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. 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). Entertainment correspondent Kim Renfro ranked them in ascending order of greatness. Don't overthink this, look in my eye don't be scared, don't be shy, come on in the water's fine."). The voices of the characters eventually blend together to tell the live Burnham on stage, We think we know you.. A gift shop at the gun range, a mass shooting at the mall. 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." 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. Now, you heard me struggling to describe what this is, so help me out. We're a long way from the days when he filmed "Comedy" and the contrast shows how fruitless this method of healing has been. But he meant to knock the water over, yeah yeah yeah, art is a lie nothing is real. Perform everything to each other, all the time for no reason. So when you get to the end of a song, it often just kind of cuts to something else. In Unpaid Intern, Burnham sings about how deeply unethical the position is to the workers in a pastiche of other labor-focused blues. Then he moves into a new layer of reaction, where he responds to that previous comment. This special spoke to me closer and clearer than Ive ever felt with another person. WebBo Burnham: Inside is a 2021 special written, directed, filmed, edited, and performed by American comedian Bo Burnham. He was only 16. Depression acts like an outside force, one that is rather adept at convincing our minds to simply stay in bed, to not care, and to not try anymore. 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. Burnhams eyes are sharply in focus; the rest of him faded out subtly, a detail you might not even notice with how striking his eyes are. But what is it exactly - a concert, a comedy special? He brushes his teeth, eats a bowl of cereal, and begins editing his videos. The penultimate song "All Eyes on Me" makes for a particularly powerful moment. Then comes the third emotional jump scare. Apathy's a tragedy, and boredom is a crime. He tries to talk into the microphone, giving his audience a one-year update. The performer, along with the record label and brand deals, encourage a parasocial relationship for increased profits. Might not help, but still, it couldn't hurt.". WebBo Burnham: Inside (2021) 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. At the start of the special, Burnham sings "Content," setting the stage for his musical-comedy. He's almost claustrophobically surrounded by equipment. An existential dread creeps in, but Burnham's depression-voice tells us not to worry and sink into nihilism. Each of the songs from the first half of the special are in line with Burnham's earlier Netflix specials and comedy albums. It's like the mental despair of the last year has turned into a comfort. For the album, Bo is credited as writer, performer, and producer on every song. One of those is the internet itself. He is not talking about it very much. And then, of course, he had previous standup comedy specials. The incentives of the web, those that reward outrage, excess and sentiment, are the villains of this show. 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. 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. @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.". He had a role in the film "Promising Young Woman." 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. Relieved to be done? WebA Girl and an Astronaut. And while its an ominous portrait of the isolation of the pandemic, theres hope in its existence: Written, designed and shot by Burnham over the last year inside a single room, it illustrates that theres no greater inspiration than limitations. 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 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 I think that, 'Oh if I'm self-aware about being a douchebag it'll somehow make me less of a douchebag.' And he's done virtually no press about it. But unlike many of us, Burnham was also hard at work on a one-man show directed, written and performed all by himself. See our full breakdown of every detail and reference you might have missed in "Inside" here. The whole song sounds like you're having a religious experience with your own mental disorder, especially when new harmonies kick in. Inside doesnt give clear answers like parasocial relationships good or parasocial relationships bad, because those answers do not, and cannot, exist. This is especially true for Patreon campaigns that give fans direct access to creators on platforms like Discord. This line comes full circle by the end of the special, so keep it in mind. 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. It's an emergence from the darkness. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. And the very format of it, as I said, it's very much this kind of sinister figure trying to get you interested. Back in 2010, Burnham appeared on Showtime's "The Green Room," a comics round table hosted by Paul Provenza. HOLMES: Well, logically enough, let's go out on the closing song. 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. His career evolved through YouTube, MTV, Vine, his movie "Eighth Grade," and now Netflix's "Inside." 