That his special is an indictment of the internet by an artist whose career was born and flourished there is the ultimate joke. Get the fuck up! Burnham walks towards the camera and grabs it like hes grabbing the viewer by the throat. Don't overthink this, look in my eye don't be scared, don't be shy, come on in the water's fine."). "I was a kid who was stuck in his room, there isn't much more to say about it. He brushes his teeth, eats a bowl of cereal, and begins editing his videos. I'm sitting down, writing jokes, singing silly songs, I'm sorry I was gone. In recent years, he has begun directing other comics specials, staging stand-up sets by Chris Rock and Jerrod Carmichael with his signature extreme close-ups. In the song, Burnham specifically mentions looking up "derealization," a disorder that may "feel like you're living in a dream. 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. Its horrific.". 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. Daddy made you your favorite, open wide.". WebBo's transcripts on Scraps From The Loft. Still, its difficult not to be lulled back into, again, this absolute banger. Bo Burnhams Inside: A Comedy Special and an Inspired Experiment, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/01/arts/television/bo-burnham-inside-comedy.html. Bo Burnham When we saw that projection the first time, Burnham's room was clean and orderly. 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. Tell us a little bit more about that. Bo Burnham It's a quiet, banal scene that many people coming out of a depressive episode might recognize. Good. 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. After more sung repetitions of get your fuckin hands up, Burnham says, Get up. "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 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.". If the answer is yes, then it's not funny. 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. In White Womans Instagram, the comedian assumes the role of a white woman and sings a list of common white lady Instagram posts (Latte foam art / Tiny pumpkins / Fuzzy, comfy socks) while acting out even more cliched photos in the video with wild accuracy. While he's laying in bed, eyes about the close, the screen shows a flash of an open door. 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. Relieved to be done? 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. Burnham slaps his leg in frustration and eventually gives a mirthless laugh before he starts slamming objects around him. Bo Burnham HOLMES: Yeah. This is especially true for Patreon campaigns that give fans direct access to creators on platforms like Discord. 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"). 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. Netflix did, however, post Facetime with My Mom (Tonight) on YouTube. Is he content with its content? This special spoke to me closer and clearer than Ive ever felt with another person. Parasocial relationships can be positive too, as outlined in culture critic Stitchs essay On Parasocial Relationships and the Boundaries of Celebrity for Teen Vogue. 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. 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?". begins with the question "Is it mean?" 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. Review: Bo Burnham's 'Inside 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. our full breakdown of every detail and reference you might have missed in "Inside" here. 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. Research and analysis of parasocial relationships usually revolves around genres of performers instead of individuals. Disclosure: Mathias Dpfner, CEO of Business Insider's parent company, Axel Springer, is a Netflix board member. 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 Burnham doesn't put the bottle down right, and it falls off the stool. Like, what is it? 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? Then he moves into a new layer of reaction, where he responds to that previous comment. Years later, the comedian told NPR's Terry Gross that performing the special was so tough that he was having panic attacks on stage. Throughout the song and its accompanying visuals, Burnham is highlighting the "girlboss" aesthetic of many white women's Instagram accounts. Linda, thank you so much for joining us. Depression acts like an outside force, one that is rather adept at convincing our minds to simply stay in bed, to not care, and to not try anymore. WebA grieving woman magically travels through time to 1998, where she meets a man with an uncanny resemblance to her late love. Or was it an elaborate callback to his earlier work, planted for fans seeking evidence that art is lie? ", 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.". Underneath the Steve Martin-like formal trickery has always beaten the heaving heart of a flamboyantly dramatic theater kid. I did! Burnham is especially aware as a creator constantly reflecting on his own life. 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. 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. HOLMES: So, as you'll hear there, on the one hand, there's a lot of sadness in what he's talking about there. WebBo Burnham is more than a comedian he's a writer-director-actor who first went viral in 2006. Now get inside.". When the song starts, the camera sitting in front of Burnham's mirror starts slowing zooming in, making the screen darker and darker until you (the audience member at home) are sitting in front of the black mirror of your screen. You know, as silly as that one is, some of the other ones are more sedate. 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. Right after the song ends, the shot of Burnham's guest house returns but this time it's filled with clutter. Parasocial relationships are neutral, and how we interact with them is usually a mixed bag. Bo Burnham; former YouTuber, iconic Viner, and acclaimed stand-up comedian has recently released a new Netflix special. But Burnham is of course the writer, director, editor, and star of this show. WebBo Burnham's new Netflix comedy special "Inside" is jam-packed with references to his previous work. The penultimate song, "All Eyes On Me," is the best in the whole special, in this writer's opinion. Burnham spent his teen years doing theater and songwriting, which led to his first viral video on YouTube a song he now likely categorizes as "offensive.". 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. I got so much better, in fact, that in January of 2020, I thought 'you know what I should start performing again. It's a series of musical numbers and skits that are inherently about the creation of comedy itself. BURNHAM: (Singing) Does anybody want to joke when no one's laughing in the background? It's progress. HOLMES: Right. 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. Mirroring the earlier scene where Burnham went to sleep, now Burnham is shown "waking up.". 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? 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). '", "Robert's been a little depressed, no!" 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. And so I think he's always had that stubborn insistence on holding both of those things in his head at the same time. Then, the video keeps going past the runtime of the song and into that reaction itself. Hes been addressing us the entire time. 