Katy Perry is not Your Therapist

Contrary to its name, Bo Burnham’s Kill Yourself (warning: explicit) neither glorifies nor espouses suicide. Instead, the song uses its provocative title to satirize today’s pop songs and comment on the relationship between pop artists and their audiences. Along the way, it also touches on the topics of depression and mental illness.

Kill Yourself works on multiple satirical levels. The form of the song is a parody—a parody of pop music—although that is not the area from which the satire derives its most poignant commentary. However, Burnham’s choice in using a pop song format to deliver his script enhances the comedic value while simultaneously connecting the message with the medium being critiqued. His use of parody ties the whole comedic sketch together, allowing the meaning to shine through.

The main satirical technique in Kill Yourself is a kind of hyperbole. Burnham uses the brutally straightforward action of suicide as an exaggerated example of a simple solution to a complex problem. By establishing a parallel between suicide and the advice given by pop icons, he argues that pop song morals, like suicide, are an oversimplified and ultimately unhelpful response to the complicated struggles of life. In the same way that killing oneself is a non-solution, the uplifting words of a pop artist can not resolve the listener’s problems in any meaningful way.

The true genius of Burnham’s song is the way it leverages its use of hyperbole to address both sides of the analogy. By comparing the pop industry’s ineffective emotional support to suicide AND THEN continuing to show how lack of proper mental health care can lead to suicide, Burnham connects all the concepts of his satire into one interconnected message. Like figurative suicide, seeking support from pop songs will not improve one’s mental health, and may in fact contribute to literal suicide.