Similarly, Burnham often speaks to the audience by filming himself speaking to himself in a mirror. Something went wrong. Relieved to be done? He, for example, it starts off with him rhyming carpool karaoke, which is a segment on James Corden's show, with Steve Aoki, who's a DJ. Back in 2010, Burnham appeared on Showtime's "The Green Room," a comics round table hosted by Paul Provenza. Mirroring the earlier scene where Burnham went to sleep, now Burnham is shown "waking up.". He tries to talk into the microphone, giving his audience a one-year update. I have a funky memory and I sometimes can't remember things from something I've watched, even if it was just yesterday. The picturesque view of sun-soaked clouds was featured in "Comedy," during the section of the song when Burnham stood up and decided that the only thing he (or his character in the song) could do was "heal the world with comedy.". . Went out to look for a reason to hide again. It's an emergence from the darkness. It's progress. Good. See our analysis of the end of the special, and why Burnham's analogy for depression works so well. Its a visual that signifies a man exposing himself, until you realize hes in a spotlight. 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.". It's like Burnham's special has swallowed you whole, bringing you fully into his mind at last. The label of parasocial relationship is meant to be neutral, being as natural and normal and, frankly, inescapable as familial or platonic relationships. Even when confronted with works that criticize parasocial attachment, its difficult for fans not to feel emotionally connected to performers they admire. 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. Netflix did, however, post Facetime with My Mom (Tonight) on YouTube. (For example, the song "Straight, White, Male" from the "Make Happy" special). The first half is dominated by sharp, silly satires of the moment, like a visually precise and hilarious song about social media vanity, White Womans Instagram, and a commercial for a woke brand consultant. HOLMES: So, as you'll hear there, on the one hand, there's a lot of sadness in what he's talking about there. Thank you so much for joining us. The clean, tidy interior that first connected "Inside" with "Make Happy" is gone in its place is a mess-riddled space. .] Linda, thank you so much for joining us. Yes, Amazon has a pre-order set up for the album on Vinyl. The arrogance is taught or it was cultivated. 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. Burnham's hair is shorter in those initial behind-the-scenes moments, but his future-self has a longer, unkempt beard and messy hair. And like those specials, Inside implores fans to think about deeper themes as well as how we think about comedy as a genre. 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. Later in Inside, Burnham thanks the audience for their support while holding them at knifepoint. Bo Burnhams Inside: A Comedy Special and an Inspired Experiment, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/01/arts/television/bo-burnham-inside-comedy.html. Is he content with its content? Bo Burnham 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. Inside is the work of a comic with artistic tools most of his peers ignore or overlook. "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. 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.". The performer, along with the record label and brand deals, encourage a parasocial relationship for increased profits. Its called INSIDE, and it will undoubtedly strike your hearts forevermore. At the end of the song, "Inside" cuts to a shot of Burnham watching his own video on a computer in the dark. At various points, the gamer is given the option to make the character cry. Not in the traditional senseno music was released prior to the special other than a backing track from Content found in the trailer. Now, you heard me struggling to describe what this is, so help me out. I think this is something we've all been thinking about. And it has a lot of very clever and very quick wordplay about the specific things you can get on the internet. MARTIN: So Bo Burnham has had a lot of different identities lately. 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. Underneath the Steve Martin-like formal trickery has always beaten the heaving heart of a flamboyantly dramatic theater kid. It's a quiet, banal scene that many people coming out of a depressive episode might recognize. But now Burnham is back. begins with the question "Is it mean?" 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?. (SOUNDBITE OF COMEDY SPECIAL, "BO BURNHAM: INSIDE"). 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. Doona! 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. True, but it can deepen and clarify art. He is now back to where he was, making jokes alone in his room, an effort to escape his reality. 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? "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. The penultimate song, "All Eyes On Me," is the best in the whole special, in this writer's opinion. Get the fuck up! Burnham walks towards the camera and grabs it like hes grabbing the viewer by the throat. While he's laying in bed, eyes about the close, the screen shows a flash of an open door. / 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. Trying to grant his dying father's wish, a son discovers an epic love story buried in his family's distant past. That's when the younger Burnham, the one from the beginning of his special-filming days, appears. The piece also highlights Bos anxieties with becoming older and his legacy as a comedian. 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. I'm talking to you, get the f--- up.". A Detailed Breakdown of How Bo Burnham 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. Bo Burnham ", And last but not least, for social media he put "sexually pranking unsuspecting women at public beaches" and "psychologically abusive parents making rube goldberg machines" alongside "white people using GIFs of Black people widening their eyes.". 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. 