our ranking of all 20 original songs from the special here. Review: Bo Burnham's 'Inside Bo Burnham How does one know if the joke punches down? and concludes that if it's mean, it's not funny. Then, the video keeps going past the runtime of the song and into that reaction itself. For the song "Comedy," Burnham adopts a persona adjacent to his real life self a white male comedian who is driven to try and help make the world a better place. Bo Burnham Burnham's career as a young, white, male comedian has often felt distinct from his peers because of the amount of public self-reflection and acknowledgment of his own privileges that he does on stage and off screen. The final shot is of him looking positively orgasmic, eyes closed, on the cross. Most sources discuss fictional characters, news anchors, childrens show hosts, or celebrity culture as a whole. The flow chat for "Is it funny?" "The world needs direction from a white guy like [you] who is healing the world with comedy. Burnham is especially aware as a creator constantly reflecting on his own life. WebBo's transcripts on Scraps From The Loft. Bo Burnham I got better. Were complicated. Burnhams online success and an awareness of what kind of his audiences perceived closeness made the comedian key to one of the most prominent discussions in a creator- and influencer-driven era of media: the idea of parasocial relationships. WebBo Burnham's new Netflix comedy special "Inside" is jam-packed with references to his previous work. Its called INSIDE, and it will undoubtedly strike your hearts forevermore. We're a long way from the days when he filmed "Comedy" and the contrast shows how fruitless this method of healing has been. The voices of the characters eventually blend together to tell the live Burnham on stage, We think we know you.. He had a role in the film "Promising Young Woman." It's a reprieve of the lyrics Burnham sang earlier in the special when he was reminiscing about being a kid stuck in his room. Bo Burnham: Inside They may still be comical, but they have a different feel. ", He then pulls the same joke again, letting the song play after the audience's applause so it seems like a mistake. When the song starts, the camera sitting in front of Burnham's mirror starts slowing zooming in, making the screen darker and darker until you (the audience member at home) are sitting in front of the black mirror of your screen. My heart hurts with and for him. Back in 2010, Burnham appeared on Showtime's "The Green Room," a comics round table hosted by Paul Provenza. Self-awareness does not absolve anybody of anything.". Its horrific.". That's what it is. On the Netflix special, however, Josh Senior is credited as a producer, Cooper Wehde is an assistant producer, and a number of people are credited for post-production, editing, and logistical coordinating. Web9/10. This plays almost like a glitch and goes unexplained until later in the special when a sketch plays out with Burnham as a Twitch streamer who is testing out a game called "INSIDE" (in which the player has to have a Bo Burnham video game character do things like cry, play the piano, and find a flashlight in order to complete their day). With menacing horror movie sound effects and hectic, dreamy camerawork, what becomes clear is Burnhams title has a double meaning: referring to being inside not just a room, but also his head. It's a reminder, coming almost exactly halfway through the special, of the toll that this year is taking on Burnham. MARTIN: Well, that being said, Lynda, like, what song do you want to go out on? Long before the phrase parasocial relationship had entered the mainstream zeitgeist, Burnhams work discussed the phenomenon. Theyre complicated. "All Eyes On Me" starts right after Burnham's outburst of anger and sadness. And many of them discuss their personal connection to the show and their analysis of how Burnham must have been thinking and feeling when he made it. He, for example, it starts off with him rhyming carpool karaoke, which is a segment on James Corden's show, with Steve Aoki, who's a DJ. He points it at himself as he sways, singing again: Get your fuckin hands up / Get on out of your seat / All eyes on me, all eyes on me.. MARTIN: And I understand you were saying that it moves between genres. Then, of course, the aspect ratio shrinks again as the white woman goes back to posting typical content. The song untangles the way we view peoples social media output as the complete vision of who they are, when really, we cannot know the full extent of someones inner world, especially not just through social media. The song's melody is oddly soothing, and the lyrics are a sly manifestation of the way depression convinces you to stay in its abyss ("It's almost over, it's just begun. And if you go back and you look at a film like "Eighth Grade," he's always been really consumed by sort of the positive and the negative of social media and the internet and the life of of young kids. In the worst case, depression can convince a person to end their life. "And so today I'm gonna try just getting up, sitting down, going back to work. Inside (2021) opens with Bo Burnham sitting alone in a room singing what will be the first of many musical comedy numbers, Content. In the song, Burnham expresses, Roberts been a little depressed ii. "Inside" feels like the creative culmination of Bo Burnham's career over the last 15 years, starting with his first viral YouTube video in 2006. BURNHAM: (Singing) Does anybody want to joke when no one's laughing in