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Bo Burnham: Inside, was written, edited, and directed by the talent himself and the entire show is shot in one room. And many people will probably remember his 2018 movie, "Eighth Grade." The clean, tidy interior that first connected "Inside" with "Make Happy" is gone in its place is a mess-riddled space. (For example, the song "Straight, White, Male" from the "Make Happy" special). The final shot is of him looking positively orgasmic, eyes closed, on the cross. "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. As someone who has devoted time, energy, and years of research into parasocial relationships, I felt almost like this song was made for me, that Burnham and I do have so much in common. . Feelings of depersonalization and derealization can be very disturbing and may feel like you're living in a dream.". Performing "Make Happy" was mentally taxing on Burnham. this breakdown of 31 details you might have missed in "Inside,". All Eyes on Me also earned Bo his first Grammy win for Best Song Written for Visual Media at the 2022 Grammys. 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. The first comes when Burnham looks directly into the camera as he addresses the audience, singing, Are you feeling nervous? He has one where he's just sitting on a stool with an acoustic guitar describing our modern world. Inside doesnt give clear answers like parasocial relationships good or parasocial relationships bad, because those answers do not, and cannot, exist. The Volcano, which touched on labor rights. But we weren't. It's wonderful to be with you. "Got it? 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. 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. 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 incentives of the web, those that reward outrage, excess and sentiment, are the villains of this show. Under the movies section, there's a bubble that says "sequel to classic comedy that everyone watches and then pretends never happened" and "Thor's comebacks.". Mid-song, a spotlight turns on Burnham and shows him completely naked as a voice sings: "Well, well, look who's inside again. 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." Theyre complicated. 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. While he's laying in bed, eyes about the close, the screen shows a flash of an open door. If the answer is yes, then it's not funny. jonnyewers 30 May 2021. 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. HOLMES: It felt very true to me, not in the literal sense. Well, well, buddy you found it, now come out with your hands up we've got you surrounded.". 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. our full breakdown of every detail and reference you might have missed in "Inside" here. Parasocial relationships are neutral, and how we interact with them is usually a mixed bag. Apathy's a tragedy, and boredom is a crime. 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. "Truly, it's like, for a 16-year-old kid in 2006, it's not bad. The flow chat for "Is it funny?" HOLMES: Yeah. The scene cuts to black and we see Burnham waking up in his small pull-out couch bed, bookending the section of the special that started when him going to sleep. See our analysis of the end of the special, and why Burnham's analogy for depression works so well. "I don't know that it's not," he said. MARTIN: This special is titled, appropriately enough, "Inside," and it is streaming on Netflix now. Im talking to you. Viewer discretion is advised. Still terrified of that spotlight? The songs from the special were released on streaming platforms on June 10, 2021. Burnham's creative background began with being a theater then he transitioned to musical-comedy. But Burnham doesn't put the bottle down right, and it falls off the stool. And the biggest risk Burnham takes in the show is letting his emotional side loose, but not before cracking a ton of jokes. 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). 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. One of those is the internet itself. Carpool Karaoke, Steve Aoki, Logan Paul. From the very beginning of "Inside," Burnham makes it clear that the narrative arc of the special will be self-referential. 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. "), Burnham sang a parody song called "Sad" about, well, all the sad stuff in the world. On the simplest level, Inside is the story of a comic struggling to make a funny show during quarantine and gradually losing his mind. 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. So we broke down each song and sketch and analyzed their meaning and context. 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. Maybe we'll call it isolation theater. I mean, honestly, he's saying a lot right there. he sings as he refers to his birth name. And now depression has its grips in him. Oops. 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 special is set almost entirely in one cluttered room. And then, of course, he had previous standup comedy specials. The global pandemic and subsequent lockdown orders of March 2020 put a stop to these plans. 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. It chronicles Burnhams life during the pandemic and his journey creating the special. WebOn a budget. 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. We're a long way from the days when he filmed "Comedy" and the contrast shows how fruitless this method of healing has been. Its a visual that signifies a man exposing himself, until you realize hes in a spotlight. 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?. Likewise. "Oh Jesus, sorry," Burnham says, hurrying over to pick it up. The vocal key used in "All Eyes On Me" could be meant to represent depression, an outside force that is rather adept at convincing our minds to simply stay in bed, to not care, and to not try anymore. [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. It moves kind of all over the place. A series of eerie events thrusts an unlikely trio (John Boyega, Jamie Foxx and Teyonah Parris) onto the trail of a nefarious government conspiracy. 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. 