Most creator-made content online is available for free, meaning creators usually have to rely on their fans for income via crowdfunding like Patreon. And it has a real feel of restlessness to it, almost like stream of consciousness. Maybe we'll call it isolation theater. Viewer discretion is advised. 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?. Not in the traditional senseno music was released prior to the special other than a backing track from Content found in the trailer. of the internet, welcoming everyone with a decadent menu of options while disco lights twirl. All Eyes on Me takes a different approach to rattling the viewer. Bo Burnham As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Partway through the song, the battery icon switches to low and starts blinking in warning as if death is imminent. Bo Burnham Burnham had no idea that his song would be seen more than 10 million times,nor that it would kick start his career in a niche brand of self-aware musical comedy. 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. A part of me loves you, part of me hates you / Part of me needs you, part of me fears you / [. "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. 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. In the same way that earlier vocal distortion represented God, the effect on his voice in "All Eyes on Me" seems to signal some omniscient force outside of Burnham. 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. 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. '", "Robert's been a little depressed, no!" Burnham quickly shifts from the song to a reaction video of the song itself in the style of a YouTuber or Twitch streamer. 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 I spent that time trying to improve myself mentally. It also seems noteworthy that this is one of the only sketches in "Inside" that fades to black. Trying to grant his dying father's wish, a son discovers an epic love story buried in his family's distant past. But, like so many other plans and hopes people had in the early months of the pandemic, that goal proved unattainable. The label of parasocial relationship is meant to be neutral, being as natural and normal and, frankly, inescapable as familial or platonic relationships. Get up. Daddy made you your favorite. Please check your email to find a confirmation email, and follow the steps to confirm your humanity. 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? Finally doing basic care tasks for yourself like eating breakfast and starting work in the morning. Well, well, buddy you found it, now come out with your hands up we've got you surrounded.". 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. Its an origin story of sorts. The song is like having a religious experience with your own mental disorder. [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. 20. "I'm criticizing my initial reaction for being pretentious, which is honestly a defense mechanism," he says. 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. ", 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. 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. Anything and everything all of the time. Its a visual that signifies a man exposing himself, until you realize hes in a spotlight. The whole song ping pongs between Burnham's singing character describing a very surface-level, pleasant definition of the world functioning as a cohesive ecosystem and his puppet, Socko, saying that the truth is the world functions at a much darker level of power imbalance and oppression. 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. While talking to the audience during the opening section, Burnham takes a sip out of a water bottle. At the end of the song, "Inside" cuts to a shot of Burnham watching his own video on a computer in the dark. 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. "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. Instead, thanks to his ultra-self-aware style, he seems to always get ahead of criticism by holding himself accountable first. HOLMES: Right. 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. Burnham makes it textual, too. 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. 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. Like most of Burnhams specials, it includes comedic songs and creative lighting effects. Bo Burnham: Inside - The 10 Funniest Quotes From The Netflix Special That quiet simplicity doesn't feel like a relief, but it is. Bo Burnham It's prison. 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. MARTIN: So Bo Burnham has had a lot of different identities lately. After more sung repetitions of get your fuckin hands up, Burnham says, Get up. Bo Burnham Bo Burnham, pictured here at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival, wrote, directed and performed the entirety of his new Netflix special, Inside, by himself. 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. Hes been addressing us the entire time. 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? you might have missed in Bo Burnham He brushes his teeth, eats a bowl of cereal, and begins editing his videos. Its a feat, the work of a gifted experimentalist whose craft has caught up to his talent. He has one where he's just sitting on a stool with an acoustic guitar describing our modern world. Soering New insights from various parties come to light that raise questions about Jens Sring's conviction of the 1985 murders of his then-girlfriend's parents. It's a hint at the promised future; the possibility of once again being able to go outside and feel sunlight again. 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. ", "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. 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. This line comes full circle by the end of the special, so keep it in mind. 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. "Got it? Accuracy and availability may vary. Get the fuck up! Burnham walks towards the camera and grabs it like hes grabbing the viewer by the throat. Bo Burnhams Inside: A Comedy Special and an Inspired Experiment, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/01/arts/television/bo-burnham-inside-comedy.html. All Eyes on Me also earned Bo his first Grammy win for Best Song Written for Visual Media at the 2022 Grammys. "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. The flow chat for "Is it funny?" He had a role in the film "Promising Young Woman." 