It moves kind of all over the place. The songs from the special were released on streaming platforms on June 10, 2021. 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. And notably, Burnhams work focuses on parasocial relationships not from the perspective of the audience, but the perspective of the performer.Inside depicts how being a creator can feel: you are a cult leader, you are holding your audience hostage, your audience is holding you hostage, you are your audience, your audience can never be you, you need your audience, and you need to escape your audience. BURNHAM: (Singing) Start a rumor, buy a broom or send a death threat to a Boomer. 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. 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? 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? You know, as silly as that one is, some of the other ones are more sedate. 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. WebBo Burnham: Inside is by far one of the riskiest and original comedy specials to come out in years. Parasocial relationships can be positive too, as outlined in culture critic Stitchs essay On Parasocial Relationships and the Boundaries of Celebrity for Teen Vogue. Toward the end, he appears completely naked behind his keyboard. 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. WebBo Burnham has been critical of his past self for the edgy, offensive comedy he used to make. 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. The whole video is filmed like one big thirst trap as he sweats and works out. The tropes he says you may find on a white woman's Instagram page are peppered with cultural appropriation ("a dreamcatcher bought from Urban Outfitters") and ignorant political takes ("a random quote from 'Lord of the Rings' misattributed to Martin Luther King"). When we saw that projection the first time, Burnham's room was clean and orderly. Like most of Burnhams specials, it includes comedic songs and creative lighting effects. Just wanted to make sure everybody knew about Bo's comedy special transcripts on Scraps. Not in the traditional senseno music was released prior to the special other than a backing track from Content found in the trailer. Bo Burnham: Inside, was written, edited, and directed by the talent himself and the entire show is shot in one room. 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. Let's take a closer look at just a few of those bubbles, shall we? He had a role in the film "Promising Young Woman." But now Burnham is back. Bo Burnham Bo Burnham: Inside - The 10 Funniest Quotes From The Netflix Special Its a feat, the work of a gifted experimentalist whose craft has caught up to his talent. True, but it can deepen and clarify art. Im talking to you. 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. But he meant to knock the water over, yeah yeah yeah, art is a lie nothing is real. The song begins with a fade in from back, the shot painfully close to Burnhams face as he looks off to the side. It chronicles Burnhams life during the pandemic and his journey creating the special. Yes, Amazon has a pre-order set up for the album on Vinyl. The structured movements of the last hour and half fall away as Burnham snaps at the audience: "Get up. The scene cuts to black and we see Burnham waking up in his small pull-out couch bed, bookending the section of the special that started when him going to sleep. And it portends and casts doubt on a later scene when his mental health frays and Burnham cries in earnest. Burnham's creative background began with being a theater then he transitioned to musical-comedy. It's a dangerously tempting invitation to stop caring, coming from the villain of this musical comedy (depression). [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. And the very format of it, as I said, it's very much this kind of sinister figure trying to get you interested. Burnham then kicks back into song, still addressing his audience, who seem unsure of whether to laugh, applaud, or sit somberly in their chairs. Instead of working his muscles at open mics or in improv, Burnham uploaded joke songs to the platform in 2006. Inside 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. "Got it? 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. I think this is something we've all been thinking about. 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. ", "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. Hes been addressing us the entire time. Burnham wrote out: "Does it target those who have been disenfranchised in a historical, political, social, economic and/or psychological context?". While this special is the product of evolution, Burnham is pointing out its also a regression. 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 penultimate song "All Eyes on Me" makes for a particularly powerful moment. And it has a lot of very clever and very quick wordplay about the specific things you can get on the internet. This line comes full circle by the end of the special, so keep it in mind. The voices of the characters eventually blend together to tell the live Burnham on stage, We think we know you.. 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. 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 self-conscious. When you're a kid and you're stuck in your room, you'll do any old s--- to get out of it.". Open wide.. Anyone can read what you share. He doesn't really bother with any kind of transitions. While he's laying in bed, eyes about the close, the screen shows a flash of an open door. Review: Bo Burnham's 'Inside Inside, a new Netflix special written, performed, directed, shot, and edited by comedian Bo Burnham, invokes and plays with many forms. 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. At first hearing, this is a simple set of lyrics about the way kids deal with struggles throughout adolescence, particularly things like anxiety and depression. This special spoke to me closer and clearer than Ive ever felt with another person. ", 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. All Eyes on Me takes a different approach to rattling the viewer. Bo Burnhams Inside begs for our parasocial awareness The comedians lifetime online explains the heart of most of his new songs By Wil Williams @wilw_writes Jun 28, 2021, 11:01am EDT 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. Bo Burnham 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. 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. A college student navigates life and school while dealing with a unique predicament he's living with a beautiful former K-pop sensation. "I didn't perform for five years," he says. I mean, honestly, he's saying a lot right there. Doona! That's what it is. The video is an hour-long edit of footage that was deleted from the making of Inside. Long before the phrase parasocial relationship had entered the mainstream zeitgeist, Burnhams work discussed the phenomenon. Inside is a tricky work that for all its boundary-crossing remains in the end a comedy in the spirit of neurotic, self-loathing stand-up. 