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. 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. When you're a kid and you're stuck in your room, you'll do any old s--- to get out of it.". Something went wrong. But Burnham is of course the writer, director, editor, and star of this show. Likewise. 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. The structured movements of the last hour and half fall away as Burnham snaps at the audience: "Get up. The song begins with a fade in from back, the shot painfully close to Burnhams face as he looks off to the side. MARTIN: This special is titled, appropriately enough, "Inside," and it is streaming on Netflix now. 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. Now Burnham is showing us the clutter of the room, where he's almost claustrophobically surrounded by equipment. It has extended versions of songs, cut songs, and alternate versions of songs that were eventually deleted; but is mainly comprised of outtakes. Inside doesnt give clear answers like parasocial relationships good or parasocial relationships bad, because those answers do not, and cannot, exist. And I think that's what you're getting here. Is he content with its content? Yes, Amazon has a pre-order set up for the album on Vinyl. Audiences who might not read a 1956 essay by researchers about news anchors still see much of the same discussion in Inside. The piece also highlights Bos anxieties with becoming older and his legacy as a comedian. I'm sitting down, writing jokes, singing silly songs, I'm sorry I was gone. 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. The title card appears in white, then changes to red, signaling that a camera is recording. HOLMES: I liked a bunch of the songs in this, and a lot of them are silly songs about the things that his comedy has already been concerned with for a long time, right? "You say the ocean's rising, like I give a s---, you say the whole world's ending, honey it already did, you're not gonna slow it, heaven knows you tried," he sings. So we broke down each song and sketch and analyzed their meaning and context. newsletter, On Parasocial Relationships and the Boundaries of Celebrity, Bo Burnham and the Trap of Parasocial Self-Awareness.. "I don't know that it's not," he said. It's like Burnham's special has swallowed you whole, bringing you fully into his mind at last. In another scene, Burnham gives a retroactive disclaimer to discussions of his suicidal ideation by telling the audience, And if youre out there and youre struggling with suicidal thoughts and you want to kill yourself, I just wanna tell you Dont! Look Whos Inside Again is largely a song about being creative during quarantine, but ends with Now come out with your hands up, weve got you surrounded, a reflection on police violence but also being mobbed by his fans. 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. How does one know if the joke punches down? 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. BURNHAM: (Singing) Start a rumor, buy a broom or send a death threat to a Boomer. He brushes his teeth, eats a bowl of cereal, and begins editing his videos. "The world needs direction from a white guy like [you] who is healing the world with comedy. Like most of Burnhams specials, it includes comedic songs and creative lighting effects. 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. In the song, Burnham specifically mentions looking up "derealization," a disorder that may "feel like you're living in a dream. I've been singing that song for about a week NOW. After about 35 minutes of candy-colored, slickly designed sketch comedy, the tone shifts with Burnhams first completely earnest song, a lovely indie-rock tune with an ear worm of a hook about trying to be funny and stuck in a room. This is the shows hinge. "Problematic" is a roller coaster of self-awareness, masochism, and parody. His hair and beard were shorter, and he was full of inspired energy. Open wide.. Not only has his musical range expanded his pastiche of styles includes bebop, synth-pop and peppy show tunes Burnham, who once published a book of poems, has also become as meticulous and creative with his visual vocabulary as his language. For fans who struggle with panic attacks (myself included) its a comfort to see yourself represented in an artist whose work you respect. Burnham uses vocal tuning often throughout all of his specials. he sings as he refers to his birth name. He takes it, and Burnham cries robotically as a tinny version of the song about being stuck in the room plays. There's no more time left to add to the camera's clock. Burnham quickly shifts from the song to a reaction video of the song itself in the style of a YouTuber or Twitch streamer. It's as if Burnham knows there are valid criticisms of him that haven't really stuck in the public discourse around his work. While the other songs have abrupt endings, or harsh transitions, "That Funny Feeling" simply fades quietly into darkness perhaps the way Burnham imagines the ending of it all will happen. Might not help but still it couldn't hurt. 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. The arrogance is taught or it was cultivated. Released on May 30, 2021, Bo Burnham wrote, recorded, directed, and produced Inside while in lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020. Netflix The voices of the characters eventually blend together to tell the live Burnham on stage, We think we know you.. Oops. For all the ways Burnham had been desperate to leave the confines of his studio, now that he's able to go back out into the world (and onto a real stage), he's terrified. I got better. of the internet, welcoming everyone with a decadent menu of options while disco lights twirl. The Volcano, which touched on labor rights. And so I think he's always had that stubborn insistence on holding both of those things in his head at the same time. I don't think it's perfectly morally defendable.". 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. An existential dread creeps in, but Burnham's depression-voice tells us not to worry and sink into nihilism. Netflix did, however, post Facetime with My Mom (Tonight) on YouTube. BURNHAM: (Singing) The live-action "Lion King," the Pepsi halftime show, 20,000 years of this, seven more to go. 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. and concludes that if it's mean, it's not funny. I don't know exactly how it tracks his experience, Bo Burnham, the person, right? HOLMES: That was NPR's Linda Holmes reviewing Bo Burnham's new Netflix special "Inside." A part of me loves you, part of me hates you / Part of me needs you, part of me fears you / [. He says his goal had been to complete filming before his 30th birthday. The penultimate song "All Eyes on Me" makes for a particularly powerful moment. 