They may still be comical, but they have a different feel. In Unpaid Intern, Burnham sings about how deeply unethical the position is to the workers in a pastiche of other labor-focused blues. 7 on the Top 200. I feel very close and intimate with him in this version. 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. Instead of a live performance, he's recorded himself in isolation over the course of a year. I have a funky memory and I sometimes can't remember things from something I've watched, even if it was just yesterday. So when you get to the end of a song, it often just kind of cuts to something else. He is now back to where he was, making jokes alone in his room, an effort to escape his reality. In the worst case, depression can convince a person to end their life. Now, you heard me struggling to describe what this is, so help me out. 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. 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. But Burnham is of course the writer, director, editor, and star of this show. Anyone can read what you share. Though it does have a twist. 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. By keeping that reveal until the end of the special, Burnham is dropping a hammer on the actual at-home audience, letting us know why his mental health has hit an ATL, as he calls it ("all time low"). 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. WebBo Burnham's new Netflix comedy special "Inside" is jam-packed with references to his previous work. Burnhams 2013 special, what., culminates in Burnham, the performer, reacting to pre-recorded versions of himself playing people from his life reacting to his work and fame, trying to capitalize on their tenuous relationship with him. @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.". Bo Burnham; former YouTuber, iconic Viner, and acclaimed stand-up comedian has recently released a new Netflix special. Im talking to you. Please check your email to find a confirmation email, and follow the steps to confirm your humanity. Relieved to be done? Its horrific.". MARTIN: So Bo Burnham has had a lot of different identities lately. Inside doesnt give clear answers like parasocial relationships good or parasocial relationships bad, because those answers do not, and cannot, exist. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. Then he moves into a new layer of reaction, where he responds to that previous comment. You can stream "Inside" on Netflix now, and see our ranking of all 20 original songs from the special here. And maybe the rest of us are ready, too. A harsh skepticism of digital life (a life the pandemic has only magnified) is the dominant subject of the special. 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. And it portends and casts doubt on a later scene when his mental health frays and Burnham cries in earnest. "And so today I'm gonna try just getting up, sitting down, going back to work. 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. At the forefront of this shift has been Bo Burnham, one of YouTubes earliest stars, who went on to make his own innovative specials with satirical songs backed by theatrical lighting and disembodied voices. HOLMES: It felt very true to me, not in the literal sense. Now get inside.". Not in the traditional senseno music was released prior to the special other than a backing track from Content found in the trailer. The flow chat for "Is it funny?" Under the TV section, he has "adults playing twister" (something he referenced in "Make Happy" when he said that celebrity lip-syncing battles were the "end of culture") and "9 season love letter to corporate labor" (which is likely referencing "The Office"). But he meant to knock the water over, yeah yeah yeah, art is a lie nothing is real. This special spoke to me closer and clearer than Ive ever felt with another person. Comedian and filmmaker Bo Burnham used his time alone during the pandemic to create a one-man show. Burnham is an extraordinary actor, and "Inside" often feels like we're watching the intimate, real interior life of an artist. It's self-conscious. Each of the songs from the first half of the special are in line with Burnham's earlier Netflix specials and comedy albums. From the very beginning of "Inside," Burnham makes it clear that the narrative arc of the special will be self-referential. 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). It's progress. 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. of the internet, welcoming everyone with a decadent menu of options while disco lights twirl. 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. During the last 15 minutes of "Make Happy," Burnham turns the comedy switch down a bit and begins talking to the audience about how his comedy is almost always about performing itself because he thinks people are, at all times, doing a "performance" for one another. Finally doing basic care tasks for yourself like eating breakfast and starting work in the morning. It's a dangerously tempting invitation to stop caring, coming from the villain of this musical comedy (depression). jonnyewers 30 May 2021. While this special is the product of evolution, Burnham is pointing out its also a regression. It's a quiet, banal scene that many people coming out of a depressive episode might recognize. HOLMES: Yeah. "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. The global pandemic and subsequent lockdown orders of March 2020 put a stop to these plans. It's so good to hear your voice. 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. A gift shop at the gun range, a mass shooting at the mall. 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 ". Back in 2010, Burnham appeared on Showtime's "The Green Room," a comics round table hosted by Paul Provenza. BO BURNHAM: (Singing) If you'd have told me a year ago that I'd be locked inside of my home, I would have told you a year ago, interesting, now leave me alone. But, like so many other plans and hopes people had in the early months of the pandemic, that goal proved unattainable. Under stand up, Burnham wrote "Middle-aged men protecting free speech by humping stools and telling stories about edibles" and "podcasts. "I don't know that it's not," he said. Not a comedy per se, but a masterpiece nonetheless. And he's done virtually no press about it. Simply smiling at the irony of watching his own movie come to life while he's still inside? Self-awareness does not absolve anyone of anything, he says. Its an instinct I have for all my work to have some deeper meaning or something. At first it seems to be just about life in the pandemic, but it becomes a reference to his past, when he made faces and jokes from his bedroom as a teenager and put that on the internet. A weekly roundup of the best things from Polygon, By submitting your email, you agree to our, Bo Burnhams Inside begs for our parasocial awareness, Sign up for the Bo Burnhams Inside: A Comedy Special and an Inspired Experiment, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/01/arts/television/bo-burnham-inside-comedy.html. "I didn't perform for five years," he says. I hope to see you inside at some point. 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. Netflix did, however, post Facetime with My Mom (Tonight) on YouTube. Today We'll Talk About That Day How does one know if the joke punches down? 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. I'm sitting down, writing jokes, singing silly songs, I'm sorry I was gone. The songs from the special were released on streaming platforms on June 10, 2021. 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. 