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. Bo Burnham: Inside 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. But Burnham is of course the writer, director, editor, and star of this show. Bo Burnham: Inside Oops. Burnham's hair is shorter in those initial behind-the-scenes moments, but his future-self has a longer, unkempt beard and messy hair. I think you're getting from him, you know, the entertainment element. 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. A Detailed Breakdown of How Bo Burnham The piece also highlights Bos anxieties with becoming older and his legacy as a comedian. 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 / [. And its easier to relax when the video focuses on a separate take of Burnham singing from farther away, the frame now showing the entire room. Gross asked Burnham if people "misinterpreted" the song and thought it was homophobic. But by the end of the tune, his narrative changes into irreverence. Bo Burnham Mid-song, a spotlight turns on Burnham and shows him completely naked as a voice sings: "Well, well, look who's inside again. One of those is the internet itself. The special is hitting an emotional climax as Burnham shows us both intense anger and then immediately after, a deep and dark sadness. 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). "I don't know that it's not," he said. Daddy made you your favorite, open wide.". I don't think it's perfectly morally defendable.". 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. Hes bedraggled, increasingly unshaven, growing a Rasputin-like beard. Web9/10. 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. 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. And did you have any favorites? Or was it an elaborate callback to his earlier work, planted for fans seeking evidence that art is lie? BURNHAM: (Singing) Could I interest you in everything all of the time, a little bit of everything all of the time? ", 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 on the other hand, it is lyrically so playful. It's a quiet, banal scene that many people coming out of a depressive episode might recognize. 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. "This show is called 'what.,' and I hope there are some surprises for you," he says as he goes to set down the water bottle. 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. This is especially true for Patreon campaigns that give fans direct access to creators on platforms like Discord. WebBo Burnham: Inside is by far one of the riskiest and original comedy specials to come out in years. MARTIN: And I understand you were saying that it moves between genres. At the second level of the reaction video, Burnham says: "I'm being a little pretentious. Like, what is it? Apathy's a tragedy, and boredom is a crime. He's self-evaluating his own visual creation in the same way people will often go back to look at their Instagram stories or posts to see how it looks after they've shared it. The special is set almost entirely in one cluttered room. I mean, honestly, he's saying a lot right there. "Truly, it's like, for a 16-year-old kid in 2006, it's not bad. But we weren't. Then comes the third emotional jump scare. 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. our ranking of all 20 original songs from the special here. "I didn't perform for five years," he says. 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. During the last 15 minutes of "Make Happy," Burnham turns the comedy switch down a bit and begins talking to the audience about how his comedy is almost always about performing itself because he thinks people are, at all times, doing a "performance" for one another. Were complicated. 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. He's the writer, director, editor, and star of this show. 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. He slaps his leg in frustration, and eventually gives a mirthless laugh before he starts slamming objects around him. But I described it to a couple of people as, you know, this looks like what the inside of my head felt like because of his sort of restlessness, his desire to create, create, create. "You say the whole world's ending, honey it already did, you're not gonna slow it, heaven knows you tried. WebA Girl and an Astronaut. 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"). Inside, a new Netflix special written, performed, directed, shot, and edited by comedian Bo Burnham, invokes and plays with many forms. Right after the song ends, the shot of Burnham's guest house returns but this time it's filled with clutter. .] 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. Instead of a live performance, he's recorded himself in isolation over the course of a year. He brushes his teeth, eats a bowl of cereal, and begins editing his videos. Most sources discuss fictional characters, news anchors, childrens show hosts, or celebrity culture as a whole. 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.". And like those specials, Inside implores fans to think about deeper themes as well as how we think about comedy as a genre. 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. The arrogance is taught or it was cultivated. Still terrified of that spotlight? And many people will probably remember his 2018 movie, "Eighth Grade." 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. That's a really clever, fun little rhyme in this, you know, kind of heavy song. It chronicles Burnhams life during the pandemic and his journey creating the special. At just 20 years old, Burnham was a guest alongside Judd Apatow, Marc Maron, Ray Romano, and Garry Shandling. 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. WebBo Burnham's "Inside" special on Netflix is an incredibly detailed musical-comedy artwork. . Even when confronted with works that criticize parasocial attachment, its difficult for fans not to feel emotionally connected to performers they admire. The final shot is of him looking positively orgasmic, eyes closed, on the cross. The song brings with it an existential dread, but Burnham's depression-voice tells us not to worry and sink into nihilism. HOLMES: Well, logically enough, let's go out on the closing song. Likewise. Bo Burnham "I was in a full body sweat, so I didn't hear most of that," Burnham said after the clip played. I got so much better, in fact, that in January of 2020, I thought 'you know what I should start performing again. ", He then pulls the same joke again, letting the song play after the audience's applause so it seems like a mistake. 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.