the background? And then the funniest thing happened.". Simply smiling at the irony of watching his own movie come to life while he's still inside? He's freely admitting that self-awareness isn't enough while also clearly unable to move away from that self-aware comedic space he so brilliantly holds. The song made such a splash in its insight that it earned its own episode in Shannon Struccis seminal Fake Friends documentary series, which broke down what parasocial relationships are and how they work. In one interpretation, maybe the smile means he's ready to be outside again. Instead of working his muscles at open mics or in improv, Burnham uploaded joke songs to the platform in 2006. I mean, honestly, he's saying a lot right there. Copyright 2021 NPR. How how successful do you think is "Inside" at addressing, describing kind of confronting the experience that a lot of people have had over the past year? While talking to the audience during the opening section, Burnham takes a sip out of a water bottle. For fans who struggle with panic attacks (myself included) its a comfort to see yourself represented in an artist whose work you respect. Whatever it is, NPR's Linda Holmes, host of Pop Culture Happy Hour, has reviewed it, and she liked it. WebBo Burnham: Inside is by far one of the riskiest and original comedy specials to come out in years. Burnham slaps his leg in frustration and eventually gives a mirthless laugh before he starts slamming objects around him. The special is hitting an emotional climax as Burnham shows us both intense anger and then immediately after, a deep and dark sadness. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. His hair and beard were shorter, and he was full of inspired energy. At just 20 years old, Burnham was a guest alongside Judd Apatow, Marc Maron, Ray Romano, and Garry Shandling. When that future-Burnham appears, it's almost like a precursor to what he'll have shown us by the end of the special: That both he, and his audience, could never have known just how brutal the next year was about to be. And it portends and casts doubt on a later scene when his mental health frays and Burnham cries in earnest. During that taping, Burnham said his favorite comic at the time was Hans Teeuwen, a "Dutch absurdist," who has a routine with a sock puppet that eats a candy bar as Teeuwen sings. "Goodbye sadness, hello jokes!". Having this frame of reference may help viewers better understand the design of "Inside." But when reading songs like Dont Wanna Know and All Eyes On Me between the lines, Inside can help audiences better identify that funny feeling when they start feeling like a creator is their friend. Next in his special, Burnham performs a sketch song about being an unpaid intern, and then says he's going to do a "reaction" video to the song in classic YouTube format. Also, Burnham's air conditioner is set to precisely 69 degrees throughout this whole faux music video. That's when the younger Burnham, the one from the beginning of his special-filming days, appears. Bo Burnham: Inside review this is a claustrophobic masterpiece. And I think that, 'Oh if I'm self-aware about being a douchebag it'll somehow make me less of a douchebag.' Oops. Most creator-made content online is available for free, meaning creators usually have to rely on their fans for income via crowdfunding like Patreon. ", "I do not think my intention was homophobic, but what is the implicit comedy of that song if you chase it all the way down? It's not. Linda Holmes, welcome. And I think the pandemic was a time when a lot of people were in this do I laugh or cry space in their own minds. WebStuck in a passionless marriage, a journalist must choose between her distant but loving husband and a younger ex-boyfriend who has reentered her life. Don't overthink this, look in my eye don't be scared don't be shy come on in the water's fine."). TikTok creator @TheWoodMother made a video about how Burnham's "Inside" is its own poioumenon thanks to the meta scenes of Burnham setting up lights and cameras, not to mention the musical numbers like "Content" and "Comedy" that all help to tell the story of Burnham making this new special. And did you have any favorites? Relieved to be done? Burnham reacts to his reaction to his reaction to his reaction, focusing so intently on his body and image that he panics, stops the videoand then smiles at his audience, thanking them for watching. According to a May 2021 Slate article, the piece was filmed at Bo Burnhams Los Angeles guest housethe same room used for June 2016s Are You Happy? and the closing shots of the Make Happy special. But then the video keeps playing, and so he winds up reacting to his own reaction, and then reacting yet again to that reaction. He's almost claustrophobically surrounded by equipment. Soering New insights from various parties come to light that raise questions about Jens Sring's conviction of the 1985 murders of his then-girlfriend's parents. At the beginning of "Inside," Burnham is not only coming back to that same room, but he's wearing a very similar outfit: jeans, T-shirt, and sneakers picking up right back where he left off. I think you're getting from him, you know, the entertainment element. Then comes the third emotional jump scare. The question is now, Will you support Wheat Thins in the fight against Lyme disease?). So we broke down each song and sketch and analyzed their meaning and context. HOLMES: Thank you. Bo Burnhams 2021 special, Inside. I actually felt true mutual empathy with someone for