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. jonnyewers 30 May 2021. . He is leaving it to speak for itself in terms of what it says about isolation and sadness. Burnham starts spiraling in a mental health crisis, mentioning suicidal ideation after lamenting his advance into his 30s. He tries to talk into the microphone, giving his audience a one-year update. 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. "Healing the world with comedy, the indescribable power of your comedy," the voice sings. 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 / [. At the second level of the reaction video, Burnham says: "I'm being a little pretentious. 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. "The poioumenon is calculated to offer opportunities to explore the boundaries of fiction and reality the limits of narrative truth," Fowler wrote in his book "A History of English Literature.". 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.". "A part of me loves you, part of me hates you," he sang to the crowd. 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. 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. I like this song, Burnham says, before pointing out the the lack of modern songs about labor exploitation. Got it? BURNHAM: (Singing) Does anybody want to joke when no one's laughing in the background? The incentives of the web, those that reward outrage, excess and sentiment, are the villains of this show. He also costarred in the Oscar-winning movie "Promising Young Woman," filmed in 2019. "The world needs direction from a white guy like [you] who is healing the world with comedy. 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. There's no more time left to add to the camera's clock. Bo 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. MARTIN: This special is titled, appropriately enough, "Inside," and it is streaming on Netflix now. Might not help but still it couldn't hurt. 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. Its an instinct I have for all my work to have some deeper meaning or something. "You say the ocean's rising, like I give a s---," he sings. 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. Its a visual that signifies a man exposing himself, until you realize hes in a spotlight. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. HOLMES: Well, logically enough, let's go out on the closing song. And she's with us now to tell us more about it. 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. "Robert's been a little depressed," he sings (referring to himself by his birthname). 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. See our full breakdown of every detail and reference you might have missed in "Inside" here. 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. 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. Many of his songs begin seriously, then shift into the joke, but this one doesnt. But look, I made you some content. Down to the second, the clock changes to midnight exactly halfway through the runtime of "Inside.". His new Netflix special Inside was directed, written and performed all inside one room. Bo Burnham Disclosure: Mathias Dpfner, CEO of Business Insider's parent company, Axel Springer, is a Netflix board member. We're a long way from the days when he filmed "Comedy" and the contrast shows how fruitless this method of healing has been. 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. Burnham's hair is shorter in those initial behind-the-scenes moments, but his future-self has a longer, unkempt beard and messy hair. It also seems noteworthy that this is one of the only sketches in "Inside" that fades to black. 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. Right after the song ends, the shot of Burnham's guest house returns but this time it's filled with clutter. MARTIN: You know, about that, because it does move into a deeply serious place at some point. I got so much better, in fact, that in January of 2020, I thought 'you know what I should start performing again. Bo Burnham And the biggest risk Burnham takes in the show is letting his emotional side loose, but not before cracking a ton of jokes. 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." Linda Holmes, welcome. 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. In his new Netflix special, Inside, Bo Burnham sings about trying to be funny while stuck in a room. Bo Burnham: Inside Audiences who might not read a 1956 essay by researchers about news anchors still see much of the same discussion in Inside. Only he knows. 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. Released on May 30, 2021, Bo Burnham wrote, recorded, directed, and produced Inside while in lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020. But we weren't. Well, well, buddy you found it, now come out with your hands up we've got you surrounded.". You can stream "Inside" on Netflix now, and see our ranking of all 20 original songs from the special here. One comment stuck out to me: Theres something really powerful and painful about, hearing his actual voice singing and breaking at certain points. Bo Burnham Daddy made you your favorite. When we see it again towards the end of the special, it's from a new camera angle. our full breakdown of every detail and reference you might have missed in "Inside" here. He was only 16. 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. WebBo Burnham: Inside is a 2021 special written, directed, filmed, edited, and performed by American comedian Bo Burnham. Bo Burnham Here's a little bit of that. 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. Burnham quickly shifts from the song to a reaction video of the song itself in the style of a YouTuber or Twitch streamer. you might have missed in Bo Burnham It's like Burnham's special has swallowed you whole, bringing you fully into his mind at last. @TheWoodMother made a video about how Burnham's "Inside" is its own poioumenon, which led to his first viral video on YouTube, written in 2006, is about how his whole family thinks he's gay, defines depersonalization-derealization disorder, "critical window for action to prevent the effects of global warming from becoming irreversible.". The penultimate song, "All Eyes On Me," is the best in the whole special, in this writer's opinion. 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? Burnham reacts to his reaction of the song, this time saying, Im being a little pretentious. Bo Burnham; former YouTuber, iconic Viner, and acclaimed stand-up comedian has recently released a new Netflix special. And you know what? Bo Burnham 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 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. 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.