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. Then comes the third emotional jump scare. Bo Burnham: Inside Bo Burnham Bo Burnham I actually felt true mutual empathy with someone for the first time, and with someone Ive never even met, its kinda funny.. 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. 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 Now get inside.". This is when the musical numbers (and in-between skits) become much more grim. Each of the songs from the first half of the special are in line with Burnham's earlier Netflix specials and comedy albums. and concludes that if it's mean, it's not funny. ", 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. But then the video keeps playing, and so he winds up reacting to his own reaction, and then reacting yet again to that reaction. Bo Burnham's new Netflix comedy special "Inside" is jam-packed with references to his previous work. Down to the second, the clock changes to midnight exactly halfway through the runtime of "Inside.". I feel very close and intimate with him in this version. Bo Burnham The lead-in is Burnham thanking a nonexistent audience for being there with him for the last year. Now Burnham is showing us the clutter of the room, where he's almost claustrophobically surrounded by equipment. 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. The penultimate song "All Eyes on Me" makes for a particularly powerful moment. 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?. All Eyes on Me takes a different approach to rattling the viewer. Im talking to you. He was only 16. It feels like the ending of a show, a climax, but it's not. They may still be comical, but they have a different feel. 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.". 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. @TheWoodMother made a video about how Burnham's "Inside" is its own poioumenon, which led to his first viral video on YouTube, written in 2006, is about how his whole family thinks he's gay, defines depersonalization-derealization disorder, "critical window for action to prevent the effects of global warming from becoming irreversible.". 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. His hair and beard were shorter, and he was full of inspired energy. Burnham is especially aware as a creator constantly reflecting on his own life. And now depression has its grips in him. You know, as silly as that one is, some of the other ones are more sedate. Photograph: Netflix Its a measure of the quality of Inside 1.0 that this stuff could end up on the cutting-room floor. One of those is the internet itself. "Oh Jesus, sorry," Burnham says, hurrying over to pick it up. It's a quiet, banal scene that many people coming out of a depressive episode might recognize. 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. 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. HOLMES: Thank you. Likewise. Transcript Comedian and filmmaker Bo Burnham used his time alone during the pandemic to create a one-man show. 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. 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. WebBo Burnham: Inside is a 2021 special written, directed, filmed, edited, and performed by American comedian Bo Burnham. This is especially true for Patreon campaigns that give fans direct access to creators on platforms like Discord. Its called INSIDE, and it will undoubtedly strike your hearts forevermore. In a giddy homage to Cabaret, Burnham, in sunglasses, plays the M.C. "Everything that once was sad is somehow funny now, the Holocaust and 9/11, that s---'s funny, 24-7, 'cause tragedy will be exclusively joked about, because my empathy iss bumming me out," he sang. Simply smiling at the irony of watching his own movie come to life while he's still inside? I don't know exactly how it tracks his experience, Bo Burnham, the person, right? Back in 2010, Burnham appeared on Showtime's "The Green Room," a comics round table hosted by Paul Provenza. Most sources discuss fictional characters, news anchors, childrens show hosts, or celebrity culture as a whole. Though it does have a twist. On June 9, Burnham released the music from the special in an album titled Inside (The Songs), which hit No. 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. Performing "Make Happy" was mentally taxing on Burnham. Review: Bo Burnham's 'Inside Now, hes come a long way since his previous specials titled What. and Make Happy, where his large audiences roared with laughter Went out to look for a reason to hide again. Hes bedraggled, increasingly unshaven, growing a Rasputin-like beard. And so I think he's always had that stubborn insistence on holding both of those things in his head at the same time. 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. ", He then pulls the same joke again, letting the song play after the audience's applause so it seems like a mistake. Comedian and filmmaker Bo Burnham used his time alone during the pandemic to create a one-man show. The question is now, Will you support Wheat Thins in the fight against Lyme disease?). As he shows in this new sketch, he's aware at a meta level that simply trying to get ahead of the criticism that could be tossed his way is itself a performance sometimes. BURNHAM: (Singing) The live-action "Lion King," the Pepsi halftime show, 20,000 years of this, seven more to go. 