Some of this comes through in how scenes are shot and framed: its common for the special to be filmed, projected onto Burnhams wall (or, literally, himself), and then filmed again for the audience. He brushes his teeth, eats a bowl of cereal, and begins editing his videos. Bo Burnhams latest Netflix special, Inside, is a solo venture about the comedian and filmmakers difficult experience in quarantine thats earned enthusiastic critical acclaim. Parasocial relationships are neutral, and how we interact with them is usually a mixed bag. 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. 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. 20. Gross asked Burnham if people "misinterpreted" the song and thought it was homophobic. Its an uncanny, dystopian view of Burnham as an instrument in the soulless game of social media. Netflix He tries to talk into the microphone, giving his audience a one-year update. It's not. I don't know exactly how it tracks his experience, Bo Burnham, the person, right? Disclosure: Mathias Dpfner, CEO of Business Insider's parent company, Axel Springer, is a Netflix board member. Now, hes come a long way since his previous specials titled What. and Make Happy, where his large audiences roared with laughter 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. His hair and beard were shorter, and he was full of inspired energy. Even when confronted with works that criticize parasocial attachment, its difficult for fans not to feel emotionally connected to performers they admire. The performer, along with the record label and brand deals, encourage a parasocial relationship for increased profits. "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. He takes it, and Burnham cries robotically as a tinny version of the song about being stuck in the room plays. 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). Finally doing basic care tasks for yourself like eating breakfast and starting work in the morning. He is leaving it to speak for itself in terms of what it says about isolation and sadness. 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. The authoritative record of NPRs programming is the audio record. 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. 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. Thank you so much for joining us. 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. But Burnham doesn't put the bottle down right, and it falls off the stool. In Inside, Burnham confronts parasocial relationships in his most direct way yet. Burnham then kicks back into song, still addressing his audience, who seem unsure of whether to laugh, applaud, or sit somberly in their chairs. That's a really clever, fun little rhyme in this, you know, kind of heavy song. Something went wrong. I got better. He's almost claustrophobically surrounded by equipment. 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. 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. Thank you, Michel. Burnham starts spiraling in a mental health crisis, mentioning suicidal ideation after lamenting his advance into his 30s. 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.. In the song Problematic, Burnham sings about his past problematic behavior, asking the audience, Isnt anyone going to hold me accountable? The specials intermission looks like a clear view into Burnhams room, until Burnham washes a window between himself and the viewer an explicit, but invisible, boundary between creator and audience. Likewise. 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. At just 20 years old, Burnham was a guest alongside Judd Apatow, Marc Maron, Ray Romano, and Garry Shandling. 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. Most sources discuss fictional characters, news anchors, childrens show hosts, or celebrity culture as a whole. 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. With electro-pop social commentary, bleak humour and sock-puppet debates, the comics lockdown creation is astonishing. On May 30, 2022, Burnham uploaded the video Inside: The Outtakes, to his YouTube channel, marking a rare original upload, similar to how he used his YouTube channel when he was a teenager. Many of his songs begin seriously, then shift into the joke, but this one doesnt. Though it does have a twist. "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. MARTIN: Well, that being said, Lynda, like, what song do you want to go out on? But by the end of the tune, his narrative changes into irreverence. It has extended versions of songs, cut songs, and alternate versions of songs that were eventually deleted; but is mainly comprised of outtakes. 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). Well, well, buddy you found it, now come out with your hands up we've got you surrounded.". ", "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? "You say the ocean's rising, like I give a s---," he sings. And then the funniest thing happened.". ", He then pulls the same joke again, letting the song play after the audience's applause so it seems like a mistake. At the start of the special, Burnham sings "Content," setting the stage for his musical-comedy. 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. MARTIN: This special is titled, appropriately enough, "Inside," and it is streaming on Netflix now. The song brings with it an existential dread, but Burnham's depression-voice tells us not to worry and sink into nihilism. He decided to stop doing live performances, and instead set out to write and direct his first feature film, the critically-acclaimed 2018 movie "Eighth Grade." While he's laying in bed, eyes about the close, the screen shows a flash of an open door. At the end of the song, "Inside" cuts to a shot of Burnham watching his own video on a computer in the dark. Might not help, but still, it couldn't hurt.". The song is like having a religious experience with your own mental disorder. 