He was alone. I like this song, Burnham says, before pointing out the the lack of modern songs about labor exploitation. 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. WebA grieving woman magically travels through time to 1998, where she meets a man with an uncanny resemblance to her late love. 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. But on the other hand, it is lyrically so playful. He tries to talk into the microphone, giving his audience a one-year update. 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. The piece also highlights Bos anxieties with becoming older and his legacy as a comedian. Might not help, but still, it couldn't hurt.". Don't overthink this, look in my eye don't be scared, don't be shy, come on in the water's fine."). and concludes that if it's mean, it's not funny. It moves kind of all over the place. "I was a kid who was stuck in his room, there isn't much more to say about it. Inside doesnt give clear answers like parasocial relationships good or parasocial relationships bad, because those answers do not, and cannot, exist. 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. 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). 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. "I was in a full body sweat, so I didn't hear most of that," Burnham said after the clip played. When we see it again towards the end of the special, it's from a new camera angle. Burnham spoofs a PewDiePie-like figure a YouTuber who narrates his playing of a video game with a dead-eyed smugness, as shown in an image at the bottom-right corner of the screen. Burnham's earlier Netflix specials and comedy albums. The special is set almost entirely in one cluttered room. 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"). At the end of the song, "Inside" cuts to a shot of Burnham watching his own video on a computer in the dark. The structured movements of the last hour and half fall away as Burnham snaps at the audience: "Get up. If "All Eyes on Me" sounds disconcertingly comforting to you, it could be because you can recognize the mental symptoms of a mood disorder like depression. HOLMES: Right. But he's largely been given a pass by his fans, who praise his self-awareness and new approach. It's as if Burnham knows there are valid criticisms of him that haven't really stuck in the public discourse around his work. 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. Transcript Comedian and filmmaker Bo Burnham used his time alone during the pandemic to create a one-man show. At the start of the special, Burnham sings "Content," setting the stage for his musical-comedy. "Truly, it's like, for a 16-year-old kid in 2006, it's not bad. Self-awareness does not absolve anyone of anything, he says. The album peaked at #7 on the Billboard 200 chart, #1 on the Comedy Albums chart, and #18 on the Independent Albums chart. "Any Day Now" The ending credits. Toward the end, he appears completely naked behind his keyboard. "The world needs direction from a white guy like [you] who is healing the world with comedy. 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. 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. The global pandemic and subsequent lockdown orders of March 2020 put a stop to these plans. 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. 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? Still, its difficult not to be lulled back into, again, this absolute banger. 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. And part of it is sometimes he's just in despair. Yes, Amazon has a pre-order set up for the album on Vinyl. In this case, it's likely some combination of depression/anxiety/any other mental disorder. Now get inside.". 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. At various points, the gamer is given the option to make the character cry. That quiet simplicity doesn't feel like a relief, but it is. 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). "Got it? The first comes when Burnham looks directly into the camera as he addresses the audience, singing, Are you feeling nervous? It's an emergence from the darkness. Or was it an elaborate callback to his earlier work, planted for fans seeking evidence that art is lie? The label of parasocial relationship is meant to be neutral, being as natural and normal and, frankly, inescapable as familial or platonic relationships. 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. One of the most encouraging developments in comedy over the past decade has been the growing directorial ambition of stand-up specials. WebBo Burnham: Inside is by far one of the riskiest and original comedy specials to come out in years. This special spoke to me closer and clearer than Ive ever felt with another person. ", He then pulls the same joke again, letting the song play after the audience's applause so it seems like a mistake. Inside is the work of a comic with artistic tools most of his peers ignore or overlook. Good. The arrogance is taught or it was cultivated. Burnham's growth is admirable, but also revealing of how little we expect from men in the industry. 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. The title card appears in white, then changes to red, signaling that a camera is recording. In the song "That Funny Feeling," Burnham mentions these two year spans without further explanation, but it seems like he's referencing the "critical window for action to prevent the effects of global warming from becoming irreversible. At the second level of the reaction video, Burnham says: "I'm being a little pretentious. "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. 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. In one interpretation, maybe the smile means he's ready to be outside again. Performing "Make Happy" was mentally taxing on Burnham. 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. Burnham uses vocal tuning often throughout all of his specials. 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. / 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. jonnyewers 30 May 2021. That's a really clever, fun little rhyme in this, you know, kind of heavy song. 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. 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. 