the first time, and with someone Ive never even met, its kinda funny.. According to the special, Bo decided he was ready to begin doing stand-up again in January 2020, after dealing with panic attacks onstage during his previous tour, the Make Happy Tour of 2015-2016. See our analysis of the end of the special, and why Burnham's analogy for depression works so well. "That's a good start. Now Burnham is showing us the clutter of the room, where he's almost claustrophobically surrounded by equipment. If we continue to look at it from the lens of a musical narrative, this is the point at which our protagonist realizes he's failed at his mission. Finally doing basic care tasks for yourself like eating breakfast and starting work in the morning. But by using this meta-narrative throughout the whole special, Burnham messes with our ability to know when we're seeing a genuine struggle with artistic expression versus a meticulously staged fictional breakdown. Netflix. When Burnham's character decides he doesn't want to actually hear criticism from Socko, he threatens to remove him, prompting Socko's subservience once again, because "that's how the world works.". I got so much better, in fact, that in January of 2020, I thought 'you know what I should start performing again. The first half is dominated by sharp, silly satires of the moment, like a visually precise and hilarious song about social media vanity, White Womans Instagram, and a commercial for a woke brand consultant. MARTIN: You know, about that, because it does move into a deeply serious place at some point. Thank you so much for joining us. The first comes when Burnham looks directly into the camera as he addresses the audience, singing, Are you feeling nervous? Is he content with its content? Anything and everything all of the time. Even when confronted with works that criticize parasocial attachment, its difficult for fans not to feel emotionally connected to performers they admire. Burnham wrote out: "Does it target those who have been disenfranchised in a historical, political, social, economic and/or psychological context?". At first it seems to be just about life in the pandemic, but it becomes a reference to his past, when he made faces and jokes from his bedroom as a teenager and put that on the internet. Well now the shots are reversed. Burnham's creative background began with being a theater then he transitioned to musical-comedy. "You say the ocean's rising, like I give a s---," he sings. If "All Eyes on Me" sounds disconcertingly comforting to you, it could be because you can recognize the mental symptoms of a mood disorder like depression. Once he's decided he's done with the special, Burnham brings back all the motifs from the earlier songs into "Goodbye," his finale of this musical movie. WebBo Burnham's Netflix special "Inside" features 20 new original songs. .] Instead of a live performance, he's recorded himself in isolation over the course of a year. He slaps his leg in frustration, and eventually gives a mirthless laugh before he starts slamming objects around him. The picturesque view of sun-soaked clouds was featured in "Comedy," during the section of the song when Burnham stood up and decided that the only thing he (or his character in the song) could do was "heal the world with comedy.". (The question is no longer, Do you want to buy Wheat Thins?, for example. Burnham makes it textual, too. Just as often, Burnhams shot sequencing plays against the meaning of a song, like when he breaks out a glamorous split screen to complement a comic song about FaceTiming with his mom. A series of eerie events thrusts an unlikely trio (John Boyega, Jamie Foxx and Teyonah Parris) onto the trail of a nefarious government conspiracy. Its easy to see Unpaid Intern as one scene and the reaction videos as another, but in the lens of parasocial relationships, digital media, and workers rights, the song and the reactions work as an analysis for another sort of labor exploitation: content creation. The reason he started making this special, he explains in the show, is to distract himself from shooting himself in the head, the first of several mentions of suicide (including one in which he tells viewers to just dont). Bo Burnham: Inside HOLMES: Yeah. He is not talking about it very much. I don't know exactly how it tracks his experience, Bo Burnham, the person, right? And we might. He tries to talk into the microphone, giving his audience a one-year update. Burnham skewers himself as a virtue-signaling ally with a white-savior complex, a bully and an egoist who draws a Venn diagram and locates himself in the overlap between Weird Al and Malcolm X. Might not help, but still, it couldn't hurt.". Well, well, buddy you found it, now come out with your hands up we've got you surrounded.". Bo Burnham It's a dangerously tempting invitation to stop caring, coming from the villain of this musical comedy (depression). WebBo Burnham has been critical of his past self for the edgy, offensive comedy he used to make. Tell us a little bit more about that. MARTIN: So as you can hear in that bit, he sounds something like other comedic songwriters who do these kind of parody or comedy songs, whether it's Tom Lehrer, Weird Al or whoever. Inside, a new Netflix special written, performed, directed, shot, and edited by comedian Bo Burnham, invokes and plays with many forms. 