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? HOLMES: So, as you'll hear there, on the one hand, there's a lot of sadness in what he's talking about there. begins with the question "Is it mean?" Who Were We Running From? 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. Maybe we'll call it isolation theater. And maybe the rest of us are ready, too. By keeping that reveal until the end of the special, Burnham is dropping a hammer on the actual at-home audience, letting us know why his mental health has hit an ATL, as he calls it ("all time low"). Went out to look for a reason to hide again. And I don't think that I can handle this right now. It's a hint at the promised future; the possibility of once again being able to go outside and feel sunlight again. 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. 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. Down to the second, the clock changes to midnight exactly halfway through the runtime of "Inside.". And now depression has its grips in him. The arrogance is taught or it was cultivated. "And I spent that time trying to improve myself mentally. And the very format of it, as I said, it's very much this kind of sinister figure trying to get you interested. He is now back to where he was, making jokes alone in his room, an effort to escape his reality. Known as "Art is a Lie, Nothing is Real," there's a bit Burnham did at the start of his 2013 special "what." Get up. And it has a lot of very clever and very quick wordplay about the specific things you can get on the internet. He has one where he's just sitting on a stool with an acoustic guitar describing our modern world. 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 / [. Copyright 2021 NPR. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. 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. And like unpaid interns, most working artists cant afford a mortgage (and yeah, probably torrent a porn). But we weren't. "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. Yes, Bo Burnham posted a trailer via Twitter on April 28, 2021. 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. Then he moves into a new layer of reaction, where he responds to that previous comment. You can stream "Inside" on Netflix now, and see our ranking of all 20 original songs from the special here. I've been hiding from the world and I need to reenter.' It's as if Burnham is showing how wholesale judgments about the way people choose to use social media can gloss over earnest, genuine expressions of love and grief being shared online. Just wanted to make sure everybody knew about Bo's comedy special transcripts on Scraps. "You say the whole world's ending, honey it already did, you're not gonna slow it, heaven knows you tried. When we see it again towards the end of the special, it's from a new camera angle. In the song, Burnham specifically mentions looking up "derealization," a disorder that may "feel like you're living in a dream. 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. "Oh Jesus, sorry," Burnham says, hurrying over to pick it up. Bo Burnham also uploaded Welcome to the Internet and White Womans Instagram on his YouTube channel. Now Burnham is showing us the clutter of the room, where he's almost claustrophobically surrounded by equipment. 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"). 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. 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 his new Netflix special, Inside, Bo Burnham sings about trying to be funny while stuck in a room. 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 he's largely been given a pass by his fans, who praise his self-awareness and new approach. And then, of course, he had previous standup comedy specials. It's a quiet, banal scene that many people coming out of a depressive episode might recognize. 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. 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. Only he knows. And they're biting, but he's also very talented at these little catchy pop hooks. And many people will probably remember his 2018 movie, "Eighth Grade." ", When asked about the inspiration for the song, like if people he knew thought he was gay, Burnham said, "A lot of my close friends were gay, and, you know, I wasn't certain I wasn't at that point.". Please check your email to find a confirmation email, and follow the steps to confirm your humanity. So let's dive into "Inside" and take a closer look at nearly every song and sketch in Burnham's special. This is a heartbreaking chiding coming from Burnham's own distorted voice, as if he's shaming himself for sinking back into that mental state. The album peaked at #7 on the Billboard 200 chart, #1 on the Comedy Albums chart, and #18 on the Independent Albums chart. WebBo Burnham: Inside is by far one of the riskiest and original comedy specials to come out in years. (The question is no longer, Do you want to buy Wheat Thins?, for example. Please enter a valid email and try again. A gift shop at the gun range, a mass shooting at the mall. Now, you heard me struggling to describe what this is, so help me out. 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. Burnham slaps his leg in frustration and eventually gives a mirthless laugh before he starts slamming objects around him. I like this song, Burnham says, before pointing out the the lack of modern songs about labor exploitation. 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. 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. Simply smiling at the irony of watching his own movie come to life while he's still inside? That quiet simplicity doesn't feel like a relief, but it is. HOLMES: Yeah. They may still be comical, but they have a different feel. WebOn a budget. Carpool Karaoke, Steve Aoki, Logan Paul. Like, what is it? We're a long way from the days when he filmed "Comedy" and the contrast shows how fruitless this method of healing has been. 