", "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? "I was a kid who was stuck in his room, there isn't much more to say about it. But by the end of the tune, his narrative changes into irreverence. MARTIN: So Bo Burnham has had a lot of different identities lately. Even when confronted with works that criticize parasocial attachment, its difficult for fans not to feel emotionally connected to performers they admire. you might have missed in Bo Burnham Bo Burnham Is he content with its content? He tries to talk into the microphone, giving his audience a one-year update. They may still be comical, but they have a different feel. 20. [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. WebBo's transcripts on Scraps From The Loft. See our full breakdown of every detail and reference you might have missed in "Inside" here. Linda, thank you so much for joining us. 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). 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. 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. Good. The title card appears in white, then changes to red, signaling that a camera is recording. I think this is something we've all been thinking about. "Trying to be funny and stuck in a room, there isn't much more to say about it," he starts in a new song after fumbling a first take. "Any Day Now" The ending credits. It's a hint at the promised future; the possibility of once again being able to go outside and feel sunlight again. Good. Im talking to you. Burnham wrote out: "Does it target those who have been disenfranchised in a historical, political, social, economic and/or psychological context?". At first it seems to be just about life in the pandemic, but it becomes a reference to his past, when he made faces and jokes from his bedroom as a teenager and put that on the internet. While talking to the audience during the opening section, Burnham takes a sip out of a water bottle. I don't know exactly how it tracks his experience, Bo Burnham, the person, right? 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. Like he's parodying white people who think that by crucifying themselves first they're somehow freed from the consequences of their actions. 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. In this case, it's likely some combination of depression/anxiety/any other mental disorder. / 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. For fans who struggle with panic attacks (myself included) its a comfort to see yourself represented in an artist whose work you respect. Bo Burnham: Inside Well now the shots are reversed. Burnham says he had quit live comedy several years ago because of panic attacks and returned in January 2020 before, as he puts it in typical perverse irony, the funniest thing happened. Inside When he appeared on NPR's radio show "Fresh Air" with Terry Gross in 2018, the host played a clip of "My Whole Family" and Burnham took his headphones off so he didn't have to relisten to the song. He is leaving it to speak for itself in terms of what it says about isolation and sadness. A distorted voice is back again, mocking Burnham as he sits exposed on his fake stage: "Well, well, look who's inside again. 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 Burnham Burnham starts spiraling in a mental health crisis, mentioning suicidal ideation after lamenting his advance into his 30s. The question is now, Will you support Wheat Thins in the fight against Lyme disease?). Transcript Comedian and filmmaker Bo Burnham used his time alone during the pandemic to create a one-man show. ", 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.". 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. Still, its difficult not to be lulled back into, again, this absolute banger. And it has a lot of very clever and very quick wordplay about the specific things you can get on the internet. our ranking of all 20 original songs from the special here. Bo Burnham 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. 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. HOLMES: Yeah. Hes been addressing us the entire time. Because there's also a little bit Bo Burnham the character in this almost. MARTIN: And it's deep, too. It's as if Burnham knows there are valid criticisms of him that haven't really stuck in the public discourse around his work. 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. He was alone. Viewer discretion is advised. Its called INSIDE, and it will undoubtedly strike your hearts forevermore. It's a heartbreaking chiding coming from his own distorted voice, as if he's shaming himself for sinking back into that mental state. Carpool Karaoke, Steve Aoki, Logan Paul. 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. Or was it an elaborate callback to his earlier work, planted for fans seeking evidence that art is lie? Many of his songs begin seriously, then shift into the joke, but this one doesnt. Daddy made you your favorite. 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. This is when the musical numbers (and in-between skits) become much more grim. Burnham is especially aware as a creator constantly reflecting on his own life. Get the fuck up! Burnham walks towards the camera and grabs it like hes grabbing the viewer by the throat. . The whole video is filmed like one big thirst trap as he sweats and works out. Bo Burnham: INSIDE | Trailer - YouTube 0:00 / 2:09 The following content may contain suicide or self-harm topics. I got better. It moves kind of all over the place. The song begins with a fade in from back, the shot painfully close to Burnhams face as he looks off to the side. "I'm criticizing my initial reaction for being pretentious, which is honestly a defense mechanism," he says. 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. Poioumenon (from the Greek word for "product") is a term created by author Alastair Fowler and usually used to refer to a kind of metafiction. I hope to see you inside at some point. If we continue to look at it from the lens of a musical narrative, this is the point at which our protagonist realizes he's failed at his mission. It chronicles Burnhams life during the pandemic and his journey creating the special. ", "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. "Truly, it's like, for a 16-year-old kid in 2006, it's not bad. "Problematic" is a roller coaster of self-awareness, masochism, and parody. In one interpretation, maybe the smile means he's ready to be outside again. Now, hes come a long way since his previous specials titled What. and Make Happy, where his large audiences roared with laughter Bo Burnham's Netflix Special, 'Inside The song is like having a religious experience with your own mental disorder. That his special is an indictment of the internet by an artist whose career was born and flourished there is the ultimate joke. The global pandemic and subsequent lockdown orders of March 2020 put a stop to these plans. (SOUNDBITE OF COMEDY