The flow chat for "Is it funny?" he sings as he refers to his birth name. Bo Burnham our ranking of all 20 original songs from the special here. Bo Burnhams latest Netflix special, Inside, is a solo venture about the comedian and filmmakers difficult experience in quarantine thats earned enthusiastic critical acclaim. Daddy made you your favorite, open wide.". "And so today I'm gonna try just getting up, sitting down, going back to work. Relieved to be done? / Are you having fun? The crowd directions are no longer stock pop song lyrics; now, the audience understands them as direct orders to them from Burnham. Throughout the song and its accompanying visuals, Burnham is highlighting the "girlboss" aesthetic of many white women's Instagram accounts. Is he content with its content? 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. When you're a kid and you're stuck in your room, you'll do any old s--- to get out of it.". Yes, Amazon has a pre-order set up for the album on Vinyl. "I'm criticizing my initial reaction for being pretentious, which is honestly a defense mechanism," he says. Not putting a name on parasocial relationships makes the theme less didactic, more blurred while still being astutesuch sharp focus on the eyes, you dont notice the rest of the face fades into shades of blue. He has one where he's just sitting on a stool with an acoustic guitar describing our modern world. Bo Burnham: Inside Burnham has said in interviews that his inspiration for the character came from real YouTube videos he had watched, most with just a handful of views, and saw the way young women expressed themselves online. Inside doesnt give clear answers like parasocial relationships good or parasocial relationships bad, because those answers do not, and cannot, exist. It's self-conscious. For fans who struggle with panic attacks (myself included) its a comfort to see yourself represented in an artist whose work you respect. The question is now, Will you support Wheat Thins in the fight against Lyme disease?). He uploaded it to YouTube, a then barely-known website that offered an easy way for people to share videos, so he could send it to his brother. He's also giving us a visual representation of the way social media feeds can jarringly swing between shallow photos and emotional posts about trauma and loss. The penultimate song "All Eyes on Me" makes for a particularly powerful moment. Bo Burnhams 2021 special, Inside. How does one know if the joke punches down? Like he's parodying white people who think that by crucifying themselves first they're somehow freed from the consequences of their actions. He grabs the camera and swings it around in a circle as the song enters another chorus, and a fake audience cheers in the background. Transcript Comedian and filmmaker Bo Burnham used his time alone during the pandemic to create a one-man show. Theres a nostalgic sweetness to this song, but parts of it return throughout the show, in darker forms, one of many variations on a theme. The song brings with it an existential dread, but Burnham's depression-voice tells us not to worry and sink into nihilism. Burnham's earlier Netflix specials and comedy albums. Burnham reacts to his reaction of the song, this time saying, Im being a little pretentious. Went out to look for a reason to hide again. An older Burnham sits at a stool in front of a clock, and he says into a microphone that he's been working on the special for six months now. . Bo Burnham The piece also highlights Bos anxieties with becoming older and his legacy as a comedian. WebBo Burnham: Inside is a 2021 special written, directed, filmed, edited, and performed by American comedian Bo Burnham. Still, its difficult not to be lulled back into, again, this absolute banger. It feels like the ending of a show, a climax, but it's not. "Trying to be funny and stuck in a room, there isn't much more to say about it," he starts in a new song after fumbling a first take. Bo Burnham: Inside, was written, edited, and directed by the talent himself and the entire show is shot in one room. 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 jonnyewers 30 May 2021. But by the end of the tune, his narrative changes into irreverence. Im talking to you. The incentives of the web, those that reward outrage, excess and sentiment, are the villains of this show. you might have missed in Bo Burnham There's also another little joke baked into this bit, because the game is made by a company called SSRI interactive the most common form of antidepressant drugs are called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, aka SSRIs. And I think that, 'Oh if I'm self-aware about being a douchebag it'll somehow make me less of a douchebag.' And they're biting, but he's also very talented at these little catchy pop hooks. Bo Burnham: Inside review this is a claustrophobic masterpiece. For those who are unaware, Bos real name is Robert Burnham. He also revealed an official poster, a single frame from the special, and the cover art prior to its release. And part of it is sometimes he's just in despair. Bo Burnham, pictured here at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival, wrote, directed and performed the entirety of his new Netflix special, Inside, by himself. 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.". 