The songs from the special were released on streaming platforms on June 10, 2021. Released on May 30, 2021, Bo Burnham wrote, recorded, directed, and produced Inside while in lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020. 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. I actually felt true mutual empathy with someone for the first time, and with someone Ive never even met, its kinda funny.. 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. Most of the comments talk about how visceral it is to hear Burnhams real voice singing the upsetting lyrics. Im talking to you. "Oh Jesus, sorry," Burnham says, hurrying over to pick it up. The performer, along with the record label and brand deals, encourage a parasocial relationship for increased profits. And I think the pandemic was a time when a lot of people were in this do I laugh or cry space in their own minds. I've been hiding from the world and I need to reenter.' But then, just as Burnham is vowing to always stay inside, and lamenting that he'll be "fully irrelevant and totally broken" in the future, the spotlight turns on him and he's completely naked. He's 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. 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. He has one where he's just sitting on a stool with an acoustic guitar describing our modern world. Anyone can read what you share. 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"). It's a quiet, banal scene that many people coming out of a depressive episode might recognize. Back in 2010, Burnham appeared on Showtime's "The Green Room," a comics round table hosted by Paul Provenza. Finally doing basic care tasks for yourself like eating breakfast and starting work in the morning. I don't know exactly how it tracks his experience, Bo Burnham, the person, right? Likewise. But in recent years, theres been enough awareness of online behavior to see how parasocial relationships can have negative impacts on both the creator and the audience if left uninterrogated by both parties. WebBo Burnham's Netflix special "Inside" features 20 new original songs. So we broke down each song and sketch and analyzed their meaning and context. 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. Or was it an elaborate callback to his earlier work, planted for fans seeking evidence that art is lie? He brushes his teeth, eats a bowl of cereal, and begins editing his videos. But he's largely been given a pass by his fans, who praise his self-awareness and new approach. He was alone. Relieved to be done? True, but it can deepen and clarify art. 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. That's a really clever, fun little rhyme in this, you know, kind of heavy song. Toward the end, he appears completely naked behind his keyboard. ", 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.". our ranking of all 20 original songs from the special here. 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.". Its a lyrically dense song with camerawork that speeds up with its rhythm. Here's a little bit of that. 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. You know, as silly as that one is, some of the other ones are more sedate. I've been singing that song for about a week NOW. Transcript Comedian and filmmaker Bo Burnham used his time alone during the pandemic to create a one-man show. We're a long way from the days when he filmed "Comedy" and the contrast shows how fruitless this method of healing has been. / 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. It's so good to hear your voice. The song is a pitched-down Charli XCX-styled banger of a ballad has minimal lyrics that are mostly just standard crowd instructions: put your hands up, get on your feet. Is he content with its content? It's a series of musical numbers and skits that are inherently about the creation of comedy itself. Open wide.. Bo Burnham: Inside is a devastating portrait of the actor-director-singer-comedian's dysfunctional interiority and 2020's unyielding assault on mental and social health. Thank you so much for joining us. Inside takes topics discussed academically, analytically, and delivers them to a new audience through the form of a comedy special by a widely beloved performer. 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. 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. From the very beginning of "Inside," Burnham makes it clear that the narrative arc of the special will be self-referential. 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.". Inside is the work of a comic with artistic tools most of his peers ignore or overlook. Still terrified of that spotlight? But he knows how to do this. Then comes the third emotional jump scare. Burnham then kicks back into song, still addressing his audience, who seem unsure of whether to laugh, applaud, or sit somberly in their chairs. Now, hes come a long way since his previous specials titled What. and Make Happy, where his large audiences roared with laughter WebBo Burnham is more than a comedian he's a writer-director-actor who first went viral in 2006. The authoritative record of NPRs programming is the audio record. 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. I hope to see you inside at some point. 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. 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. 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. Most sources discuss fictional characters, news anchors, childrens show hosts, or celebrity culture as a whole. It feels like the ending of a show, a climax, but it's not. See our analysis of the end of the special, and why Burnham's analogy for depression works so well. This special spoke to me closer and clearer than Ive ever felt with another person. One comment stuck out to me: Theres something really powerful and painful about, hearing his actual voice singing and breaking at certain points. He is not talking about it very much. 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. Get up. Inside doesnt give clear answers like parasocial relationships good or parasocial relationships bad, because those answers do not, and cannot, exist. 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. Simply smiling at the irony of watching his own movie come to life while he's still inside? A distorted voice is back again, mocking Burnham as he sits exposed on his fake stage: "Well, well, look who's inside again. ", From then on, the narrative of "Inside" follows Burnham returning to his standard comedic style and singing various parody songs like "FaceTime with My Mom" and "White Woman's Instagram.". Finally doing basic care tasks for yourself like eating breakfast and starting work in the morning. Burnham spoofs a PewDiePie-like figure a YouTuber who narrates his playing of a video game with a dead-eyed smugness, as shown in an image at the bottom-right corner of the screen. Many of his songs begin seriously, then shift into the joke, but this one doesnt. But look, I made you some content. And I don't think that I can handle this right now. How does one know if the joke punches down? In recent years, he has begun directing other comics specials, staging stand-up sets by Chris Rock and Jerrod Carmichael with his signature extreme close-ups. 