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. "I don't know that it's not," he said. 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. 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. 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. And they're biting, but he's also very talented at these little catchy pop hooks. "You say the whole world's ending, honey it already did, you're not gonna slow it, heaven knows you tried. 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. See our full breakdown of every detail and reference you might have missed in "Inside" here. Or was it an elaborate callback to his earlier work, planted for fans seeking evidence that art is lie? "The world needs direction from a white guy like [you] who is healing the world with comedy. Who Were We Running From? It's a hint at the promised future; the possibility of once again being able to go outside and feel sunlight again. Burnham wrote out: "Does it target those who have been disenfranchised in a historical, political, social, economic and/or psychological context?". True, but it can deepen and clarify art. I mean, honestly, he's saying a lot right there. But it doesn't. But usually there is one particular voice that acts as a disembodied narrator character, some omniscient force that needles Burnham in the middle of his stand up (like the voice in "Make Happy" that interrupts Burnham's set to call him the f-slur). BURNHAM: (Singing) Start a rumor, buy a broom or send a death threat to a Boomer. 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. "And so, today, I'm gonna try just getting up, sitting down, going back to work. He had a role in the film "Promising Young Woman." NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. Its a lyrically dense song with camerawork that speeds up with its rhythm. 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.. WebBo's transcripts on Scraps From The Loft. Depression acts like an outside force, one that is rather adept at convincing our minds to simply stay in bed, to not care, and to not try anymore. Carpool Karaoke, Steve Aoki, Logan Paul. HOLMES: Yeah. I hope to see you inside at some point. WebBo Burnham's Netflix special "Inside" features 20 new original songs. The special was nominated for six Emmy Awards in 2021, of which it won three: Outstanding Writing for a Variety Special, Outstanding Directing for a Variety Special, and Outstanding Music Direction. It's like the mental despair of the last year has turned into a comfort. Parasocial relationships can be positive too, as outlined in culture critic Stitchs essay On Parasocial Relationships and the Boundaries of Celebrity for Teen Vogue. Feelings of depersonalization and derealization can be very disturbing and may feel like you're living in a dream.". After more sung repetitions of get your fuckin hands up, Burnham says, Get up. Bo Burnham: Inside review this is a claustrophobic masterpiece. Social media; it's just the market's answer to a generation that demanded to perform so the market said, here, perform. "Inside" kicks off with Burnham reentering the same small studio space he used for the end of "Make Happy," when the 2016 Netflix special transitioned from the live stage to Burnham suddenly sitting down at his piano by himself to sing one final song for the at-home audience. Get up. You can tell that he's watched a ton of livestream gamers, and picked up on their intros, the way the talk with people in the chat, the cadence of their commentary on the game, everything. 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. He is leaving it to speak for itself in terms of what it says about isolation and sadness. On the simplest level, Inside is the story of a comic struggling to make a funny show during quarantine and gradually losing his mind. We're a long way from the days when he filmed "Comedy" and the contrast shows how fruitless this method of healing has been. At the start of the special, Burnham sings "Content," setting the stage for his musical-comedy. Disclosure: Mathias Dpfner, CEO of Business Insider's parent company, Axel Springer, is a Netflix board member. 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. Its an instinct I have for all my work to have some deeper meaning or something. Thematically, it deals with the events of 2020, rising wealth inequality, racial injustice, isolation, mental health, social media, and technologys role in our lives. MARTIN: And I understand you were saying that it moves between genres. Bo Burnham; former YouTuber, iconic Viner, and acclaimed stand-up comedian has recently released a new Netflix special. Not only is this whiteboard a play on the classic comedy rule that "tragedy plus time equals comedy," but it's a callback to Burnham's older work. But he's largely been given a pass by his fans, who praise his self-awareness and new approach. MARTIN: You know, about that, because it does move into a deeply serious place at some point. An existential dread creeps in, but Burnham's depression-voice tells us not to worry and sink into nihilism. Anything and everything all of the time. Self-awareness does not absolve anyone of anything, he says. It's 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. / 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. At the end of the song, "Inside" cuts to a shot of Burnham watching his own video on a computer in the dark. Under stand up, Burnham wrote "Middle-aged men protecting free speech by humping stools and telling stories about edibles" and "podcasts. Its horrific.". And I don't think that I can handle this right now. As someone who has devoted time, energy, and years of research into parasocial relationships, I felt almost like this song was made for me, that Burnham and I do have so much in common. ", 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. Throughout "Inside," there's a huge variety of light and background set-ups used, so it seems unlikely that this particular cloud-scape was just randomly chosen twice. Bo Burnham Burnham can't get through his words in the update as he admits he's been working on the special much longer than he'd anticipated. 