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. Daddy made you your favorite, open wide.". Finally doing basic care tasks for yourself like eating breakfast and starting work in the morning. He tries to talk into the microphone, giving his audience a one-year update. ", "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? Photograph: Netflix Its a measure of the quality of Inside 1.0 that this stuff could end up on the cutting-room floor. Teeuwen's performance shows a twisted, codependent relationship between him and the puppet on his hand, something Burnham is clearly channeling in his own sock puppet routine in "Inside.". So let's dive into "Inside" and take a closer look at nearly every song and sketch in Burnham's special. 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 ". The video is an hour-long edit of footage that was deleted from the making of Inside. And like unpaid interns, most working artists cant afford a mortgage (and yeah, probably torrent a porn). Instead of working his muscles at open mics or in improv, Burnham uploaded joke songs to the platform in 2006. 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. A college student navigates life and school while dealing with a unique predicament he's living with a beautiful former K-pop sensation. Gross asked Burnham if people "misinterpreted" the song and thought it was homophobic. Bo Burnham: INSIDE | Trailer - YouTube 0:00 / 2:09 The following content may contain suicide or self-harm topics. His career evolved through YouTube, MTV, Vine, his movie "Eighth Grade," and now Netflix's "Inside." 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. Research and analysis of parasocial relationships usually revolves around genres of performers instead of individuals. Bo Burnham also uploaded Welcome to the Internet and White Womans Instagram on his YouTube channel. So we broke down each song and sketch and analyzed their meaning and context. Daddy made you your favorite. 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. And the very format of it, as I said, it's very much this kind of sinister figure trying to get you interested. "This show is called 'what.,' and I hope there are some surprises for you," he says as he goes to set down the water bottle. 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 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. He's almost claustrophobically surrounded by equipment. 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. Like Struccis Fake Friends documentary, this song is highlighted in Anuska Dhars video essay, Bo Burnham and the Trap of Parasocial Self-Awareness. Burnhams work consistently addresses his relationship with his audience, the ways he navigates those parasocial relationships, and how easy they can be to exploit. True, but it can deepen and clarify art. 1 on Billboards comedy albums chart and eventually climbed to No. He also costarred in the Oscar-winning movie "Promising Young Woman," filmed in 2019. How does one know if the joke punches down? HOLMES: That was NPR's Linda Holmes reviewing Bo Burnham's new Netflix special "Inside." WebA grieving woman magically travels through time to 1998, where she meets a man with an uncanny resemblance to her late love. Most creator-made content online is available for free, meaning creators usually have to rely on their fans for income via crowdfunding like Patreon. "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. While he's laying in bed, eyes about the close, the screen shows a flash of an open door. Parasocial relationships can be positive too, as outlined in culture critic Stitchs essay On Parasocial Relationships and the Boundaries of Celebrity for Teen Vogue. Burnham then kicks back into song, still addressing his audience, who seem unsure of whether to laugh, applaud, or sit somberly in their chairs. 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. I don't know exactly how it tracks his experience, Bo Burnham, the person, right? The aesthetic telegraphs authenticity and vulnerability, but the specials stunning final shots reveal the misdirection at work, encouraging skepticism of the performativity of such realism. Burnham wrote out: "Does it target those who have been disenfranchised in a historical, political, social, economic and/or psychological context?". Only he knows. 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.". Theres always been a tension in his comedy between an ironic, smarty-pants cleverness and an often melodramatic point of view. I have a lot of material from back then that I'm not proud of and I think is offensive and I think is not helpful. 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. But he knows how to do this. And you know what? One comment stuck out to me: Theres something really powerful and painful about, hearing his actual voice singing and breaking at certain points. Instead, thanks to his ultra-self-aware style, he seems to always get ahead of criticism by holding himself accountable first. Most sources discuss fictional characters, news anchors, childrens show hosts, or celebrity culture as a whole. But now Burnham is showing us the clutter of the room where "Inside" was filmed. When we see it again towards the end of the special, it's from a new camera angle. Known as "Art is a Lie, Nothing is Real," there's a bit Burnham did at the start of his 2013 special "what." 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. "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 I think that's what you're getting here. MARTIN: Well, that being said, Lynda, like, what song do you want to go out on? And it has a real feel of restlessness to it, almost like stream of consciousness. LINDA HOLMES, BYLINE: Thank you, Michel. Please check your email to find a confirmation email, and follow the steps to confirm your humanity. 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. 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. The authoritative record of NPRs programming is the audio record. Its a feat, the work of a gifted experimentalist whose craft has caught up to his talent. 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. 7 on the Top 200. Netflix 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. 