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. Like most of Burnhams specials, it includes comedic songs and creative lighting effects. The penultimate song "All Eyes on Me" makes for a particularly powerful moment. By inserting that Twitch character in this earlier scene, Burnham was seemingly giving a peek into his daily routine. With electro-pop social commentary, bleak humour and sock-puppet debates, the comics lockdown creation is astonishing. Still, its difficult not to be lulled back into, again, this absolute banger. He doesn't really bother with any kind of transitions. It's like Burnham's special has swallowed you whole, bringing you fully into his mind at last. The title card appears in white, then changes to red, signaling that a camera is recording. Comedian and filmmaker Bo Burnham used his time alone during the pandemic to create a one-man show. 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. Its an instinct I have for all my work to have some deeper meaning or something. A college student navigates life and school while dealing with a unique predicament he's living with a beautiful former K-pop sensation. 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. 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. But it doesn't. Still terrified of that spotlight? 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. A harsh skepticism of digital life (a life the pandemic has only magnified) is the dominant subject of the special. 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 / [. Like, what is it? An astronaut's return after a 30-year disappearance rekindles a lost love and sparks interest from a corporation determined to learn why he hasn't aged. Its a stupid song, and, uh, it doesnt really mean anything. The video continues. MARTIN: And I understand you were saying that it moves between genres. 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. (SOUNDBITE OF COMEDY SPECIAL, "BO BURNHAM: INSIDE"). 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. 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. Good. Mirroring the earlier scene where Burnham went to sleep, now Burnham is shown "waking up.". WebBo Burnham: Inside is by far one of the riskiest and original comedy specials to come out in years. So let's dive into "Inside" and take a closer look at nearly every song and sketch in Burnham's special. I don't think it's perfectly morally defendable.". I'm talking to you, get the f--- up.". But look, I made you some content. Who Were We Running From? [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. . our ranking of all 20 original songs from the special here. 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. And she's with us now to tell us more about it. "They say it's like the 'me' generation. 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. BURNHAM: (Singing) Could I interest you in everything all of the time, a little bit of everything all of the time? It's a dangerously tempting invitation to stop caring, coming from the villain of this musical comedy (depression). Please check your email to find a confirmation email, and follow the steps to confirm your humanity. Carpool Karaoke, Steve Aoki, Logan Paul. The album peaked at #7 on the Billboard 200 chart, #1 on the Comedy Albums chart, and #18 on the Independent Albums chart. I was not, you know, having these particular experiences. But then the video keeps playing, and so he winds up reacting to his own reaction, and then reacting yet again to that reaction. It has extended versions of songs, cut songs, and alternate versions of songs that were eventually deleted; but is mainly comprised of outtakes. At the second level of the reaction video, Burnham says: "I'm being a little pretentious. Known as "Art is a Lie, Nothing is Real," there's a bit Burnham did at the start of his 2013 special "what." that shows this exact meta style. 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. 1 on Billboards comedy albums chart and eventually climbed to No. It's a reminder, coming almost exactly halfway through the special, of the toll that this year is taking on Burnham. 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. 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. 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.". HOLMES: So before he was this celebrated filmmaker, Bo Burnham was himself a YouTube star. HOLMES: That was NPR's Linda Holmes reviewing Bo Burnham's new Netflix special "Inside." Today We'll Talk About That Day Thematically, it deals with the events of 2020, rising wealth inequality, racial injustice, isolation, mental health, social media, and technologys role in our lives. And I think that's what you're getting here. All rights reserved. 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. 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. I feel very close and intimate with him in this version. And then the funniest thing happened.". So for our own little slice of the world, Burnham's two time spans seem to be referencing the start and end of an era in our civilization. WebBo Burnham's new Netflix comedy special "Inside" is jam-packed with references to his previous work. If "All Eyes on Me" sounds disconcertingly comforting to you, it could be because you can recognize the mental symptoms of a mood disorder like depression. He is leaving it to speak for itself in terms of what it says about isolation and sadness. Look at them, they're just staring at me, like 'Come and watch the skinny kid with a steadily declining mental health, and laugh as he attempts to give you what he cannot give himself. Thank you so much for joining us. Netflix did, however, post Facetime with My Mom (Tonight) on YouTube. People experiencing depression often stop doing basic self-care tasks, like showering or laundry or brushing their teeth. According to a May 2021 Slate article, the piece was filmed at Bo Burnhams Los Angeles guest housethe same room used for June 2016s Are You Happy? and the closing shots of the Make Happy special. He brushes his teeth, eats a bowl of cereal, and begins editing his videos. The songs from the special were released on streaming platforms on June 10, 2021. And like unpaid interns, most working artists cant afford a mortgage (and yeah, probably torrent a porn). On June 9, Burnham released the music from the special in an album titled Inside (The Songs), which hit No. "Problematic" is a roller coaster of self-awareness, masochism, and parody. Here's a little bit of that. 