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." 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). ", 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 brings with it an existential dread, but Burnham's depression-voice tells us not to worry and sink into nihilism. "I was in a full body sweat, so I didn't hear most of that," Burnham said after the clip played. 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. 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. Some of the things he mentions that give him "that funny feeling" include discount Etsy agitprop (aka communist-themed merchandise) and the Pepsi halftime show. And it portends and casts doubt on a later scene when his mental health frays and Burnham cries in earnest. "Any Day Now" The ending credits. While this special is the product of evolution, Burnham is pointing out its also a regression. And many people will probably remember his 2018 movie, "Eighth Grade." It's a reminder, coming almost exactly halfway through the special, of the toll that this year is taking on Burnham. "I didn't perform for five years," he says. A harsh skepticism of digital life (a life the pandemic has only magnified) is the dominant subject of the special. ", He then pulls the same joke again, letting the song play after the audience's applause so it seems like a mistake. The title card appears in white, then changes to red, signaling that a camera is recording. HOLMES: So before he was this celebrated filmmaker, Bo Burnham was himself a YouTube star. This is especially true for Patreon campaigns that give fans direct access to creators on platforms like Discord. The incentives of the web, those that reward outrage, excess and sentiment, are the villains of this show. (SOUNDBITE OF COMEDY SPECIAL, "BO BURNHAM: INSIDE"). With electro-pop social commentary, bleak humour and sock-puppet debates, the comics lockdown creation is astonishing. And did you have any favorites? 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. "The world needs direction from a white guy like [you] who is healing the world with comedy. To save you the time freeze-framing, here's the complete message: "No pressure by the way at any point we can stop i just want to make sure ur comfortable all this and please dont feel obligated to send anything you dont want to just cuz i want things doesnt mean i should get them and its sometimes confusing because i think you enjoy it when i beg and express how much i want you but i dont ever want that to turn into you feeling pressured into doing something you don't want or feeling like youre disappointing me this is just meant to be fun and if at any point its not fun for you we can stop and im sorry if me saying this is killing the mood i just like ". At the second level of the reaction video, Burnham says: "I'm being a little pretentious. Right after the song ends, the shot of Burnham's guest house returns but this time it's filled with clutter. But then the video keeps playing, and so he winds up reacting to his own reaction, and then reacting yet again to that reaction. He is leaving it to speak for itself in terms of what it says about isolation and sadness. Went out to look for a reason to hide again. The special is available exclusively on Netflix, while the album can be found on most streaming platforms. . Coined in 1956 by researchers Donald Horton and Richard Wohl, the term initially was used to analyze relationships between news anchors who spoke directly to the audience and that audience itself. The frame is intimate, and after such an intense special, something about that intimacy feels almost dangerous, like you should be preparing for some kind of emotional jump scare. It's like the mental despair of the last year has turned into a comfort. With menacing horror movie sound effects and hectic, dreamy camerawork, what becomes clear is Burnhams title has a double meaning: referring to being inside not just a room, but also his head. It's a dangerously tempting invitation to stop caring, coming from the villain of this musical comedy (depression). Is he content with its content? WebA Girl and an Astronaut. Instead of a live performance, he's recorded himself in isolation over the course of a year. 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. Burnham makes it textual, too. Instead, thanks to his ultra-self-aware style, he seems to always get ahead of criticism by holding himself accountable first. He is now back to where he was, making jokes alone in his room, an effort to escape his reality. Partway through the song, the battery icon switches to low and starts blinking in warning as if death is imminent. Bo Burnham, pictured here at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival, wrote, directed and performed the entirety of his new Netflix special, Inside, by himself. 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. Then, the video keeps going past the runtime of the song and into that reaction itself. 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? All Eyes on Me also earned Bo his first Grammy win for Best Song Written for Visual Media at the 2022 Grammys. His career evolved through YouTube, MTV, Vine, his movie "Eighth Grade," and now Netflix's "Inside." At the start of the special, Burnham sings "Content," setting the stage for his musical-comedy. "), Burnham sang a parody song called "Sad" about, well, all the sad stuff in the world. Disclosure: Mathias Dpfner, CEO of Business Insider's parent company, Axel Springer, is a Netflix board member. Other than Fred Rogers, Bo Burnham is one of the most cited single individual creators when discussing parasocial relationships. The whole video is filmed like one big thirst trap as he sweats and works out. The video is an hour-long edit of footage that was deleted from the making of Inside. And the biggest risk Burnham takes in the show is letting his emotional side loose, but not before cracking a ton of jokes. At the end of the song, "Inside" cuts to a shot of Burnham watching his own video on a computer in the dark. This is a heartbreaking chiding coming from Burnham's own distorted voice, as if he's shaming himself for sinking back into that mental state. And maybe the rest of us are ready, too. 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. Long before the phrase parasocial relationship had entered the mainstream zeitgeist, Burnhams work discussed the phenomenon. 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. of the internet, welcoming everyone with a decadent menu of options while disco lights twirl. 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. Because there's also a little bit Bo Burnham the character in this almost. The question is now, Will you support Wheat Thins in the fight against Lyme disease?). 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). "I don't know that it's not," he said. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. Netflix. 