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? Maybe we'll call it isolation theater. Netflix. Now, the term is applied to how viewers devote time, energy, and emotion to celebrities and content creators like YouTubers, podcasters, and Twitch streamers people who do not know they exist. Bo Burnham defined an era when he created Inside. For those who are unaware, Bos real name is Robert 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. Disclosure: Mathias Dpfner, CEO of Business Insider's parent company, Axel Springer, is a Netflix board member. 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. He doesn't really bother with any kind of transitions. HOLMES: It felt very true to me, not in the literal sense. The clearest inspiration is Merle Traviss 16 Tons, a song about the unethical working conditions of coal miners also used in weird Tom Hanks film Joe vs. Throughout the song and its accompanying visuals, Burnham is highlighting the "girlboss" aesthetic of many white women's Instagram accounts. "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.". The comedians lifetime online explains the heart of most of his new songs, I made you some content, comedian Bo Burnham sings in the opening moments of his new Netflix special, Inside. Its an origin story of sorts. HOLMES: Well, logically enough, let's go out on the closing song. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. [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. At the second level of the reaction video, Burnham says: "I'm being a little pretentious. Still terrified of that spotlight? 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. 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. He also costarred in the Oscar-winning movie "Promising Young Woman," filmed in 2019. 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. The video is an hour-long edit of footage that was deleted from the making of Inside. Bo Burnham 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. See our analysis of the end of the special, and why Burnham's analogy for depression works so well. Toward the end, he appears completely naked behind his keyboard. But, of course, it tangles that right back up; this emotional post was, ultimately, still Content. He also revealed an official poster, a single frame from the special, and the cover art prior to its release. Bo Burnham And like those specials, Inside implores fans to think about deeper themes as well as how we think about comedy as a genre. Instead, thanks to his ultra-self-aware style, he seems to always get ahead of criticism by holding himself accountable first. Its a feat, the work of a gifted experimentalist whose craft has caught up to his talent. Only he knows. Linda Holmes, welcome. MARTIN: Well, that being said, Lynda, like, what song do you want to go out on? Like, what is it? It's a dangerously tempting invitation to stop caring, coming from the villain of this musical comedy (depression). In his first Netflix special (2013's "what. I like this song, Burnham says, before pointing out the the lack of modern songs about labor exploitation. A series of eerie events thrusts an unlikely trio (John Boyega, Jamie Foxx and Teyonah Parris) onto the trail of a nefarious government conspiracy. So when you get to the end of a song, it often just kind of cuts to something else. Bo In the song, Burnham specifically mentions looking up "derealization," a disorder that may "feel like you're living in a dream. A part of me loves you, part of me hates you / Part of me needs you, part of me fears you / [. Then, the video keeps going past the runtime of the song and into that reaction itself. Under the TV section, he has "adults playing twister" (something he referenced in "Make Happy" when he said that celebrity lip-syncing battles were the "end of culture") and "9 season love letter to corporate labor" (which is likely referencing "The Office"). Bo Burnham: Inside (For example, the song "Straight, White, Male" from the "Make Happy" special). Having this frame of reference may help viewers better understand the design of "Inside." Bo Burnham BURNHAM: (Singing) Could I interest you in everything all of the time, a little bit of everything all of the time? MARTIN: So Bo Burnham has had a lot of different identities lately. And it portends and casts doubt on a later scene when his mental health frays and Burnham cries in earnest. Went out to look for a reason to hide again. When we see it again towards the end of the special, it's from a new camera angle. I've been hiding from the world and I need to reenter.' 