With electro-pop social commentary, bleak humour and sock-puppet debates, the comics lockdown creation is astonishing. The song brings with it an existential dread, but Burnham's depression-voice tells us not to worry and sink into nihilism. On the Netflix special, however, Josh Senior is credited as a producer, Cooper Wehde is an assistant producer, and a number of people are credited for post-production, editing, and logistical coordinating. Each of the songs from the first half of the special are in line with Burnham's earlier Netflix specials and comedy albums. And I think that, 'Oh if I'm self-aware about being a douchebag it'll somehow make me less of a douchebag.' (For example, the song "Straight, White, Male" from the "Make Happy" special). "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. It's a quiet, banal scene that many people coming out of a depressive episode might recognize. My heart hurts with and for him. "Healing the world with comedy, the indescribable power of your comedy," the voice sings. 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. 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. I don't think it's perfectly morally defendable.". While talking to the audience during the opening section, Burnham takes a sip out of a water bottle. Apathy's a tragedy, and boredom is a crime. At just 20 years old, Burnham was a guest alongside Judd Apatow, Marc Maron, Ray Romano, and Garry Shandling. I got better. Burnham quickly shifts from the song to a reaction video of the song itself in the style of a YouTuber or Twitch streamer. Bo Burnham Finally doing basic care tasks for yourself like eating breakfast and starting work in the morning. He doesn't really bother with any kind of transitions. 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. It's like the mental despair of the last year has turned into a comfort. 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. But by the end of the tune, his narrative changes into irreverence. Burnham skewers himself as a virtue-signaling ally with a white-savior complex, a bully and an egoist who draws a Venn diagram and locates himself in the overlap between Weird Al and Malcolm X. All Eyes on Me also earned Bo his first Grammy win for Best Song Written for Visual Media at the 2022 Grammys. The video is an hour-long edit of footage that was deleted from the making of Inside. On the simplest level, Inside is the story of a comic struggling to make a funny show during quarantine and gradually losing his mind. 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: Yeah. 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. 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. I have a funky memory and I sometimes can't remember things from something I've watched, even if it was just yesterday. On June 9, Burnham released the music from the special in an album titled Inside (The Songs), which hit No. Burnham's hair is shorter in those initial behind-the-scenes moments, but his future-self has a longer, unkempt beard and messy hair. Burnham uses vocal tuning often throughout all of his specials. After more sung repetitions of get your fuckin hands up, Burnham says, Get up. Its an uncanny, dystopian view of Burnham as an instrument in the soulless game of social media. For the album, Bo is credited as writer, performer, and producer on every song. Toward the end, he appears completely naked behind his keyboard. Finally doing basic care tasks for yourself like eating breakfast and starting work in the morning. 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. See our analysis of the end of the special, and why Burnham's analogy for depression works so well. 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. 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. And many people will probably remember his 2018 movie, "Eighth Grade." I mean, honestly, he's saying a lot right there. HOLMES: That was NPR's Linda Holmes reviewing Bo Burnham's new Netflix special "Inside." Thematically, it deals with the events of 2020, rising wealth inequality, racial injustice, isolation, mental health, social media, and technologys role in our lives. HOLMES: So, as you'll hear there, on the one hand, there's a lot of sadness in what he's talking about there. Under the movies section, there's a bubble that says "sequel to classic comedy that everyone watches and then pretends never happened" and "Thor's comebacks.". The Volcano, which touched on labor rights. 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. It's a dangerously tempting invitation to stop caring, coming from the villain of this musical comedy (depression). 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. WebBo Burnham's new Netflix comedy special "Inside" is jam-packed with references to his previous work. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. Burnham slaps his leg in frustration and eventually gives a mirthless laugh before he starts slamming objects around him. Down to the second, the clock changes to midnight exactly halfway through the runtime of "Inside.". 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. Bo "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. 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. '", "Robert's been a little depressed, no!" 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. 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. 20. "Goodbye sadness, hello jokes!". (The question is no longer, Do you want to buy Wheat Thins?, for example. In this case, it's likely some combination of depression/anxiety/any other mental disorder. While he's laying in bed, eyes about the close, the screen shows a flash of an open door. WebBo Burnham is more than a comedian he's a writer-director-actor who first went viral in 2006. 