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. and concludes that if it's mean, it's not funny. ", "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. "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. He doesn't really bother with any kind of transitions. A series of eerie events thrusts an unlikely trio (John Boyega, Jamie Foxx and Teyonah Parris) onto the trail of a nefarious government conspiracy. 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. Each of the songs from the first half of the special are in line with Burnham's earlier Netflix specials and comedy albums. And maybe the rest of us are ready, too. 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. He is not talking about it very much. When Burnham's character decides he doesn't want to actually hear criticism from Socko, he threatens to remove him, prompting Socko's subservience once again, because "that's how the world works.". 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. Burnham is an extraordinary actor, and "Inside" often feels like we're watching the intimate, real interior life of an artist. 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. 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 That YouTube commenter might be understood by Burnham if they were to meet him. Relieved to be done? All Eyes on Me also earned Bo his first Grammy win for Best Song Written for Visual Media at the 2022 Grammys. But Burnham is of course the writer, director, editor, and star of this show. 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. "Truly, it's like, for a 16-year-old kid in 2006, it's not bad. Now, hes come a long way since his previous specials titled What. and Make Happy, where his large audiences roared with laughter Burnhams 2013 special, what., culminates in Burnham, the performer, reacting to pre-recorded versions of himself playing people from his life reacting to his work and fame, trying to capitalize on their tenuous relationship with him. Most creator-made content online is available for free, meaning creators usually have to rely on their fans for income via crowdfunding like Patreon. HOLMES: So before he was this celebrated filmmaker, Bo Burnham was himself a YouTube star. 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. 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. Self-awareness does not absolve anybody of anything.". Carpool Karaoke, Steve Aoki, Logan Paul. 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 they're biting, but he's also very talented at these little catchy pop hooks. 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"). 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. 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. HOLMES: It felt very true to me, not in the literal sense. Inside Bo Burnham: Inside LINDA HOLMES, BYLINE: Thank you, Michel. Audiences who might not read a 1956 essay by researchers about news anchors still see much of the same discussion in Inside. I feel very close and intimate with him in this version. 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. His career evolved through YouTube, MTV, Vine, his movie "Eighth Grade," and now Netflix's "Inside." But the lyrics Burnham sings seem to imply that he wants to be held accountable for thoughtless and offensive jokes of his past: "Father please forgive me for I did not realize what I did, or that I'd live to regret it, times are changing and I'm getting old, are you gonna hold me accountable?". I like this song, Burnham says, before pointing out the the lack of modern songs about labor exploitation. And many people will probably remember his 2018 movie, "Eighth Grade." Burnham reacts to his reaction to his reaction: Im so afraid that this criticism will be levied against me that I levy it against myself before anyone else can. The video keeps going. 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. 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. 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. MARTIN: Well, that being said, Lynda, like, what song do you want to go out on? 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." "And I spent that time trying to improve myself mentally. The penultimate song "All Eyes on Me" makes for a particularly powerful moment. I don't think it's perfectly morally defendable.". "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. And it has a real feel of restlessness to it, almost like stream of consciousness. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. Whatever it is, NPR's Linda Holmes, host of Pop Culture Happy Hour, has reviewed it, and she liked it. The special is hitting an emotional climax as Burnham shows us both intense anger and then immediately after, a deep and dark sadness. 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. HOLMES: Yeah. It's a hint at the promised future; the possibility of once again being able to go outside and feel sunlight again. There's no more time left to add to the camera's clock. But unlike many of us, Burnham was also hard at work on a one-man show directed, written and performed all by himself. So we broke down each song and sketch and analyzed their meaning and context. At just 20 years old, Burnham was a guest alongside Judd Apatow, Marc Maron, Ray Romano, and Garry Shandling. Having this frame of reference may help viewers better understand the design of "Inside." BURNHAM: (Singing) Start a rumor, buy a broom or send a death threat to a Boomer. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. Like he's parodying white people who think that by crucifying themselves first they're somehow freed from the consequences of their actions. ", 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.". Bo Burnham Its an origin story of sorts. And the very format of it, as I said, it's very much this kind of sinister figure trying to get you interested. WebBo Burnham is more than a comedian he's a writer-director-actor who first went viral in 2006. Burnham was just 16 years old when he wrote a parody song ("My Whole Family") and filmed himself performing it in his bedroom. 