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. MARTIN: So a lot of us, you know, artists, journalists have been trying to describe what this period has been like, what has it meant, what's been going on with us. .] 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. There's no more time left to add to the camera's clock. While platforms like Patreon mean creators can make their own works independently without studio influence, they also mean that the creator is directly beholden to their audience. Burnham's hair is shorter in those initial behind-the-scenes moments, but his future-self has a longer, unkempt beard and messy hair. Its horrific.". "A part of me loves you, part of me hates you," he sang to the crowd. 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. Instead of working his muscles at open mics or in improv, Burnham uploaded joke songs to the platform in 2006. 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. For fans who struggle with panic attacks (myself included) its a comfort to see yourself represented in an artist whose work you respect. 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. 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. 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. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. It's self-conscious. 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. 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. 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 comes the third emotional jump scare. 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 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. Open wide.. Its a visual that signifies a man exposing himself, until you realize hes in a spotlight. He tries to talk into the microphone, giving his audience a one-year update. Now get inside.". It's conscious of self. It's wonderful to be with you. Toward the end, he appears completely naked behind his keyboard. So when you get to the end of a song, it often just kind of cuts to something else. 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. Burnham is especially aware as a creator constantly reflecting on his own life. It's a dangerously tempting invitation to stop caring, coming from the villain of this musical comedy (depression). 7 on the Top 200. But he meant to knock the water over, yeah yeah yeah, art is a lie nothing is real. He was only 16. Well now the shots are reversed. The piece also highlights Bos anxieties with becoming older and his legacy as a comedian. See our analysis of the end of the special, and why Burnham's analogy for depression works so well. Burnham makes it textual, too. "Problematic" is a roller coaster of self-awareness, masochism, and parody. HOLMES: So before he was this celebrated filmmaker, Bo Burnham was himself a YouTube star. Theres always been a tension in his comedy between an ironic, smarty-pants cleverness and an often melodramatic point of view. 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. While this special is the product of evolution, Burnham is pointing out its also a regression. Later in Inside, Burnham thanks the audience for their support while holding them at knifepoint. "All Eyes On Me" starts right after Burnham's outburst of anger and sadness. The final shot is of him looking positively orgasmic, eyes closed, on the cross. Other than Fred Rogers, Bo Burnham is one of the most cited single individual creators when discussing parasocial relationships. I mean, honestly, he's saying a lot right there. 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. This line comes full circle by the end of the special, so keep it in mind. I feel very close and intimate with him in this version. He takes a break in the song to talk about how he was having panic attacks on stage while touring the "Make Happy" special, and so he decided to stop doing live shows. People experiencing depression often stop doing basic self-care tasks, like showering or laundry or brushing their teeth. From the very beginning of "Inside," Burnham makes it clear that the narrative arc of the special will be self-referential. Now get inside.". 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. WebA Girl and an Astronaut. 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. 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. Research and analysis of parasocial relationships usually revolves around genres of performers instead of individuals. 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 ". LINDA HOLMES, BYLINE: Thank you, Michel. Accuracy and availability may vary. "And so, today, I'm gonna try just getting up, sitting down, going back to work. And he's done virtually no press about it. Released on May 30, 2021, Bo Burnham wrote, recorded, directed, and produced Inside while in lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020. our ranking of all 20 original songs from the special here. At the second level of the reaction video, Burnham says: "I'm being a little pretentious. Let's take a closer look at just a few of those bubbles, shall we? So we broke down each song and sketch and analyzed their meaning and context. This special spoke to me closer and clearer than Ive ever felt with another person. But now Burnham is showing us the clutter of the room where "Inside" was filmed. "I was in a full body sweat, so I didn't hear most of that," Burnham said after the clip played. In the worst case, depression can convince a person to end their life. He also revealed an official poster, a single frame from the special, and the cover art prior to its release. He's the writer, director, editor, and star of this show. 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. 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.". That's what it is. Don't overthink this, look in my eye don't be scared, don't be shy, come on in the water's fine."). WebBo Burnham has been critical of his past self for the edgy, offensive comedy he used to make. 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.