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. Having this frame of reference may help viewers better understand the design of "Inside." But the lyrics Burnham sings seem to imply that he wants to be held accountable for thoughtless and offensive jokes of his past: "Father please forgive me for I did not realize what I did, or that I'd live to regret it, times are changing and I'm getting old, are you gonna hold me accountable?". A series of eerie events thrusts an unlikely trio (John Boyega, Jamie Foxx and Teyonah Parris) onto the trail of a nefarious government conspiracy. HOLMES: Right. Anything and everything all of the time. But also, it's clear that there's a lot on his mind. Other than Fred Rogers, Bo Burnham is one of the most cited single individual creators when discussing parasocial relationships. Bo Burnhams Inside: A Comedy Special and an Inspired Experiment, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/01/arts/television/bo-burnham-inside-comedy.html. From the very beginning of "Inside," Burnham makes it clear that the narrative arc of the special will be self-referential. The penultimate song "All Eyes on Me" makes for a particularly powerful moment. An astronaut's return after a 30-year disappearance rekindles a lost love and sparks interest from a corporation determined to learn why he hasn't aged. Still terrified of that spotlight? He is not talking about it very much. Using cinematic tools other comics overlook, the star (who is also the director, editor and cameraman) trains a glaring spotlight on internet life mid-pandemic. "Any Day Now" The ending credits. The tension between creator and audience is a prominent theme in Burnhams work, likely because he got his start on YouTube. At just 20 years old, Burnham was a guest alongside Judd Apatow, Marc Maron, Ray Romano, and Garry Shandling. WebBo's transcripts on Scraps From The Loft. 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. It also seems noteworthy that this is one of the only sketches in "Inside" that fades to black. Similarly, Burnham often speaks to the audience by filming himself speaking to himself in a mirror. The special is available exclusively on Netflix, while the album can be found on most streaming platforms. But on the other hand, it is lyrically so playful. 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. This line comes full circle by the end of the special, so keep it in mind. The lead-in is Burnham thanking a nonexistent audience for being there with him for the last year. But then the music tells the audience that "he meant to play the track again" and that "art's still a lie, nothing's still real.". 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. And notably, Burnhams work focuses on parasocial relationships not from the perspective of the audience, but the perspective of the performer.Inside depicts how being a creator can feel: you are a cult leader, you are holding your audience hostage, your audience is holding you hostage, you are your audience, your audience can never be you, you need your audience, and you need to escape your audience. But he's largely been given a pass by his fans, who praise his self-awareness and new approach. Who Were We Running From? ", 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. jonnyewers 30 May 2021. Please enter a valid email and try again. Its an uncanny, dystopian view of Burnham as an instrument in the soulless game of social media. All Eyes on Me also earned Bo his first Grammy win for Best Song Written for Visual Media at the 2022 Grammys. Parasocial relationships are neutral, and how we interact with them is usually a mixed bag. 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. Teeuwen's performance shows a twisted, codependent relationship between him and the puppet on his hand, something Burnham is clearly channeling in his own sock puppet routine in "Inside.". ", 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.". Let's take a closer look at just a few of those bubbles, shall we? Netflix. A gift shop at the gun range, a mass shooting at the mall. For all the ways Burnham had been desperate to leave the confines of his studio, now that he's able to go back out into the world (and onto a real stage), he's terrified. But Burnham doesn't put the bottle down right, and it falls off the stool. Instead, thanks to his ultra-self-aware style, he seems to always get ahead of criticism by holding himself accountable first. 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. With electro-pop social commentary, bleak humour and sock-puppet debates, the comics lockdown creation is astonishing. 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. 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. But by the end of the tune, his narrative changes into irreverence. On the simplest level, Inside is the story of a comic struggling to make a funny show during quarantine and gradually losing his mind. 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. 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." It's so good to hear your voice. It's a hint at the promised future; the possibility of once again being able to go outside and feel sunlight again. Also, Burnham's air conditioner is set to precisely 69 degrees throughout this whole faux music video. When we see it again towards the end of the special, it's from a new camera angle. So this is how it ends. Its a feat, the work of a gifted experimentalist whose craft has caught up to his talent. HOLMES: So, as you'll hear there, on the one hand, there's a lot of sadness in what he's talking about there. And that can be a really - if you're not very good at it, that kind of thing, where there's a balance between sort of the sarcastic and ironic versus the very sincere can be really exhausting. 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. 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. 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 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. Don't overthink this, look in my eye don't be scared don't be shy come on in the water's fine."). While talking to the audience during the opening section, Burnham takes a sip out of a water bottle. A distorted voice is back again, mocking Burnham as he sits exposed on his fake stage: "Well, well, look who's inside again. 