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 it's important to remember, you know, this is a piece of theater. Burnham wrote out: "Does it target those who have been disenfranchised in a historical, political, social, economic and/or psychological context?". 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. 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. Burnham can't get through his words in the update as he admits he's been working on the special much longer than he'd anticipated. MARTIN: So Bo Burnham has had a lot of different identities lately. He also revealed an official poster, a single frame from the special, and the cover art prior to its release. 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. And now depression has its grips in him. Audiences who might not read a 1956 essay by researchers about news anchors still see much of the same discussion in Inside. MARTIN: Well, that being said, Lynda, like, what song do you want to go out on? Now get inside.". 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 LINDA HOLMES, BYLINE: Thank you, Michel. An existential dread creeps in, but Burnham's depression-voice tells us not to worry and sink into nihilism. Just wanted to make sure everybody knew about Bo's comedy special transcripts on Scraps. Inside has been making waves for comedy fans, similar to the ways previous landmark comedy specials like Hannah Gadsbys Nanette or Tig Notaros Live (aka Hello, I Have Cancer) have. Burnham's career as a young, white, male comedian has often felt distinct from his peers because of the amount of public self-reflection and acknowledgment of his own privileges that he does on stage and off screen. Instead, thanks to his ultra-self-aware style, he seems to always get ahead of criticism by holding himself accountable first. He is not talking about it very much. MARTIN: This special is titled, appropriately enough, "Inside," and it is streaming on Netflix now. We're a long way from the days when he filmed "Comedy" and the contrast shows how fruitless this method of healing has been. But Burnham is of course the writer, director, editor, and star of this show. 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? I've been singing that song for about a week NOW. And I think that, 'Oh if I'm self-aware about being a douchebag it'll somehow make me less of a douchebag.' Carpool Karaoke, Steve Aoki, Logan Paul. "Goodbye sadness, hello jokes!". 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. How does one know if the joke punches down? Also, Burnham's air conditioner is set to precisely 69 degrees throughout this whole faux music video. 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. Self-awareness does not absolve anybody of anything.". 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. Bo Burnhams 2021 special, Inside. He points it at himself as he sways, singing again: Get your fuckin hands up / Get on out of your seat / All eyes on me, all eyes on me.. "Oh Jesus, sorry," Burnham says, hurrying over to pick it up. 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. 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. It's like Burnham's special has swallowed you whole, bringing you fully into his mind at last. 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. But then the video keeps playing, and so he winds up reacting to his own reaction, and then reacting yet again to that reaction. Parasocial relationships can be positive too, as outlined in culture critic Stitchs essay On Parasocial Relationships and the Boundaries of Celebrity for Teen Vogue. 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. And we might. But in recent years, theres been enough awareness of online behavior to see how parasocial relationships can have negative impacts on both the creator and the audience if left uninterrogated by both parties. Who Were We Running From? I actually felt true mutual empathy with someone for the first time, and with someone Ive never even met, its kinda funny.. I think you're getting from him, you know, the entertainment element. HOLMES: So before he was this celebrated filmmaker, Bo Burnham was himself a YouTube star. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. He was only 16. 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's freely admitting that self-awareness isn't enough while also clearly unable to move away from that self-aware comedic space he so brilliantly holds. Now, hes come a long way since his previous specials titled What. and Make Happy, where his large audiences roared with laughter (For example, the song "Straight, White, Male" from the "Make Happy" special). Viewer discretion is advised. 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. Comedian and filmmaker Bo Burnham used his time alone during the pandemic to create a one-man show. @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.". Well, well, buddy you found it, now come out with your hands up we've got you surrounded.". Went out to look for a reason to hide again. our ranking of all 20 original songs from the special here. 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. Trying to grant his dying father's wish, a son discovers an epic love story buried in his family's distant past. Theres always been a tension in his comedy between an ironic, smarty-pants cleverness and an often melodramatic point of view. Then comes the third emotional jump scare. "That's a good start. While this special is the product of evolution, Burnham is pointing out its also a regression. He doesn't really bother with any kind of transitions. And it portends and casts doubt on a later scene when his mental health frays and Burnham cries in earnest. 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. 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. The clean, tidy interior that first connected "Inside" with "Make Happy" is gone in its place is a mess-riddled space. Burnham is especially aware as a creator constantly reflecting on his own life. 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. 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. "Problematic" is a roller coaster of self-awareness, masochism, and parody. 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. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future.
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