SPECIAL, "BO BURNHAM: INSIDE"). ", 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. Thank you so much for joining us. Inside doesnt give clear answers like parasocial relationships good or parasocial relationships bad, because those answers do not, and cannot, exist. He tries to talk into the microphone, giving his audience a one-year update. Tell us a little bit more about that. Having this frame of reference may help viewers better understand the design of "Inside." "And I spent that time trying to improve myself mentally. Accuracy and availability may vary. Back in 2010, Burnham appeared on Showtime's "The Green Room," a comics round table hosted by Paul Provenza. And did you have any favorites? That quiet simplicity doesn't feel like a relief, but it is. The whole song sounds like you're having a religious experience with your own mental disorder, especially when new harmonies kick in. As energetic as the song "S---" is, it's really just another clear message about the mental disorder that has its grips in Burnham (or at least the version of him we're seeing in this special). Bo Burnham: Inside review this is a claustrophobic masterpiece. Netflix. But Burnham is of course the writer, director, editor, and star of this show. Linda Holmes, welcome. But unlike many of us, Burnham was also hard at work on a one-man show directed, written and performed all by himself. "I didn't perform for five years," he says. 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. 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. MARTIN: You know, about that, because it does move into a deeply serious place at some point. Released on May 30, 2021, Bo Burnham wrote, recorded, directed, and produced Inside while in lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020. .] "Goodbye sadness, hello jokes!". My heart hurts with and for him. Just wanted to make sure everybody knew about Bo's comedy special transcripts on Scraps. 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? 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. 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. Bo Burnham The penultimate song "All Eyes on Me" makes for a particularly powerful moment. One of the most encouraging developments in comedy over the past decade has been the growing directorial ambition of stand-up specials. And it portends and casts doubt on a later scene when his mental health frays and Burnham cries in earnest. 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. Other artists have made works on the wavelength of Repeat Stuff, but few creators with a platform as large as Burnhams return to the topic over and over, touching on it in almost all of their works. He brushes his teeth, eats a bowl of cereal, and begins editing his videos. Bo Burnham Maybe we'll call it isolation theater. Remember how Burnham's older, more-bearded self popped up at the beginning of "Inside" when we were watching footage of him setting up the cameras and lighting? It also seems noteworthy that this is one of the only sketches in "Inside" that fades to black. 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. Here's a little bit of that. 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." Hes bedraggled, increasingly unshaven, growing a Rasputin-like beard. Self-awareness does not absolve anybody of anything.". But also, it's clear that there's a lot on his mind. 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. But Burnham doesn't put the bottle down right, and it falls off the stool. Its a stupid song, and, uh, it doesnt really mean anything. The video continues. With electro-pop social commentary, bleak humour and sock-puppet debates, the comics lockdown creation is astonishing. Each of the songs from the first half of the special are in line with Burnham's earlier Netflix specials and comedy albums. But look, I made you some content. Photograph: Netflix Its a measure of the quality of Inside 1.0 that this stuff could end up on the cutting-room floor. Something went wrong. 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?. The incentives of the web, those that reward outrage, excess and sentiment, are the villains of this show. 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. 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. Instead of working his muscles at open mics or in improv, Burnham uploaded joke songs to the platform in 2006. Its a visual that signifies a man exposing himself, until you realize hes in a spotlight. And so I think he's always had that stubborn insistence on holding both of those things in his head at the same time. The battery is full, but no numbers are moving. Most sources discuss fictional characters, news anchors, childrens show hosts, or celebrity culture as a whole. From the very beginning of "Inside," Burnham makes it clear that the narrative arc of the special will be self-referential. In Inside, Burnham confronts parasocial relationships in his most direct way yet. You can stream "Inside" on Netflix now, and see our ranking of all 20 original songs from the special here. Released on May 30, 2021, Bo Burnham wrote, recorded, directed, and produced Inside while in lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020. Bo Burnham's new Netflix comedy special "Inside" is jam-packed with references to his previous work. Throughout the song and its accompanying visuals, Burnham is highlighting the "girlboss" aesthetic of many white women's Instagram accounts. 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. Burnham is an extraordinary actor, and "Inside" often feels like we're watching the intimate, real interior life of an artist. And part of it is sometimes he's just in despair. While he's laying in bed, eyes about the close, the screen shows a flash of an open door. 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. And it's important to remember, you know, this is a piece of theater. The reason he started making this special, he explains in the show, is to distract himself from shooting himself in the head, the first of several mentions of suicide (including one in which he tells viewers to just dont). 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.". We're a long way from the days when he filmed "Comedy" and the contrast shows how fruitless this method of healing has been. When that future-Burnham appears, it's almost like a precursor to what he'll have shown us by the end of the special: That both he, and his audience, could never have known just how brutal the next year was about to be. 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. BURNHAM: (Singing) The live-action "Lion King," the Pepsi halftime show, 20,000 years of this, seven more to go. "And so today I'm gonna try just getting up, sitting down, going back to work. Went out to look for a reason to hide again. 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 / [. 