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. It's a quiet, banal scene that many people coming out of a depressive episode might recognize. To save you the time freeze-framing, here's the complete message: "No pressure by the way at any point we can stop i just want to make sure ur comfortable all this and please dont feel obligated to send anything you dont want to just cuz i want things doesnt mean i should get them and its sometimes confusing because i think you enjoy it when i beg and express how much i want you but i dont ever want that to turn into you feeling pressured into doing something you don't want or feeling like youre disappointing me this is just meant to be fun and if at any point its not fun for you we can stop and im sorry if me saying this is killing the mood i just like ". And so I think he's always had that stubborn insistence on holding both of those things in his head at the same time. "Robert's been a little depressed," he sings (referring to himself by his birthname). But now Burnham is back. (For example, the song "Straight, White, Male" from the "Make Happy" special). Gross asked Burnham if people "misinterpreted" the song and thought it was homophobic. Now get inside.". Burnhams 2013 special, what., culminates in Burnham, the performer, reacting to pre-recorded versions of himself playing people from his life reacting to his work and fame, trying to capitalize on their tenuous relationship with him. The vocal key used in "All Eyes On Me" could be meant to represent depression, an outside force that is rather adept at convincing our minds to simply stay in bed, to not care, and to not try anymore. Bo Burnham: Inside - The 10 Funniest Quotes From The Netflix Special Thank you so much for joining us. But then, just as Burnham is vowing to always stay inside, and lamenting that he'll be "fully irrelevant and totally broken" in the future, the spotlight turns on him and he's completely naked. Its folly to duplicate the feel of a live set, so why not fully adjust to the screen and try to make something as visually ambitious as a feature? 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. Not a comedy per se, but a masterpiece nonetheless. Bo Burnham: Inside A Detailed Breakdown of How Bo Burnham A gift shop at the gun range, a mass shooting at the mall. His virtuosic new special, Inside (on Netflix), pushes this trend further, so far that it feels as if he has created something entirely new and unlikely, both sweepingly cinematic and claustrophobically intimate, a Zeitgeist-chasing musical comedy made alone to an audience of no one. Some of the narrative of the show can be indulgently overheated, playing into clichs about the process of the brooding artist, but Burnham has anticipated this and other criticisms, and integrated them into the special, including the idea that drawing attention to potential flaws fixes them. And we might. And you know what? Theyre complicated. Having this frame of reference may help viewers better understand the design of "Inside." Thematically, it deals with the events of 2020, rising wealth inequality, racial injustice, isolation, mental health, social media, and technologys role in our lives. Inside has been making waves for comedy fans, similar to the ways previous landmark comedy specials like Hannah Gadsbys Nanette or Tig Notaros Live (aka Hello, I Have Cancer) have. Here's a little bit of that. But he knows how to do this. But in recent years, theres been enough awareness of online behavior to see how parasocial relationships can have negative impacts on both the creator and the audience if left uninterrogated by both parties. Under stand up, Burnham wrote "Middle-aged men protecting free speech by humping stools and telling stories about edibles" and "podcasts. The comedy special perfectly encapsulated the world's collective confusion, frustration, and exhaustion amid ongoing pandemic lockdowns, bringing a quirky spin to the ongoing existential terror that was the year 2020. There's no more time left to add to the camera's clock. It's prison. Good. 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. 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. And did you have any favorites? An existential dread creeps in, but Burnham's depression-voice tells us not to worry and sink into nihilism. The penultimate song, "All Eyes On Me," is the best in the whole special, in this writer's opinion. See our full breakdown of every detail and reference you might have missed in "Inside" here. WebA Girl and an Astronaut. He brushes his teeth, eats a bowl of cereal, and begins editing his videos. ", 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. Burnham is also the main character in the game, a character who is seen moving mechanically around a room. 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. When he appeared on NPR's radio show "Fresh Air" with Terry Gross in 2018, the host played a clip of "My Whole Family" and Burnham took his headphones off so he didn't have to relisten to the song. 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.". Its a visual that signifies a man exposing himself, until you realize hes in a spotlight. Bo Burnham 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. Get the fuck up! Burnham walks towards the camera and grabs it like hes grabbing the viewer by the throat. Still terrified of that spotlight? Hes been addressing us the entire time. "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. HOLMES: Thank you. That YouTube commenter might be understood by Burnham if they were to meet him. In one interpretation, maybe the smile means he's ready to be outside again. BO BURNHAM: (Singing) If you'd have told me a year ago that I'd be locked inside of my home, I would have told you a year ago, interesting, now leave me alone. Carpool Karaoke, Steve Aoki, Logan Paul. Bo Burnham In this case, it's likely some combination of depression/anxiety/any other mental disorder. A series of eerie events thrusts an unlikely trio (John Boyega, Jamie Foxx and Teyonah Parris) onto the trail of a nefarious government conspiracy. That's a really clever, fun little rhyme in this, you know, kind of heavy song. That quiet simplicity doesn't feel like a relief, but it is. HOLMES: That was NPR's Linda Holmes reviewing Bo Burnham's new Netflix special "Inside." The video is an hour-long edit of footage that was deleted from the making of Inside. The second emotional jump scare comes when Burnham monologues about how he stopped performing live because he started having panic attacks on stage, which is not a great place to have them. The monologue increases that sense of intimacy; Burnham is letting the audience in on the state of his mental health even before the global pandemic. 