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. And part of it is sometimes he's just in despair. 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. In a giddy homage to Cabaret, Burnham, in sunglasses, plays the M.C. MARTIN: And it's deep, too. ", "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. Bo Burnham; former YouTuber, iconic Viner, and acclaimed stand-up comedian has recently released a new Netflix special. And I think that's what you're getting here. 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. It's as if Burnham is showing how wholesale judgments about the way people choose to use social media can gloss over earnest, genuine expressions of love and grief being shared online. 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. That YouTube commenter might be understood by Burnham if they were to meet him. Well, well, buddy you found it, now come out with your hands up we've got you surrounded.". Who Were We Running From? And it has a lot of very clever and very quick wordplay about the specific things you can get on the internet. And like unpaid interns, most working artists cant afford a mortgage (and yeah, probably torrent a porn). 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. Oops. The whole song sounds like you're having a religious experience with your own mental disorder, especially when new harmonies kick in. HOLMES: Yeah. Known as "Art is a Lie, Nothing is Real," there's a bit Burnham did at the start of his 2013 special "what." Daddy made you your favorite, open wide.". One of the most encouraging developments in comedy over the past decade has been the growing directorial ambition of stand-up specials. Just wanted to make sure everybody knew about Bo's comedy special transcripts on Scraps. But it doesn't. It's a quiet, banal scene that many people coming out of a depressive episode might recognize. 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? 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. Still terrified of that spotlight? this breakdown of 31 details you might have missed in "Inside,". A gift shop at the gun range, a mass shooting at the mall. They may still be comical, but they have a different feel. Its an instinct I have for all my work to have some deeper meaning or something. 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?". "And I spent that time trying to improve myself mentally. 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. He also revealed an official poster, a single frame from the special, and the cover art prior to its release. HOLMES: It felt very true to me, not in the literal sense. 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." HOLMES: So, as you'll hear there, on the one hand, there's a lot of sadness in what he's talking about there. 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. A series of eerie events thrusts an unlikely trio (John Boyega, Jamie Foxx and Teyonah Parris) onto the trail of a nefarious government conspiracy. 7 on the Top 200. MARTIN: So Bo Burnham has had a lot of different identities lately. See our full breakdown of every detail and reference you might have missed in "Inside" here. Good. 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. HOLMES: Thank you. 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. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. But before that can register, Burnham's eyes have closed and the special transitions to the uncannily catchy song "S---," bopping about how he hasn't showered in nine days or done any laundry. 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. "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. 20. I got better. And you know what? Burnham starts spiraling in a mental health crisis, mentioning suicidal ideation after lamenting his advance into his 30s. Maybe we'll call it isolation theater. '", "Robert's been a little depressed, no!" And then, of course, he had previous standup comedy specials. He tries to talk into the microphone, giving his audience a one-year update. Bo Burnham: INSIDE | Trailer - YouTube 0:00 / 2:09 The following content may contain suicide or self-harm topics. That's what it is. So let's dive into "Inside" and take a closer look at nearly every song and sketch in Burnham's special. Its an uncanny, dystopian view of Burnham as an instrument in the soulless game of social media. 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. @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.". WebBo Burnham: Inside is by far one of the riskiest and original comedy specials to come out in years. He's the writer, director, editor, and star of this show. 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. And many of them discuss their personal connection to the show and their analysis of how Burnham must have been thinking and feeling when he made it. 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. It's self-conscious. When we see it again towards the end of the special, it's from a new camera angle. Now, you heard me struggling to describe what this is, so help me out. He had a role in the film "Promising Young Woman." The flow chat for "Is it funny?" Were complicated. Not only is this whiteboard a play on the classic comedy rule that "tragedy plus time equals comedy," but it's a callback to Burnham's older work. 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.". Research and analysis of parasocial relationships usually revolves around genres of performers instead of individuals. 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. It's a heartbreaking chiding coming from his own distorted voice, as if he's shaming himself for sinking back into that mental state. 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. People experiencing depression often stop doing basic self-care tasks, like showering or laundry or brushing their teeth. 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. 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. So this is how it ends. Bo Burnham also uploaded Welcome to the Internet and White Womans Instagram on his YouTube channel. (The question is no longer, Do you want to buy Wheat Thins?, for example. 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?. Might not help, but still, it couldn't hurt.". After more sung repetitions of get your fuckin hands up, Burnham says, Get up. Thematically, it deals with the events of 2020, rising wealth inequality, racial injustice, isolation, mental health, social media, and technologys role in our lives. He was only 16. In this case, it's likely some combination of depression/anxiety/any other mental disorder. Thank you, Michel. Feelings of depersonalization and derealization can be very disturbing and may feel like you're living in a dream.". 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. This line comes full circle by the end of the special, so keep it in mind. Entertainment correspondent Kim Renfro ranked them in ascending order of greatness. They Cloned Tyrone. It's like Burnham's special has swallowed you whole, bringing you fully into his mind at last. Daddy made you your favorite. 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.