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. Likewise. "I don't know that it's not," he said. Years later, the comedian told NPR's Terry Gross that performing the special was so tough that he was having panic attacks on stage. Relieved to be done? I'm sitting down, writing jokes, singing silly songs, I'm sorry I was gone. Bo Burnham LINDA HOLMES, BYLINE: Thank you, Michel. While this special is the product of evolution, Burnham is pointing out its also a regression. He was only 16. But then the video keeps playing, and so he winds up reacting to his own reaction, and then reacting yet again to that reaction. 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. Though it does have a twist. "They say it's like the 'me' generation. 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. jonnyewers 30 May 2021. So when you get to the end of a song, it often just kind of cuts to something else. 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 performer, along with the record label and brand deals, encourage a parasocial relationship for increased profits. And maybe the rest of us are ready, too. And the very format of it, as I said, it's very much this kind of sinister figure trying to get you interested. 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. WebBo Burnham: Inside is a 2021 special written, directed, filmed, edited, and performed by American comedian Bo Burnham. Then, the video keeps going past the runtime of the song and into that reaction itself. 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. 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. 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. 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.". Relieved to be done? It's like the mental despair of the last year has turned into a comfort. Bo Burnham The penultimate song "All Eyes on Me" makes for a particularly powerful moment. In his new Netflix special, Inside, Bo Burnham sings about trying to be funny while stuck in a room. Its horrific.". Unpaid Intern isnt just about unpaid internships; when your livelihood as an artist depends on your perceived closeness with each individual fan, fetching a coffee becomes telling someone theyre valid when they vent to you like they would a friend (or a therapist). .] . Web9/10. It's like Burnham's special has swallowed you whole, bringing you fully into his mind at last. Now, you heard me struggling to describe what this is, so help me out. HOLMES: So before he was this celebrated filmmaker, Bo Burnham was himself a YouTube star. Its an instinct I have for all my work to have some deeper meaning or something. One of those is the internet itself. A part of me loves you, part of me hates you / Part of me needs you, part of me fears you / [. Bo Burnham: Inside 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. At the start of the special, Burnham sings "Content," setting the stage for his musical-comedy. The album peaked at #7 on the Billboard 200 chart, #1 on the Comedy Albums chart, and #18 on the Independent Albums chart. See our analysis of the end of the special, and why Burnham's analogy for depression works so well. I got so much better, in fact, that in January of 2020, I thought 'you know what I should start performing again. 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.. Bo Burnham But now Burnham is showing us the clutter of the room where "Inside" was filmed. (The question is no longer, Do you want to buy Wheat Thins?, for example. 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. MARTIN: And I understand you were saying that it moves between genres. Doona! Long before the phrase parasocial relationship had entered the mainstream zeitgeist, Burnhams work discussed the phenomenon. WebBo Burnham is more than a comedian he's a writer-director-actor who first went viral in 2006. It's so good to hear your voice. Whatever it is, NPR's Linda Holmes, host of Pop Culture Happy Hour, has reviewed it, and she liked it. MARTIN: This special is titled, appropriately enough, "Inside," and it is streaming on Netflix now. Now get inside.". Burnham quickly shifts from the song to a reaction video of the song itself in the style of a YouTuber or Twitch streamer. I have a funky memory and I sometimes can't remember things from something I've watched, even if it was just yesterday. And like those specials, Inside implores fans to think about deeper themes as well as how we think about comedy as a genre. Down to the second, the clock changes to midnight exactly halfway through the runtime of "Inside.". 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. Like, what is it? "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. 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. 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. While sifting through fan reactions to Inside, the YouTube algorithm suggested I watch a fan-made video that pitch corrects All Eyes on Me to Burnhams actual voice. 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. And while its an ominous portrait of the isolation of the pandemic, theres hope in its existence: Written, designed and shot by Burnham over the last year inside a single room, it illustrates that theres no greater inspiration than limitations. 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. Thematically, it deals with the events of 2020, rising wealth inequality, racial injustice, isolation, mental health, social media, and technologys role in our lives. I actually felt true mutual empathy with someone for the first time, and with someone Ive never even met, its kinda funny.. I've been singing that song for about a week NOW. 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. The songs from the special were released on streaming platforms on June 10, 2021. I did! 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. Bo Then comes the third emotional jump scare. Bo Burnham WebStuck in a passionless marriage, a journalist must choose between her distant but loving husband and a younger ex-boyfriend who has reentered her life. But the cultural standards of what is appropriate comedy and also the inner standards of my own mind have changed rapidly since I was 16. Open wide.. And now depression has its grips in him. 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. The first comes when Burnham looks directly into the camera as he addresses the audience, singing, Are you feeling nervous? I was not, you know, having these particular experiences. Trying to grant his dying father's wish, a son discovers an epic love story buried in his family's distant past. He is not talking about it very much. Self-awareness does not absolve anyone of anything, he says. He slaps his leg in frustration, and eventually gives a mirthless laugh before he starts slamming objects around him. In the worst case, depression can convince a person to end their life. And it has a real feel of restlessness to it, almost like stream of consciousness. HOLMES: Thank you. That's what it is. When you're a kid and you're stuck in your room, you'll do any old s--- to get out of it.".