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. 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. Web9/10. See our analysis of the end of the special, and why Burnham's analogy for depression works so well. Daddy made you your favorite. "I'm criticizing my initial reaction for being pretentious, which is honestly a defense mechanism," he says. Burnham was just 16 years old when he wrote a parody song ("My Whole Family") and filmed himself performing it in his bedroom. "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. 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"). Open wide.. 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. In the worst case, depression can convince a person to end their life. MARTIN: So Bo Burnham has had a lot of different identities lately. It's a heartbreaking chiding coming from his own distorted voice, as if he's shaming himself for sinking back into that mental state. That YouTube commenter might be understood by Burnham if they were to meet him. ", He then pulls the same joke again, letting the song play after the audience's applause so it seems like a mistake. "I didn't perform for five years," he says. 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. 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 piece also highlights Bos anxieties with becoming older and his legacy as a comedian. Good. Other than Fred Rogers, Bo Burnham is one of the most cited single individual creators when discussing parasocial relationships. But also, it's clear that there's a lot on 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. Hes bedraggled, increasingly unshaven, growing a Rasputin-like beard. You know, as silly as that one is, some of the other ones are more sedate. From the very beginning of "Inside," Burnham makes it clear that the narrative arc of the special will be self-referential. Down to the second, the clock changes to midnight exactly halfway through the runtime of "Inside.". "You say the ocean's rising, like I give a s---," he sings. Instead, thanks to his ultra-self-aware style, he seems to always get ahead of criticism by holding himself accountable first. And I don't think that I can handle this right now. 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 a quiet, banal scene that many people coming out of a depressive episode might recognize. They may still be comical, but they have a different feel. Instead of a live performance, he's recorded himself in isolation over the course of a year. I like this song, Burnham says, before pointing out the the lack of modern songs about labor exploitation. A distorted voice is back again, mocking Burnham as he sits exposed on his fake stage: "Well, well, look who's inside again. Bo Burnham also uploaded Welcome to the Internet and White Womans Instagram on his YouTube channel. 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 ". How does one know if the joke punches down? Burnham starts spiraling in a mental health crisis, mentioning suicidal ideation after lamenting his advance into his 30s. Burnham's career as a young, white, male comedian has often felt distinct from his peers because of the amount of public self-reflection and acknowledgment of his own privileges that he does on stage and off screen. And it's important to remember, you know, this is a piece of theater. Parasocial relationships can be positive too, as outlined in culture critic Stitchs essay On Parasocial Relationships and the Boundaries of Celebrity for Teen Vogue. Research and analysis of parasocial relationships usually revolves around genres of performers instead of individuals. So in "Inside," when we see Burnham recording himself doing lighting set up and then accidentally pull down his camera was that a real blooper he decided to edit in? 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. MARTIN: This special is titled, appropriately enough, "Inside," and it is streaming on Netflix now. So we broke down each song and sketch and analyzed their meaning and context. The song begins with a fade in from back, the shot painfully close to Burnhams face as he looks off to the side. Similarly, Burnham often speaks to the audience by filming himself speaking to himself in a mirror. "Trying to be funny and stuck in a room, there isn't much more to say about it," he starts in a new song after fumbling a first take. 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. Then, the video keeps going past the runtime of the song and into that reaction itself. It's progress. And like those specials, Inside implores fans to think about deeper themes as well as how we think about comedy as a genre. 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."