1 on Billboards comedy albums chart and eventually climbed to No. We see Burnham moving around in the daylight, a welcome contrast to the dark setting of "All Eyes on Me." Might not help but still it couldn't hurt. He also revealed an official poster, a single frame from the special, and the cover art prior to its release. Good. His career evolved through YouTube, MTV, Vine, his movie "Eighth Grade," and now Netflix's "Inside." Burnham had no idea that his song would be seen more than 10 million times,nor that it would kick start his career in a niche brand of self-aware musical comedy. It's a hint at the promised future; the possibility of once again being able to go outside and feel sunlight again. In Inside, Burnham confronts parasocial relationships in his most direct way yet. Bo Burnhams Inside begs for our parasocial awareness The comedians lifetime online explains the heart of most of his new songs By Wil Williams @wilw_writes Jun 28, 2021, 11:01am EDT Bo Burnham spoofs a PewDiePie-like figure a YouTuber who narrates his playing of a video game with a dead-eyed smugness, as shown in an image at the bottom-right corner of the screen. But it doesn't. The title card appears in white, then changes to red, signaling that a camera is recording. jonnyewers 30 May 2021. That cloud scene was projected onto Burnham during the section of "Comedy" when Burnham stood up right after the God-like voice had given him his directive to "heal the world with comedy." "The quiet comprehending of the ending of it all," is another of Burnham's lyrics in this song that seems to speak to the idea that civilization is nearing collapse, and also touches on suicidal ideation. Years later, the comedian told NPR's Terry Gross that performing the special was so tough that he was having panic attacks on stage. A Detailed Breakdown of How Bo Burnham Burnham watching the end of his special on a projector also brings the poioumenon full circle the artist has finished their work and is showing you the end of the process it took to create it. The incentives of the web, those that reward outrage, excess and sentiment, are the villains of this show. Now get inside.". And he's done virtually no press about it. By inserting that Twitch character in this earlier scene, Burnham was seemingly giving a peek into his daily routine. But he meant to knock the water over, yeah yeah yeah, art is a lie nothing is real. A part of me loves you, part of me hates you / Part of me needs you, part of me fears you / [. But he's largely been given a pass by his fans, who praise his self-awareness and new approach. As we explained in this breakdown of 31 details you might have missed in "Inside," Bo Burnham's newest special is a poioumenon a type of artistic work that tells the story of its own creation. The whole song sounds like you're having a religious experience with your own mental disorder, especially when new harmonies kick in. Its an instinct I have for all my work to have some deeper meaning or something. Viewer discretion is advised. And you can roughly think about this, I think, as a series of short videos that are mostly of him singing songs and that are sewn together with a little bit of other material, whether it's shots of him lying in bed or setting up the cameras. This is when the musical numbers (and in-between skits) become much more grim. During the last 15 minutes of "Make Happy," Burnham turns the comedy switch down a bit and begins talking to the audience about how his comedy is almost always about performing itself because he thinks people are, at all times, doing a "performance" for one another. Its a visual that signifies a man exposing himself, until you realize hes in a spotlight. Hes bedraggled, increasingly unshaven, growing a Rasputin-like beard. Still terrified of that spotlight? The special is available exclusively on Netflix, while the album can be found on most streaming platforms. This is especially true for Patreon campaigns that give fans direct access to creators on platforms like Discord. Its a lyrically dense song with camerawork that speeds up with its rhythm. "), Burnham sang a parody song called "Sad" about, well, all the sad stuff in the world. In a giddy homage to Cabaret, Burnham, in sunglasses, plays the M.C. So we broke down each song and sketch and analyzed their meaning and context. And while its an ominous portrait of the isolation of the pandemic, theres hope in its existence: Written, designed and shot by Burnham over the last year inside a single room, it illustrates that theres no greater inspiration than limitations. Went out to look for a reason to hide again. And it's important to remember, you know, this is a piece of theater. Later in Inside, Burnham thanks the audience for their support while holding them at knifepoint. In this time-jumping dramedy, a workaholic who's always in a rush now wants life to slow down when he finds himself leaping ahead a year every few hours. Let's take a closer look at just a few of those bubbles, shall we? Or was it an elaborate callback to his earlier work, planted for fans seeking evidence that art is lie? WebBo Burnham: Inside (2021) Exploring mental health decline over 2020, the constant challenges our world faces, and the struggles of life itself, Bo Burnham creates a. wonderful masterpiece to explain each of these, both from general view and personal experience. Gross asked Burnham if people "misinterpreted" the song and thought it was homophobic. Burnham brings back all the motifs from the earlier songs into his finale, revisiting all the stages of emotion he took us through for the last 90 minutes. WebOn a budget. His new Netflix special Inside was directed, written and performed