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. Well, well, buddy you found it, now come out with your hands up we've got you surrounded.". While the other songs have abrupt endings, or harsh transitions, "That Funny Feeling" simply fades quietly into darkness perhaps the way Burnham imagines the ending of it all will happen. Burnham uses vocal tuning often throughout all of his specials. It's like Burnham's special has swallowed you whole, bringing you fully into his mind at last. "I didn't perform for five years," he says. Theres a nostalgic sweetness to this song, but parts of it return throughout the show, in darker forms, one of many variations on a theme. "Part of me needs you, part of me fears you. BURNHAM: (Singing) The live-action "Lion King," the Pepsi halftime show, 20,000 years of this, seven more to go. ", "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. WebBo Burnham's new Netflix comedy special "Inside" is jam-packed with references to his previous work. Likewise. 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. See our full breakdown of every detail and reference you might have missed in "Inside" here. 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. 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. 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. Back in 2010, Burnham appeared on Showtime's "The Green Room," a comics round table hosted by Paul Provenza. 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. .] All Eyes on Me takes a different approach to rattling the viewer. At various points, the gamer is given the option to make the character cry. All rights reserved. In a giddy homage to Cabaret, Burnham, in sunglasses, plays the M.C. Its an instinct I have for all my work to have some deeper meaning or something. That his special is an indictment of the internet by an artist whose career was born and flourished there is the ultimate joke. Now get inside.". In Inside, Burnham confronts parasocial relationships in his most direct way yet. Whatever it is, NPR's Linda Holmes, host of Pop Culture Happy Hour, has reviewed it, and she liked it. Partway through the song, the battery icon switches to low and starts blinking in warning as if death is imminent. 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. Disclosure: Mathias Dpfner, CEO of Business Insider's parent company, Axel Springer, is a Netflix board member. It feels like the ending of a show, a climax, but it's not. For those who are unaware, Bos real name is Robert Burnham. So this is how it ends. He doesn't really bother with any kind of transitions. HOLMES: Thank you. Bo Burnhams 2021 special, Inside. WebBo Burnham has been critical of his past self for the edgy, offensive comedy he used to make. ", 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.". Instead of a live performance, he's recorded himself in isolation over the course of a year. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Disclosure: Mathias Dpfner, CEO of Business Insider's parent company, Axel Springer, is a Netflix board member. "Any Day Now" The ending credits. Might not help but still it couldn't hurt. Released on May 30, 2021, Bo Burnham wrote, recorded, directed, and produced Inside while in lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020. The song begins with a fade in from back, the shot painfully close to Burnhams face as he looks off to the side. Like, what is it? Finally doing basic care tasks for yourself like eating breakfast and starting work in the morning. 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. Let's take a closer look at just a few of those bubbles, shall we? Netflix. But also, it's clear that there's a lot on his mind. Throughout the song and its accompanying visuals, Burnham is highlighting the "girlboss" aesthetic of many white women's Instagram accounts. He says his goal had been to complete filming before his 30th birthday. I'm sitting down, writing jokes, singing silly songs, I'm sorry I was gone. And it's important to remember, you know, this is a piece of theater. 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. of the internet, welcoming everyone with a decadent menu of options while disco lights twirl. HOLMES: Right. 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. But by the end of the tune, his narrative changes into irreverence. Comedian and filmmaker Bo Burnham used his time alone during the pandemic to create a one-man show. 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. Each of the songs from the first half of the special are in line with Burnham's earlier Netflix specials and comedy albums. While platforms like Patreon mean creators can make their own works independently without studio influence, they also mean that the creator is directly beholden to their audience. 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. Later in Inside, Burnham thanks the audience for their support while holding them at knifepoint. It's so good to hear your voice. 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 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. It's like the mental despair of the last year has turned into a comfort. And so I think he's always had that stubborn insistence on holding both of those things in his head at the same time. Or was it an elaborate callback to his earlier work, planted for fans seeking evidence that art is lie? Down to the second, the clock changes to midnight exactly halfway through the runtime of "Inside.". Got it? Hes been addressing us the entire time. 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"). 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. Burnham starts spiraling in a mental health crisis, mentioning suicidal ideation after lamenting his advance into his 30s. 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. Hes bedraggled, increasingly unshaven, growing a Rasputin-like beard. And it portends and casts doubt on a later scene when his mental health frays and Burnham cries in earnest. 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. The question is now, Will you support Wheat Thins in the fight against Lyme disease?). Burnham is an extraordinary actor, and "Inside" often feels like we're watching the intimate, real interior life of an artist. And maybe the rest of us are ready, too. 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.