, singer-songwriter, musician, actor, poet, and Internet celebrity. Writing comedic and satirical songs with a politically incorrect slant, he achieved fame when his YouTube videos took off and received more than 70 million views by October 2010.

Currently, he has over 200 million views on his YouTube channel.

As of now, Bo has released 5 albums: Bo Fo Sho, Bo Burnham, Words Words Words, what., and Make Happy.

Bo Fo Sho was Burnham’s debut EP. The six-track comedy album was released on June 17, 2008 by Comedy Central Records, and charted well across the Billboard charts.

In a June 2008 interview with Wired Magazine, Burnham described himself as:

still a kid in his bedroom, writing songs and playing them

and that if Bo Fo Sho were anything else,

it would lose the whole DIY effect of how I started out.

Burnham co-created, co-wrote, co-produced, and starred in a TV series called Zach Stone Is Gonna Be Famous in 2013 for MTV, although it was cancelled after 12 episodes, running from May 2, 2013 to June 29, 2013.

His first book, Egghead: Or, You Can’t Survive on Ideas Alone, was first published on October 1, 2013, and is a collection of comedically absurd poetry and musings.

Another book, currently referred to as Untitled Burnham 1 of 1, is thought to be an autobiography with approximately 280 pages, which was set to be released September 2017, although no such book has been published.

His film Eighth Grade was released on July 13, 2018 to widespread critical acclaim and currently holds a 98% Tomatometer rating on Rotten Tomatoes.