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. But he knows how to do this. Got it? Though it does have a twist. One of those is the internet itself. You know, I was not, you know, I was alone, but I was not trapped in one room. 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. Bo Burnham: Inside - The 10 Funniest Quotes From The Netflix Special Still, its difficult not to be lulled back into, again, this absolute banger. He is leaving it to speak for itself in terms of what it says about isolation and sadness. It has extended versions of songs, cut songs, and alternate versions of songs that were eventually deleted; but is mainly comprised of outtakes. 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. At the beginning of "Inside," Burnham is not only coming back to that same room, but he's wearing a very similar outfit: jeans, T-shirt, and sneakers picking up right back where he left off. 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"). 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. 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. He uploaded it to YouTube, a then barely-known website that offered an easy way for people to share videos, so he could send it to his brother. Bo Burnham defined an era when he created Inside. Don't overthink this, look in my eye don't be scared don't be shy come on in the water's fine."). "I was in a full body sweat, so I didn't hear most of that," Burnham said after the clip played. "Any Day Now" The ending credits. "I was a kid who was stuck in his room, there isn't much more to say about it. Research and analysis of parasocial relationships usually revolves around genres of performers instead of individuals. Down to the second, the clock changes to midnight exactly halfway through the runtime of "Inside.". (The question is no longer, Do you want to buy Wheat Thins?, for example. 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. 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). It's wonderful to be with you. And part of it is sometimes he's just in despair. Likewise. After about 35 minutes of candy-colored, slickly designed sketch comedy, the tone shifts with Burnhams first completely earnest song, a lovely indie-rock tune with an ear worm of a hook about trying to be funny and stuck in a room. This is the shows hinge. It moves kind of all over the place. you might have missed in Bo Burnham Because there's also a little bit Bo Burnham the character in this almost. 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. And now depression has its grips in him. 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. 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? 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. 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. Now get inside.". A college student navigates life and school while dealing with a unique predicament he's living with a beautiful former K-pop sensation. 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. 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. For those who are unaware, Bos real name is Robert Burnham. Then he moves into a new layer of reaction, where he responds to that previous comment. Burnham makes it textual, too. Bo Burnham The incentives of the web, those that reward outrage, excess and sentiment, are the villains of this show. But look, I made you some content. And you know what? Bo Burnham 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. 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. Toward the end, he appears completely naked behind his keyboard. WebBo Burnham: Inside is by far one of the riskiest and original comedy specials to come out in years. WebA grieving woman magically travels through time to 1998, where she meets a man with an uncanny resemblance to her late love. A harsh skepticism of digital life (a life the pandemic has only magnified) is the dominant subject of the special. 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. 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 flow chat for "Is it funny?" Bo Burnham "The world needs direction from a white guy like [you] who is healing the world with comedy. The album peaked at #7 on the Billboard 200 chart, #1 on the Comedy Albums chart, and #18 on the Independent Albums chart. But on the other hand, it is lyrically so playful. 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. But, of course, it tangles that right back up; this emotional post was, ultimately, still Content. Bo Burnham 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 / [. 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. 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.. And he's done virtually no press about it. Please check your email to find a confirmation email, and follow the steps to confirm your humanity. Web9/10. We're a long way from the days when he filmed "Comedy" and the contrast shows how fruitless this method of healing has been. While talking to the audience during the opening section, Burnham takes a sip out of a water bottle. Review: Bo Burnham's 'Inside 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. A part of me loves you, part of me hates you / Part of me needs you, part of me fears you / [. He was only 16. He's also giving us a visual representation of the way social media feeds can jarringly swing between shallow photos and emotional posts about trauma and loss. 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. Might not help, but still, it couldn't hurt.". BURNHAM: (Singing) Could I interest you in everything all of the time, a little bit of everything all of the time? And I'm just wondering, like, how would you describe that? 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. We see Burnham moving around in the daylight, a welcome contrast to the dark setting of "All Eyes on Me." Gross asked Burnham if people "misinterpreted" the song and thought it was homophobic. The song brings with it an existential dread, but Burnham's depression-voice tells us not to worry and sink into nihilism. And so I think he's always had that stubborn insistence on holding both of those things in his head at the same time. Linda Holmes, welcome. 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.
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