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. He slaps his leg in frustration, and eventually gives a mirthless laugh before he starts slamming objects around him. Likewise. Burnham was just 16 years old when he wrote a parody song ("My Whole Family") and filmed himself performing it in his bedroom. On the simplest level, Inside is the story of a comic struggling to make a funny show during quarantine and gradually losing his mind. Burnham slaps his leg in frustration and eventually gives a mirthless laugh before he starts slamming objects around him. 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. Down to the second, the clock changes to midnight exactly halfway through the runtime of "Inside.". The special was nominated for six Emmy Awards in 2021, of which it won three: Outstanding Writing for a Variety Special, Outstanding Directing for a Variety Special, and Outstanding Music Direction. But now Burnham is showing us the clutter of the room where "Inside" was filmed. WebA grieving woman magically travels through time to 1998, where she meets a man with an uncanny resemblance to her late love. ", The Mayo Clinic defines depersonalization-derealization disorder as occurring "when you persistently or repeatedly have the feeling that you're observing yourself from outside your body or you have a sense that things around you aren't real, or both. 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. Gross asked Burnham if people "misinterpreted" the song and thought it was homophobic. 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.". It's a reminder, coming almost exactly halfway through the special, of the toll that this year is taking on Burnham. Burnham is also the main character in the game, a character who is seen moving mechanically around a room. And I think that's what you're getting here. The penultimate song "All Eyes on Me" makes for a particularly powerful moment. 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. "That's a good start. 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. 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. Also, Burnham's air conditioner is set to precisely 69 degrees throughout this whole faux music video. Burnham reacts to his reaction of the song, this time saying, Im being a little pretentious. 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. "A part of me loves you, part of me hates you," he sang to the crowd. 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. Good. Might not help but still it couldn't hurt. The special is set almost entirely in one cluttered room. This is especially true for Patreon campaigns that give fans direct access to creators on platforms like Discord. Only he knows. Initially, this seems like a pretty standard takedown of the basic bitch stereotype co-opted from Black Twitter, until the aspect ratio widens and Burnham sings a shockingly personal, emotional caption from the same feed. "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. "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. He takes a break in the song to talk about how he was having panic attacks on stage while touring the "Make Happy" special, and so he decided to stop doing live shows. Transcript Comedian and filmmaker Bo Burnham used his time alone during the pandemic to create a one-man show. 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. His career evolved through YouTube, MTV, Vine, his movie "Eighth Grade," and now Netflix's "Inside." Right after the song ends, the shot of Burnham's guest house returns but this time it's filled with clutter. Burnham starts spiraling in a mental health crisis, mentioning suicidal ideation after lamenting his advance into his 30s. In another scene, Burnham gives a retroactive disclaimer to discussions of his suicidal ideation by telling the audience, And if youre out there and youre struggling with suicidal thoughts and you want to kill yourself, I just wanna tell you Dont! Look Whos Inside Again is largely a song about being creative during quarantine, but ends with Now come out with your hands up, weve got you surrounded, a reflection on police violence but also being mobbed by his fans. It's wonderful to be with you. And the very format of it, as I said, it's very much this kind of sinister figure trying to get you interested. The performer, along with the record label and brand deals, encourage a parasocial relationship for increased profits. But on the other hand, it is lyrically so playful. Get the fuck up! Burnham walks towards the camera and grabs it like hes grabbing the viewer by the throat. That YouTube commenter might be understood by Burnham if they were to meet him. HOLMES: Well, logically enough, let's go out on the closing song. All Eyes on Me also earned Bo his first Grammy win for Best Song Written for Visual Media at the 2022 Grammys. Got it? 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. WebA Girl and an Astronaut. After more sung repetitions of get your fuckin hands up, Burnham says, Get up. It moves kind of all over the place. When we see it again towards the end of the special, it's from a new camera angle. Similarly, Burnham often speaks to the audience by filming himself speaking to himself in a mirror. 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. I've been hiding from the world and I need to reenter.' 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. ", Right as Burnham is straightening up, music begins blaring over the speakers and Burnham's own voice sings: "He meant to knock the water over, yeah yeah yeah, but you all thought it was an accident. "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. 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. In a giddy homage to Cabaret, Burnham, in sunglasses, plays the M.C. This plays almost like a glitch and goes unexplained until later in the special when a sketch plays out with Burnham as a Twitch streamer who is testing out a game called "INSIDE" (in which the player has to have a Bo Burnham video game character do things like cry, play the piano, and find a flashlight in order to complete their day). It's conscious of self. And then, of course, he had previous standup comedy specials. And we might. BURNHAM: (Singing) Does anybody want to joke when no one's laughing in the background? 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. He is not talking about it very much. Burnham uses vocal tuning often throughout all of his specials. Just wanted to make sure everybody knew about Bo's comedy special transcripts on Scraps. 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. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Perform everything to each other, all the time for no reason. 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. ", 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.". I did! And you can roughly think about this, I think, as a series of short videos that are mostly of him singing songs and that are sewn together with a little bit of other material, whether it's shots of him lying in bed or setting up the cameras. At the start of the special, Burnham sings "Content," setting the stage for his musical-comedy. The special is available exclusively on Netflix, while the album can be found on most streaming platforms. But in both of those cases, similarity and connection would come from the way the art itself connects people, not any actual tie between Burnham and myself, Burnham and the commenter. (The question is no longer, Do you want to buy Wheat Thins?, for example. 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?". He's also giving us a visual representation of the way social media feeds can jarringly swing between shallow photos and emotional posts about trauma and loss.
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