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. By inserting that Twitch character in this earlier scene, Burnham was seemingly giving a peek into his daily routine. The aesthetic telegraphs authenticity and vulnerability, but the specials stunning final shots reveal the misdirection at work, encouraging skepticism of the performativity of such realism. ", From then on, the narrative of "Inside" follows Burnham returning to his standard comedic style and singing various parody songs like "FaceTime with My Mom" and "White Woman's Instagram.". And the biggest risk Burnham takes in the show is letting his emotional side loose, but not before cracking a ton of jokes. Doona! It has extended versions of songs, cut songs, and alternate versions of songs that were eventually deleted; but is mainly comprised of outtakes. Good. Let's take a closer look at just a few of those bubbles, shall we? HOLMES: That was NPR's Linda Holmes reviewing Bo Burnham's new Netflix special "Inside." 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"). 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. 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. But now Burnham is showing us the clutter of the room where "Inside" was filmed. The song is a pitched-down Charli XCX-styled banger of a ballad has minimal lyrics that are mostly just standard crowd instructions: put your hands up, get on your feet. He's showing us how terrifying it can be to present something you've made to the world, or to hear laughter from an audience when what you were hoping for was a genuine connection. 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. His 2014 song Repeat Stuff and its music video parodies how boy bands and other corporately-owned pop stars prey on young fans desire to feel loved by writing songs with lyrics vague enough anyone can feel like it was written specifically about them. Now, five years later, Burnham's new parody song is digging even deeper at the philosophical question of whether or not it's appropriate to be creating comedy during a horrifyingly raw period of tragedy like the COVID-19 pandemic and the social reckoning that followed George Floyd's murder. "A part of me loves you, part of me hates you," he sang to the crowd. 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.". The penultimate song, "All Eyes On Me," is the best in the whole special, in this writer's opinion. Because there's also a little bit Bo Burnham the character in this almost. He slaps his leg in frustration, and eventually gives a mirthless laugh before he starts slamming objects around him. And I think that, 'Oh if I'm self-aware about being a douchebag it'll somehow make me less of a douchebag.' "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. Hiding a mysterious past, a mother lives like a nameless fugitive with her daughter as they make hotels their home and see everyone else as a threat. .] The global pandemic and subsequent lockdown orders of March 2020 put a stop to these plans. Were complicated. It's an emergence from the darkness. "Robert's been a little depressed," he sings (referring to himself by his birthname). Instead of a live performance, he's recorded himself in isolation over the course of a year. Trying to grant his dying father's wish, a son discovers an epic love story buried in his family's distant past. But Burnham doesn't put the bottle down right, and it falls off the stool. The incentives of the web, those that reward outrage, excess and sentiment, are the villains of this show. He brushes his teeth, eats a bowl of cereal, and begins editing his videos. "I didn't perform for five years," he says. that shows this exact meta style. 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. our ranking of all 20 original songs from the special here. ", "On September 17, the clock began counting down from seven years, 103 days, 15 hours, 40 minutes and seven seconds, displayed in red," the Smithsonian reported. 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. Thank you so much for joining us. He takes it, and Burnham cries robotically as a tinny version of the song about being stuck in the room plays. Please enter a valid email and try again. "I was a kid who was stuck in his room, there isn't much more to say about it. 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. Other than Fred Rogers, Bo Burnham is one of the most cited single individual creators when discussing parasocial relationships. But what is it exactly - a concert, a comedy special? 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. It's so good to hear your voice. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. 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. Instead of working his muscles at open mics or in improv, Burnham uploaded joke songs to the platform in 2006. 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. "Part of me needs you, part of me fears you. When you're a kid and you're stuck in your room, you'll do any old s--- to get out of it.". 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. Many of his songs begin seriously, then shift into the joke, but this one doesnt. It's an instinct that I have where I need everything that I write to have some deeper meaning or something, but it's a stupid song and it doesn't really mean anything, and it's pretty unlikable that I feel this desperate need to be seen as intelligent.".

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