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.". Inside, a new Netflix special written, performed, directed, shot, and edited by comedian Bo Burnham, invokes and plays with many forms. HOLMES: Thank you. The hustle to be a working artist usually means delivering an unending churn of content curated specifically for the demands of an audience that can tell you directly why they are upset with you because they did not actually like the content you gave them, and then they can take away some of your revenue for it. 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. And part of it is sometimes he's just in despair. 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. 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. The arrogance is taught or it was cultivated. 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. There's no more time left to add to the camera's clock. "You say the ocean's rising, like I give a s---," he sings. Hes been addressing us the entire time. 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. 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 In Inside, Burnham confronts parasocial relationships in his most direct way yet. Now get inside.". "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. Under stand up, Burnham wrote "Middle-aged men protecting free speech by humping stools and telling stories about edibles" and "podcasts. 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. Bo Burnham: Inside Bo Burnham Something went wrong. 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. Yes, Amazon has a pre-order set up for the album on Vinyl. Burnham reacts to his reaction of the song, this time saying, Im being a little pretentious. And they're biting, but he's also very talented at these little catchy pop hooks. Instead, thanks to his ultra-self-aware style, he seems to always get ahead of criticism by holding himself accountable first. Bo Burnham also uploaded Welcome to the Internet and White Womans Instagram on his YouTube channel. Its a visual that signifies a man exposing himself, until you realize hes in a spotlight. 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. He slaps his leg in frustration, and eventually gives a mirthless laugh before he starts slamming objects around him. The special is set almost entirely in one cluttered room. 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, of course, it tangles that right back up; this emotional post was, ultimately, still Content. Now we've come full circle from the start of the special, when Burnham sang about how he's been depressed and decided to try just getting up, sitting down, and going back to work. Maybe we'll call it isolation theater. 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. 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. jonnyewers 30 May 2021. 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. Here's a little bit of that. "Truly, it's like, for a 16-year-old kid in 2006, it's not bad. For the song "Comedy," Burnham adopts a persona adjacent to his real life self a white male comedian who is driven to try and help make the world a better place. Copyright 2021 NPR. I hope to see you inside at some point. 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. Bo Burnham defined an era when he created Inside. 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. 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? Underneath the Steve Martin-like formal trickery has always beaten the heaving heart of a flamboyantly dramatic theater kid. Im talking to you. "I was in a full body sweat, so I didn't hear most of that," Burnham said after the clip played. Bo Burnham's 'Inside 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. Is he content with its content? WebA Girl and an Astronaut. Fifteen years later, Burnham found himself sheltering in place during the COVID-19 pandemic and decided to sit back down at his piano and see if he could once again entertain the world from the claustrophobic confines of a single room. Bo Burnham But now Burnham is back. "And I spent that time trying to improve myself mentally. 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. Netflix did, however, post Facetime with My Mom (Tonight) on YouTube. We're a long way from the days when he filmed "Comedy" and the contrast shows how fruitless this method of healing has been. 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. A part of me loves you, part of me hates you / Part of me needs you, part of me fears 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. The song begins with a fade in from back, the shot painfully close to Burnhams face as he looks off to the side. Is he content with its content? We're a long way from the days when he filmed "Comedy" and the contrast shows how fruitless this method of healing has been. Comedian and filmmaker Bo Burnham used his time alone during the pandemic to create a one-man show. The tension between creator and audience is a prominent theme in Burnhams work, likely because he got his start on YouTube. In his new Netflix special, Inside, Bo Burnham sings about trying to be funny while stuck in a room. 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. That quiet simplicity doesn't feel like a relief, but it is. Then, the video keeps going past the runtime of the song and into that reaction itself. Burnham's growth is admirable, but also revealing of how little we expect from men in the industry. The structured movements of the last hour and half fall away as Burnham snaps at the audience: "Get up. Anyone can read what you share. Perform everything to each other, all the time for no reason. Parasocial relationships can be positive too, as outlined in culture critic Stitchs essay On Parasocial Relationships and the Boundaries of Celebrity for Teen Vogue. The whole video is filmed like one big thirst trap as he sweats and works out. Linda Holmes, welcome. He is leaving it to speak for itself in terms of what it says about isolation and sadness. It's self-conscious. The performer, along with the record label and brand deals, encourage a parasocial relationship for increased profits. Please check your email to find a confirmation email, and follow the steps to confirm your humanity.