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. Just as often, Burnhams shot sequencing plays against the meaning of a song, like when he breaks out a glamorous split screen to complement a comic song about FaceTiming with his mom. At the end of the song, "Inside" cuts to a shot of Burnham watching his own video on a computer in the dark. 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. "And so today I'm gonna try just getting up, sitting down, going back to work. 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. He puts himself on a cross using his projector, and the whole video is him exercising, like he's training for when he's inevitably "canceled.". But Burnham is of course the writer, director, editor, and star of this show. 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. You know, as silly as that one is, some of the other ones are more sedate. HOLMES: It felt very true to me, not in the literal sense. 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. Still, its difficult not to be lulled back into, again, this absolute banger. 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? Like, what is it? Bo Burnham 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. One of those is the internet itself. The voices of the characters eventually blend together to tell the live Burnham on stage, We think we know you.. 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. Mid-song, a spotlight turns on Burnham and shows him completely naked as a voice sings: "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.". 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. HOLMES: Well, logically enough, let's go out on the closing song. But by the end of the tune, his narrative changes into irreverence. Bo Burnham defined an era when he created Inside. 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. 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. 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. Unpaid Intern isnt just about unpaid internships; when your livelihood as an artist depends on your perceived closeness with each individual fan, fetching a coffee becomes telling someone theyre valid when they vent to you like they would a friend (or a therapist). WebOn a budget. Likewise. Burnham's growth is admirable, but also revealing of how little we expect from men in the industry. 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. Got it? 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. But, of course, it tangles that right back up; this emotional post was, ultimately, still Content. 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. Only he knows. Bo Burnham 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. The song is like having a religious experience with your own mental disorder. 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. HOLMES: That was NPR's Linda Holmes reviewing Bo Burnham's new Netflix special "Inside." Might not help but still it couldn't hurt. It's prison. I actually felt true mutual empathy with someone for the first time, and with someone Ive never even met, its kinda funny.. 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. Bo Burnham The structured movements of the last hour and half fall away as Burnham snaps at the audience: "Get up. Now, hes come a long way since his previous specials titled What. and Make Happy, where his large audiences roared with laughter (SOUNDBITE OF COMEDY SPECIAL, "BO BURNHAM: INSIDE"). Anything and everything all of the time. Relieved to be done? "Any Day Now" The ending credits. HOLMES: So before he was this celebrated filmmaker, Bo Burnham was himself a YouTube star. Bo Burnham Good. ", 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.". Also, Burnham's air conditioner is set to precisely 69 degrees throughout this whole faux music video. It's as if Burnham knows there are valid criticisms of him that haven't really stuck in the public discourse around his work. In a giddy homage to Cabaret, Burnham, in sunglasses, plays the M.C. Inside is the work of a comic with artistic tools most of his peers ignore or overlook. In his new Netflix special, Inside, Bo Burnham sings about trying to be funny while stuck in a room. This is when the musical numbers (and in-between skits) become much more grim. 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. But also, it's clear that there's a lot on his mind. "Got it? We see Burnham moving around in the daylight, a welcome contrast to the dark setting of "All Eyes on Me." 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. Linda, thank you so much for joining us. Then he moves into a new layer of reaction, where he responds to that previous comment. Partway through the song, the battery icon switches to low and starts blinking in warning as if death is imminent. And like unpaid interns, most working artists cant afford a mortgage (and yeah, probably torrent a porn). 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. 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 didn't perform for five years," he says. It moves kind of all over the place. And it's important to remember, you know, this is a piece of theater. "A part of me loves you, part of me hates you," he sang to the crowd. 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. Here's a little bit of that. Instead of working his muscles at open mics or in improv, Burnham uploaded joke songs to the platform in 2006. It's progress. Some of the narrative of the show can be indulgently overheated, playing into clichs about the process of the brooding artist, but Burnham has anticipated this and other criticisms, and integrated them into the special, including the idea that drawing attention to potential flaws fixes them. 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. ", "I do not think my intention was homophobic, but what is the implicit comedy of that song if you chase it all the way down? Bo Burnham While he's laying in bed, eyes about the close, the screen shows a flash of an open door. And we might. 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. Its a stupid song, and, uh, it doesnt really mean anything. The video continues. At the start of the special, Burnham sings "Content," setting the stage for his musical-comedy. 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? ", 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.". They Cloned Tyrone. 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"). LINDA HOLMES, BYLINE: Thank you, Michel. 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. Bo Burnham I got so much better, in fact, that in January of 2020, I thought 'you know what I should start performing again. 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. While he's laying in bed, eyes about the close, the screen shows a flash of an open door. he sings as he refers to his birth name. 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 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 I don't know exactly how it tracks his experience, Bo Burnham, the person, right? I like this song, Burnham says, before pointing out the the lack of modern songs about labor exploitation. I don't think it's perfectly morally defendable.". WebBo Burnham's "Inside" special on Netflix is an incredibly detailed musical-comedy artwork. 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. 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 Maybe we'll call it isolation theater. But, like so many other plans and hopes people had in the early months of the pandemic, that goal proved unattainable. Well, well, buddy you found it, now come out with your hands up we've got you surrounded.". 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. Thank you, Michel. While talking to the audience during the opening section, Burnham takes a sip out of a water bottle. "All Eyes On Me" starts right after Burnham's outburst of anger and sadness. Most sources discuss fictional characters, news anchors, childrens show hosts, or celebrity culture as a whole. The incentives of the web, those that reward outrage, excess and sentiment, are the villains of this show. Bo Burnham The fun thing about this is he started writing it and recording it early on, so you get to see clips of him singing it both, you know, with the short hair and with the long hair - when he had just started this special and when he was finishing it. Bo Burnham; former YouTuber, iconic Viner, and acclaimed stand-up comedian has recently released a new Netflix special. They may still be comical, but they have a different feel. Bo Burnham, pictured here at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival, wrote, directed and performed the entirety of his new Netflix special, Inside, by himself. Relieved to be done? Hes bedraggled, increasingly unshaven, growing a Rasputin-like beard. WebBo Burnham is more than a comedian he's a writer-director-actor who first went viral in 2006. The result, a special titled "Inside," shows all of Burnham's brilliant instincts of parody and meta-commentary on the role of white, male entertainers in the world and of poisons found in internet culture that digital space that gave him a career and fostered a damaging anxiety disorder that led him to quit performing live comedy after 2015. 