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. Burnham's hair is shorter in those initial behind-the-scenes moments, but his future-self has a longer, unkempt beard and messy hair. HOLMES: Right. "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. 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. Anyone can read what you share. And she's with us now to tell us more about it. Tapping on a synthesizer, he sings about the challenges of isolation as he sits on a cluttered floor, two striking squares of sunlight streaming in through the windows of a dark room. This special spoke to me closer and clearer than Ive ever felt with another person. Inside takes topics discussed academically, analytically, and delivers them to a new audience through the form of a comedy special by a widely beloved performer. As energetic as the song "S---" is, it's really just another clear message about the mental disorder that has its grips in Burnham (or at least the version of him we're seeing in this special). It's a hint at the promised future; the possibility of once again being able to go outside and feel sunlight again. HOLMES: Yeah. 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. ", And last but not least, for social media he put "sexually pranking unsuspecting women at public beaches" and "psychologically abusive parents making rube goldberg machines" alongside "white people using GIFs of Black people widening their eyes.". "Goodbye sadness, hello jokes!". It's a hint at the promised future; the possibility of once again being able to go outside and feel sunlight again. On June 9, Burnham released the music from the special in an album titled Inside (The Songs), which hit No. 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? The authoritative record of NPRs programming is the audio record. Bo Burnham: Inside Burnham spent his teen years doing theater and songwriting, which led to his first viral video on YouTube a song he now likely categorizes as "offensive.". Bo Burnham Tell us a little bit more about that. The hustle to be a working artist usually means delivering an unending churn of content curated specifically for the demands of an audience that can tell you directly why they are upset with you because they did not actually like the content you gave them, and then they can take away some of your revenue for it. While talking to the audience during the opening section, Burnham takes a sip out of a water bottle. 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. 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. 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. Now we've come full circle from the start of the special, when Burnham sang about how he's been depressed and decided to try just getting up, sitting down, and going back to work. At the start of the special, Burnham sings "Content," setting the stage for his musical-comedy. This line comes full circle by the end of the special, so keep it in mind. He is not talking about it very much. And I don't think that I can handle this right now. It's wonderful to be with you. But in both of those cases, similarity and connection would come from the way the art itself connects people, not any actual tie between Burnham and myself, Burnham and the commenter. An ethereal voice (which is really just Burnham's own voice with effects over it) responds to Burnham's question while a bright light suddenly shines on his face, as if he's receiving a message from God. Burnham slaps his leg in frustration and eventually gives a mirthless laugh before he starts slamming objects around him. It's just Burnham, his room, the depressive-sound of his song, and us watching as his distorted voice tries to convince us to join him in that darkness. 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. Bo Burnham I was not, you know, having these particular experiences. In a giddy homage to Cabaret, Burnham, in sunglasses, plays the M.C. HOLMES: So, as you'll hear there, on the one hand, there's a lot of sadness in what he's talking about there. Burnham wrote out: "Does it target those who have been disenfranchised in a historical, political, social, economic and/or psychological context?". But he's largely been given a pass by his fans, who praise his self-awareness and new approach. And the biggest risk Burnham takes in the show is letting his emotional side loose, but not before cracking a ton of jokes. At various points, the gamer is given the option to make the character cry. Burnham achieved a similar uncanny sense of realism in his movie "Eighth Grade," the protagonist of which is a 13-year-old girl with extreme social anxiety who makes self-help YouTube videos. Down to the second, the clock changes to midnight exactly halfway through the runtime of "Inside.". Many of his songs begin seriously, then shift into the joke, but this one doesnt. Sitting in the meeting room, not making a sound becomes the perceived 24/7 access fans have to DM you, reply to you, ask you questions. I cant say how Burnham thinks or feels with any authority, but as text and form-driven comedy, Inside urges the audience to reflect on how they interact with creators. 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. Like Struccis Fake Friends documentary, this song is highlighted in Anuska Dhars video essay, Bo Burnham and the Trap of Parasocial Self-Awareness. Burnhams work consistently addresses his relationship with his audience, the ways he navigates those parasocial relationships, and how easy they can be to exploit. 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. It's like Burnham's special has swallowed you whole, bringing you fully into his mind at last. Today We'll Talk About That Day Known as "Art is a Lie, Nothing is Real," there's a bit Burnham did at the start of his 2013 special "what." The song is like having a religious experience with your own mental disorder. And I'm just wondering, like, how would you describe that? .] Accuracy and availability may vary. 