all inside one room. you might have missed in Bo Burnham He was alone. (For example, the song "Straight, White, Male" from the "Make Happy" special). See our analysis of the end of the special, and why Burnham's analogy for depression works so well. Fifteen years later, Burnham found himself sheltering in place during the COVID-19 pandemic and decided to sit back down at his piano and see if he could once again entertain the world from the claustrophobic confines of a single room. Bo Burnham And maybe the rest of us are ready, too. He also costarred in the Oscar-winning movie "Promising Young Woman," filmed in 2019. Bo Burnham And finally today, like many of us, writer, comedian and filmmaker Bo Burnham found himself isolated for much of last year - home alone, growing a beard, trying his best to stay sane. And the very format of it, as I said, it's very much this kind of sinister figure trying to get you interested. He has one where he's just sitting on a stool with an acoustic guitar describing our modern world. newsletter, On Parasocial Relationships and the Boundaries of Celebrity, Bo Burnham and the Trap of Parasocial Self-Awareness.. So he has, for example, a song in which he adopts the persona of a kind of horror movie carnival barker, you might call it, who is trying to sell people the internet. Then he moves into a new layer of reaction, where he responds to that previous comment. "If greenhouse gas emissions continue at their current rate, then when the clock runs out, the average global temperature will be irreversibly on its way to 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit above pre-industrial levels.". "And so, today, I'm gonna try just getting up, sitting down, going back to work. But during the bridge of the song, he imagines a post from a woman dedicated to her dead mother, and the aspect ratio on the video widens. Thank you, Michel. Initially, this seems like a pretty standard takedown of the basic bitch stereotype co-opted from Black Twitter, until the aspect ratio widens and Burnham sings a shockingly personal, emotional caption from the same feed. Burnhams eyes are sharply in focus; the rest of him faded out subtly, a detail you might not even notice with how striking his eyes are. The tropes he says you may find on a white woman's Instagram page are peppered with cultural appropriation ("a dreamcatcher bought from Urban Outfitters") and ignorant political takes ("a random quote from 'Lord of the Rings' misattributed to Martin Luther King"). Bo Burnham Linda, thank you so much for joining us. It's like Burnham's special has swallowed you whole, bringing you fully into his mind at last. People experiencing depression often stop doing basic self-care tasks, like showering or laundry or brushing their teeth. In this case, it's likely some combination of depression/anxiety/any other mental disorder. WebA biotech genius tries to bounce back from the depths of grief with help from his son, who works to escape his dads shadow and save the family business. And it has a lot of very clever and very quick wordplay about the specific things you can get on the internet. He brushes his teeth, eats a bowl of cereal, and begins editing his videos. Performing "Make Happy" was mentally taxing on Burnham. That his special is an indictment of the internet by an artist whose career was born and flourished there is the ultimate joke. The structured movements of the last hour and half fall away as Burnham snaps at the audience: "Get up. The frame is intimate, and after such an intense special, something about that intimacy feels almost dangerous, like you should be preparing for some kind of emotional jump scare. I hope to see you inside at some point. Bo Burnhams Inside: A Comedy Special and an Inspired Experiment, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/01/arts/television/bo-burnham-inside-comedy.html. Look at them, they're just staring at me, like 'Come and watch the skinny kid with a steadily declining mental health, and laugh as he attempts to give you what he cannot give himself. ", The Mayo Clinic defines depersonalization-derealization disorder as occurring "when you persistently or repeatedly have the feeling that you're observing yourself from outside your body or you have a sense that things around you aren't real, or both. If the answer is yes, then it's not funny. "Oh Jesus, sorry," Burnham says, hurrying over to pick it up. Burnham uses vocal tuning often throughout all of his specials. It's as if Burnham knows there are valid criticisms of him that haven't really stuck in the public discourse around his work. But, of course, it tangles that right back up; this emotional post was, ultimately, still Content. An existential dread creeps in, but Burnham's depression-voice tells us not to worry and sink into nihilism. In the song, Burnham specifically mentions looking up "derealization," a disorder that may "feel like you're living in a dream. Don't overthink this, look in my eye don't be scared, don't be shy, come on in the water's fine."). [1] Created in the guest house of Burnham's Los Angeles home during the COVID-19 pandemic without a crew or audience, it was released on Netflix on May 30, 2021. He tries to talk into the microphone, giving his audience a one-year update. He says his goal had been to complete filming before his 30th birthday. Burnham says he had quit live comedy several years ago because of panic attacks and returned in January 2020 before, as he puts it in typical perverse irony, the funniest thing happened.