1 on Billboards comedy albums chart and eventually climbed to No. Parasocial relationships are neutral, and how we interact with them is usually a mixed bag. 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. WebA Girl and an Astronaut. All rights reserved. He brushes his teeth, eats a bowl of cereal, and begins editing his videos. He takes it, and Burnham cries robotically as a tinny version of the song about being stuck in the room plays. 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. 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. He is leaving it to speak for itself in terms of what it says about isolation and sadness. Not in the traditional senseno music was released prior to the special other than a backing track from Content found in the trailer. When you're a kid and you're stuck in your room, you'll do any old s--- to get out of it.". Still terrified of that spotlight? "That's a good start. Bo Burnham's Netflix Special, 'Inside 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. "If greenhouse gas emissions continue at their current rate, then when the clock runs out, the average global temperature will be irreversibly on its way to 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit above pre-industrial levels.". It's a series of musical numbers and skits that are inherently about the creation of comedy itself. 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. this breakdown of 31 details you might have missed in "Inside,". Well now the shots are reversed. 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.. Theres always been a tension in his comedy between an ironic, smarty-pants cleverness and an often melodramatic point of view. Its horrific.". 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. 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. And then, of course, he had previous standup comedy specials. 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. 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. Went out to look for a reason to hide again. See our analysis of the end of the special, and why Burnham's analogy for depression works so well. 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. It's a dangerously tempting invitation to stop caring, coming from the villain of this musical comedy (depression). And I'm just wondering, like, how would you describe that? 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. Poioumenon (from the Greek word for "product") is a term created by author Alastair Fowler and usually used to refer to a kind of metafiction. 7 on the Top 200. 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. 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. He also revealed an official poster, a single frame from the special, and the cover art prior to its release. 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 ". 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. And so I think he's always had that stubborn insistence on holding both of those things in his head at the same time. The whole song sounds like you're having a religious experience with your own mental disorder, especially when new harmonies kick in. Hes been addressing us the entire time. MARTIN: You know, about that, because it does move into a deeply serious place at some point. Is he content with its content? Bo Burnham: Inside - The 10 Funniest Quotes From The Netflix Special The performer, along with the record label and brand deals, encourage a parasocial relationship for increased profits. Bo Burnham: Inside review this is a claustrophobic masterpiece. It also seems noteworthy that this is one of the only sketches in "Inside" that fades to black. "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. You know, I was not, you know, I was alone, but I was not trapped in one room. Or was it an elaborate callback to his earlier work, planted for fans seeking evidence that art is lie? 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. And that can be a really - if you're not very good at it, that kind of thing, where there's a balance between sort of the sarcastic and ironic versus the very sincere can be really exhausting. WebA grieving woman magically travels through time to 1998, where she meets a man with an uncanny resemblance to her late love. WebBo Burnham has been critical of his past self for the edgy, offensive comedy he used to make. 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. The battery is full, but no numbers are moving. Something went wrong. 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. Please enter a valid email and try again. All Eyes on Me takes a different approach to rattling the viewer. So we broke down each song and sketch and analyzed their meaning and context. 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. The clean, tidy interior that first connected "Inside" with "Make Happy" is gone in its place is a mess-riddled space. But he knows how to do this. He tries to talk into the microphone, giving his audience a one-year update. Burnham uses vocal tuning often throughout all of his specials. Sitting in the meeting room, not making a sound becomes the perceived 24/7 access fans have to DM you, reply to you, ask you questions. "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. But Burnham doesn't put the bottle down right, and it falls off the stool. 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. 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. Were complicated. That his special is an indictment of the internet by an artist whose career was born and flourished there is the ultimate joke. Mirroring the earlier scene where Burnham went to sleep, now Burnham is shown "waking up.". At just 20 years old, Burnham was a guest alongside Judd Apatow, Marc Maron, Ray Romano, and Garry Shandling. 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. And he's done virtually no press about it. But look, I made you some content. Disclosure: Mathias Dpfner, CEO of Business Insider's parent company, Axel Springer, is a Netflix board member. Get the fuck up! Burnham walks towards the camera and grabs it like hes grabbing the viewer by the throat. 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. The final shot is of him looking positively orgasmic, eyes closed, on the cross. 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.". And it portends and casts doubt on a later scene when his mental health frays and Burnham cries in earnest. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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). It's a hint at the promised future; the possibility of once again being able to go outside and feel sunlight again. Not a comedy per se, but a masterpiece nonetheless. The label of parasocial relationship is meant to be neutral, being as natural and normal and, frankly, inescapable as familial or platonic relationships. When we saw that projection the first time, Burnham's room was clean and orderly. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Bo Burnham's new Netflix comedy special "Inside" is jam-packed with references to his previous work. I'm sitting down, writing jokes, singing silly songs, I'm sorry I was gone. It's a reminder, coming almost exactly halfway through the special, of the toll that this year is taking on Burnham. Open wide.. The authoritative record of NPRs programming is the audio record. 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 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. "Goodbye sadness, hello jokes!". 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. "I was a kid who was stuck in his room, there isn't much more to say about it. jonnyewers 30 May 2021. 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.
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