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. "I was a kid who was stuck in his room, there isn't much more to say about it. The clean, tidy interior that first connected "Inside" with "Make Happy" is gone in its place is a mess-riddled space. The global pandemic and subsequent lockdown orders of March 2020 put a stop to these plans. The fun thing about this is he started writing it and recording it early on, so you get to see clips of him singing it both, you know, with the short hair and with the long hair - when he had just started this special and when he was finishing it. While he's laying in bed, eyes about the close, the screen shows a flash of an open door. It feels like the ending of a show, a climax, but it's not. Finally doing basic care tasks for yourself like eating breakfast and starting work in the morning. 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 ". "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.". So we broke down each song and sketch and analyzed their meaning and context. Mirroring the earlier scene where Burnham went to sleep, now Burnham is shown "waking up.". Self-awareness does not absolve anybody of anything.". It's like the mental despair of the last year has turned into a comfort. You know, I was not, you know, I was alone, but I was not trapped in one room. WebBo Burnham's new Netflix comedy special "Inside" is jam-packed with references to his previous work. 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 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. The penultimate song, "All Eyes On Me," is the best in the whole special, in this writer's opinion. Anyone can read what you share. I have a lot of material from back then that I'm not proud of and I think is offensive and I think is not helpful. In Unpaid Intern, Burnham sings about how deeply unethical the position is to the workers in a pastiche of other labor-focused blues. Were complicated. 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. HOLMES: Yeah. 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. The question is now, Will you support Wheat Thins in the fight against Lyme disease?). Inside is the work of a comic with artistic tools most of his peers ignore or overlook. 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. "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. '", "Robert's been a little depressed, no!" Burnham is especially aware as a creator constantly reflecting on his own life. See our full breakdown of every detail and reference you might have missed in "Inside" here. So for our own little slice of the world, Burnham's two time spans seem to be referencing the start and end of an era in our civilization. Toward the end, he appears completely naked behind his keyboard. The song, written in 2006, is about how his whole family thinks he's gay, and the various conversations they're having trying to figure it out. He's almost claustrophobically surrounded by equipment. We're a long way from the days when he filmed "Comedy" and the contrast shows how fruitless this method of healing has been. A weekly roundup of the best things from Polygon, By submitting your email, you agree to our, Bo Burnhams Inside begs for our parasocial awareness, Sign up for the The battery is full, but no numbers are moving. I think you're getting from him, you know, the entertainment element. Entertainment correspondent Kim Renfro ranked them in ascending order of greatness. It's not. Or was it an elaborate callback to his earlier work, planted for fans seeking evidence that art is lie? Bo Burnham, pictured here at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival, wrote, directed and performed the entirety of his new Netflix special, Inside, by himself. That his special is an indictment of the internet by an artist whose career was born and flourished there is the ultimate joke. Bo Burnham also uploaded Welcome to the Internet and White Womans Instagram on his YouTube channel. 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. He also revealed an official poster, a single frame from the special, and the cover art prior to its release. "A part of me loves you, part of me hates you," he sang to the crowd. Burnham then kicks back into song, still addressing his audience, who seem unsure of whether to laugh, applaud, or sit somberly in their chairs. Well, well, buddy you found it, now come out with your hands up we've got you surrounded.". Good. 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. Its called INSIDE, and it will undoubtedly strike your hearts forevermore. 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. Now, hes come a long way since his previous specials titled What. and Make Happy, where his large audiences roared with laughter Today We'll Talk About That Day At the forefront of this shift has been Bo Burnham, one of YouTubes earliest stars, who went on to make his own innovative specials with satirical songs backed by theatrical lighting and disembodied voices. Went out to look for a reason to hide again. At first hearing, this is a simple set of lyrics about the way kids deal with struggles throughout adolescence, particularly things like anxiety and depression. 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. In White Womans Instagram, the comedian assumes the role of a white woman and sings a list of common white lady Instagram posts (Latte foam art / Tiny pumpkins / Fuzzy, comfy socks) while acting out even more cliched photos in the video with wild accuracy. Most creator-made content online is available for free, meaning creators usually have to rely on their fans for income via crowdfunding like Patreon. It is set almost entirely within one room of his Los Angeles guest house, the same one shown in the closing song of the June 2016 Make Happy special, titled Are you happy?. Burnham may also be trying to parody the hollow, PR-scripted apologies that celebrities will trot out before they've possibly had the time to self-reflect and really understand what people are trying to hold them accountable for. "Part of me needs you, part of me fears you. Doona! Inside is a tricky work that for all its boundary-crossing remains in the end a comedy in the spirit of neurotic, self-loathing stand-up. 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. Partway through the song, the battery icon switches to low and starts blinking in warning as if death is imminent. 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. Good. 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. But the cultural standards of what is appropriate comedy and also the inner standards of my own mind have changed rapidly since I was 16. / 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. "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.