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. Its a stupid song, and, uh, it doesnt really mean anything. The video continues. Good. They Cloned Tyrone. "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. 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. Its an instinct I have for all my work to have some deeper meaning or something. The lead-in is Burnham thanking a nonexistent audience for being there with him for the last year. When he appeared on NPR's radio show "Fresh Air" with Terry Gross in 2018, the host played a clip of "My Whole Family" and Burnham took his headphones off so he didn't have to relisten to the song. MARTIN: So Bo Burnham has had a lot of different identities lately. Who Were We Running From? He takes it, and Burnham cries robotically as a tinny version of the song about being stuck in the room plays. 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. 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. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. All Eyes on Me takes a different approach to rattling the viewer. It's conscious of self. So we broke down each song and sketch and analyzed their meaning and context. In his new Netflix special, Inside, Bo Burnham sings about trying to be funny while stuck in a room. 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. 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. 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. (The question is no longer, Do you want to buy Wheat Thins?, for example. 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. 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. The picturesque view of sun-soaked clouds was featured in "Comedy," during the section of the song when Burnham stood up and decided that the only thing he (or his character in the song) could do was "heal the world with comedy.". 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 as if Burnham knows there are valid criticisms of him that haven't really stuck in the public discourse around his work. MARTIN: And it's deep, too. That's a really clever, fun little rhyme in this, you know, kind of heavy song. Bo Burnham: Inside is a devastating portrait of the actor-director-singer-comedian's dysfunctional interiority and 2020's unyielding assault on mental and social health. I actually felt true mutual empathy with someone for the first time, and with someone Ive never even met, its kinda funny.. Carpool Karaoke, Steve Aoki, Logan Paul. While sifting through fan reactions to Inside, the YouTube algorithm suggested I watch a fan-made video that pitch corrects All Eyes on Me to Burnhams actual voice. WebOn a budget. 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. And part of it is sometimes he's just in despair. He slaps his leg in frustration, and eventually gives a mirthless laugh before he starts slamming objects around him. He grabs the camera and swings it around in a circle as the song enters another chorus, and a fake audience cheers in the background. But he meant to knock the water over, yeah yeah yeah, art is a lie nothing is real. Burnham has said in interviews that his inspiration for the character came from real YouTube videos he had watched, most with just a handful of views, and saw the way young women expressed themselves online. And now depression has its grips in him. Inside, a new Netflix special written, performed, directed, shot, and edited by comedian Bo Burnham, invokes and plays with many forms. A gift shop at the gun range, a mass shooting at the mall. Went out to look for a reason to hide again. I have a funky memory and I sometimes can't remember things from something I've watched, even if it was just yesterday. He had a role in the film "Promising Young Woman." He was alone. "I'm so worried that criticism will be levied against me that I levy it against myself before anyone else can. 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. 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. "The world needs direction from a white guy like [you] who is healing the world with comedy. But unlike many of us, Burnham was also hard at work on a one-man show directed, written and performed all by himself. Then he moves into a new layer of reaction, where he responds to that previous comment. "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. Went out to look for a reason to hide again. And the biggest risk Burnham takes in the show is letting his emotional side loose, but not before cracking a ton of jokes. 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 / [. "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.". "You say the ocean's rising, like I give a s---, you say the whole world's ending, honey it already did, you're not gonna slow it, heaven knows you tried," he sings. Please check your email to find a confirmation email, and follow the steps to confirm your humanity. jonnyewers 30 May 2021. 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. Linda, thank you so much for joining us. And it has a lot of very clever and very quick wordplay about the specific things you can get on the internet. 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. The arrogance is taught or it was cultivated. It moves kind of all over the place. 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. Web9/10. 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. Burnham's earlier Netflix specials and comedy albums. Like most of Burnhams specials, it includes comedic songs and creative lighting effects. My heart hurts with and for him. "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. Its a lyrically dense song with camerawork that speeds up with its rhythm. Please enter a valid email and try again. / Are you having fun? The crowd directions are no longer stock pop song lyrics; now, the audience understands them as direct orders to them from Burnham. 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. It's a hint at the promised future; the possibility of once again being able to go outside and feel sunlight again. Entertainment correspondent Kim Renfro ranked them in ascending order of greatness. The Volcano, which touched on labor rights. It's self-conscious. Bo Burnhams latest Netflix special, Inside, is a solo venture about the comedian and filmmakers difficult experience in quarantine thats earned enthusiastic critical acclaim. ", He then pulls the same joke again, letting the song play after the audience's applause so it seems like a mistake. WebBo Burnham is more than a comedian he's a writer-director-actor who first went viral in 2006. "Got it? 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. 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. 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. Most sources discuss fictional characters, news anchors, childrens show hosts, or celebrity culture as a whole. 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. I hope to see you inside at some point. Right after the song ends, the shot of Burnham's guest house returns but this time it's filled with clutter. MARTIN: You know, about that, because it does move into a deeply serious place at some point. Not in the traditional senseno music was released prior to the special other than a backing track from Content found in the trailer. Released on May 30, 2021, Bo Burnham wrote, recorded, directed, and produced Inside while in lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020. WebBo's transcripts on Scraps From The Loft. I've been hiding from the world and I need to reenter.' How does one know if the joke punches down? In the song Problematic, Burnham sings about his past problematic behavior, asking the audience, Isnt anyone going to hold me accountable? The specials intermission looks like a clear view into Burnhams room, until Burnham washes a window between himself and the viewer an explicit, but invisible, boundary between creator and audience. We're a long way from the days when he filmed "Comedy" and the contrast shows how fruitless this method of healing has been. "All Eyes On Me" starts right after Burnham's outburst of anger and sadness. 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. (For example, the song "Straight, White, Male" from the "Make Happy" special). And then the funniest thing happened.". Netflix MARTIN: This special is titled, appropriately enough, "Inside," and it is streaming on Netflix now. 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? 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). In this case, it's likely some combination of depression/anxiety/any other mental disorder. But on the other hand, it is lyrically so playful. 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. And maybe the rest of us are ready, too. 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 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. 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. How how successful do you think is "Inside" at addressing, describing kind of confronting the experience that a lot of people have had over the past year? But we weren't. The whole song sounds like you're having a religious experience with your own mental disorder, especially when new harmonies kick in. 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. One of those is the internet itself. WebA Girl and an Astronaut. 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 ". Instead, thanks to his ultra-self-aware style, he seems to always get ahead of criticism by holding himself accountable first. 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. 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. Mirroring the earlier scene where Burnham went to sleep, now Burnham is shown "waking up.". As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. 20. Social media; it's just the market's answer to a generation that demanded to perform so the market said, here, perform. 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. Burnham starts spiraling in a mental health crisis, mentioning suicidal ideation after lamenting his advance into his 30s. The label of parasocial relationship is meant to be neutral, being as natural and normal and, frankly, inescapable as familial or platonic relationships. 1 on Billboards comedy albums chart and eventually climbed to No. He tries to talk into the microphone, giving his audience a one-year update. @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.". But now Burnham is back. He says his goal had been to complete filming before his 30th birthday. See our full breakdown of every detail and reference you might have missed in "Inside" here. It also seems noteworthy that this is one of the only sketches in "Inside" that fades to black. 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.".

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