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. 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. Like most of Burnhams specials, it includes comedic songs and creative lighting effects. Comedian Bo Burnham recently a new comedy special for Netflix aptly titled Inside which was filmed entirely by himself while under lockdown during the Coronavirus Pandemic in 2020. In recent years, he has begun directing other comics specials, staging stand-up sets by Chris Rock and Jerrod Carmichael with his signature extreme close-ups. He takes it, and Burnham cries robotically as a tinny version of the song about being stuck in the room plays. It's a reminder, coming almost exactly halfway through the special, of the toll that this year is taking on Burnham. Most creator-made content online is available for free, meaning creators usually have to rely on their fans for income via crowdfunding like Patreon. He tries to talk into the microphone, giving his audience a one-year update. This is when the musical numbers (and in-between skits) become much more grim. Bo Burnham His career evolved through YouTube, MTV, Vine, his movie "Eighth Grade," and now Netflix's "Inside." Review: Bo Burnham's 'Inside WebBo Burnham's new Netflix comedy special "Inside" is jam-packed with references to his previous work. Bo Burnhams Inside: A Comedy Special and an Inspired Experiment, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/01/arts/television/bo-burnham-inside-comedy.html. My heart hurts with and for him. 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. But we weren't. So we broke down each song and sketch and analyzed their meaning and context. It's a series of musical numbers and skits that are inherently about the creation of comedy itself. 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. At the second level of the reaction video, Burnham says: "I'm being a little pretentious. "A part of me loves you, part of me hates you," he sang to the crowd. 7 on the Top 200. Anything and everything all of the time. In Unpaid Intern, Burnham sings about how deeply unethical the position is to the workers in a pastiche of other labor-focused blues. And it has a real feel of restlessness to it, almost like stream of consciousness. "The world needs direction from a white guy like [you] who is healing the world with comedy. Likewise, the finale of Burnhams next special, Make Happy (2016) closes in a song called Handle This (Kanye Rant). The song starts as him venting his hyperbolically small problems, until the tone shifts, and he starts directly addressing the audience, singing: The truth is, my biggest problem is you / [. Bo Burnham; former YouTuber, iconic Viner, and acclaimed stand-up comedian has recently released a new Netflix special. Or DM a girl and groom her, do a Zoomer, find a tumor in her HOLMES: And this is what the chorus of that song sounds like. He is leaving it to speak for itself in terms of what it says about isolation and sadness. 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. Copyright 2021 NPR. 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. 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. But now Burnham is showing us the clutter of the room where "Inside" was filmed. I don't know exactly how it tracks his experience, Bo Burnham, the person, right? 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. See our analysis of the end of the special, and why Burnham's analogy for depression works so well. While he's laying in bed, eyes about the close, the screen shows a flash of an open door. Trying to grant his dying father's wish, a son discovers an epic love story buried in his family's distant past. "I'm so worried that criticism will be levied against me that I levy it against myself before anyone else can. Burnham reacts to his reaction to his reaction: Im so afraid that this criticism will be levied against me that I levy it against myself before anyone else can. The video keeps going. And like unpaid interns, most working artists cant afford a mortgage (and yeah, probably torrent a porn). WebBo Burnham's Netflix special "Inside" features 20 new original songs. But before that can register, Burnham's eyes have closed and the special transitions to the uncannily catchy song "S---," bopping about how he hasn't showered in nine days or done any laundry. HOLMES: Well, logically enough, let's go out on the closing song. So in "Inside," when we see Burnham recording himself doing lighting set up and then accidentally pull down his camera was that a real blooper he decided to edit in? WebBo Burnham's "Inside" special on Netflix is an incredibly detailed musical-comedy artwork. This sketch, like the "White Woman Instagram" song, shows one of Burnham's writing techniques of bringing a common Internet culture into a fictionalized bit. ", Right as Burnham is straightening up, music begins blaring over the speakers and Burnham's own voice sings: "He meant to knock the water over, yeah yeah yeah, but you all thought it was an accident. 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. "The poioumenon is calculated to offer opportunities to explore the boundaries of fiction and reality the limits of narrative truth," Fowler wrote in his book "A History of English Literature.". Thought modern humans have been around for much longer than 20,000 years, that's around how long ago people first migrated to North America. Bo 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. Bo Burnham And then the funniest thing happened.". Burnham starts spiraling in a mental health crisis, mentioning suicidal ideation after lamenting his advance into his 30s. By inserting that Twitch character in this earlier scene, Burnham was seemingly giving a peek into his daily routine. At the end of the song, "Inside" cuts to a shot of Burnham watching his own video on a computer in the dark.