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. Most creator-made content online is available for free, meaning creators usually have to rely on their fans for income via crowdfunding like Patreon. Bo Burnham, pictured here at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival, wrote, directed and performed the entirety of his new Netflix special, Inside, by himself. Mid-song, a spotlight turns on Burnham and shows him completely naked as a voice sings: "Well, well, look who's inside again. 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? Went out to look for a reason to hide again. Other than Fred Rogers, Bo Burnham is one of the most cited single individual creators when discussing parasocial relationships. 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. Bo Like most of Burnhams specials, it includes comedic songs and creative lighting effects. 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. Inside "All Eyes On Me" starts right after Burnham's outburst of anger and sadness. 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. 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. 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. Bo Burnham MARTIN: This special is titled, appropriately enough, "Inside," and it is streaming on Netflix now. Bo Burnham's new Netflix comedy special "Inside" is jam-packed with references to his previous work. Instead of working his muscles at open mics or in improv, Burnham uploaded joke songs to the platform in 2006. 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. So let's dive into "Inside" and take a closer look at nearly every song and sketch in Burnham's special. But the cultural standards of what is appropriate comedy and also the inner standards of my own mind have changed rapidly since I was 16. The global pandemic and subsequent lockdown orders of March 2020 put a stop to these plans. We see Burnham moving around in the daylight, a welcome contrast to the dark setting of "All Eyes on Me." In this case, it's likely some combination of depression/anxiety/any other mental disorder. His new Netflix special Inside was directed, written and performed all inside one room. Now get inside.". Later in Inside, Burnham thanks the audience for their support while holding them at knifepoint. "A part of me loves you, part of me hates you," he sang to the crowd. In the worst case, depression can convince a person to end their life. He has one where he's just sitting on a stool with an acoustic guitar describing our modern world. The song, written in 2006, is about how his whole family thinks he's gay, and the various conversations they're having trying to figure it out. 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. Many of his songs begin seriously, then shift into the joke, but this one doesnt. 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.. Inside doesnt give clear answers like parasocial relationships good or parasocial relationships bad, because those answers do not, and cannot, exist. 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. Bo Burnham: Inside MARTIN: And it's deep, too. His career evolved through YouTube, MTV, Vine, his movie "Eighth Grade," and now Netflix's "Inside." 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 And it has a real feel of restlessness to it, almost like stream of consciousness. 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. Yes, Amazon has a pre-order set up for the album on Vinyl. 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. "I'm so worried that criticism will be levied against me that I levy it against myself before anyone else can. MARTIN: And I understand you were saying that it moves between genres. The final shot is of him looking positively orgasmic, eyes closed, on the cross. It's as if Burnham knows there are valid criticisms of him that haven't really stuck in the public discourse around his work. Don't overthink this, look in my eye don't be scared don't be shy come on in the water's fine."). ", "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. 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.". One of the most encouraging developments in comedy over the past decade has been the growing directorial ambition of stand-up specials. Daddy made you your favorite. Whatever it is, NPR's Linda Holmes, host of Pop Culture Happy Hour, has reviewed it, and she liked it. "Part of me needs you, part of me fears you. Also, Burnham's air conditioner is set to precisely 69 degrees throughout this whole faux music video. Thank you so much for joining us. Now, hes come a long way since his previous specials titled What. and Make Happy, where his large audiences roared with laughter 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. It's not. 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 / [. One of those is the internet itself. Gross asked Burnham if people "misinterpreted" the song and thought it was homophobic. 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. It's wonderful to be with you. But then the video keeps playing, and so he winds up reacting to his own reaction, and then reacting yet again to that reaction. "And so today I'm gonna try just getting up, sitting down, going back to work. The first comes when Burnham looks directly into the camera as he addresses the audience, singing, Are you feeling nervous? 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. 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. 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. 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. See our full breakdown of every detail and reference you might have missed in "Inside" here. A series of eerie events thrusts an unlikely trio (John Boyega, Jamie Foxx and Teyonah Parris) onto the trail of a nefarious government conspiracy. Self-awareness does not absolve anybody of anything.". Accuracy and availability may vary. ", "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's Netflix Special, 'Inside Under stand up, Burnham wrote "Middle-aged men protecting free speech by humping stools and telling stories about edibles" and "podcasts. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. People experiencing depression often stop doing basic self-care tasks, like showering or laundry or brushing their teeth. 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. HOLMES: It felt very true to me, not in the literal sense. Bo Burnham 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. All Eyes on Me also earned Bo his first Grammy win for Best Song Written for Visual Media at the 2022 Grammys. One comment stuck out to me: Theres something really powerful and painful about, hearing his actual voice singing and breaking at certain points. 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." Carpool Karaoke, Steve Aoki, Logan Paul. And you know what? 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. In one interpretation, maybe the smile means he's ready to be outside again. 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? "I was in a full body sweat, so I didn't hear most of that," Burnham said after the clip played. / 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. And I think that's what you're getting here. We're a long way from the days when he filmed "Comedy" and the contrast shows how fruitless this method of healing has been. I think you're getting from him, you know, the entertainment element. 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. Burnham starts spiraling in a mental health crisis, mentioning suicidal ideation after lamenting his advance into his 30s. Linda Holmes, welcome. BURNHAM: (Singing) Could I interest you in everything all of the time, a little bit of everything all of the time? You know, I was not, you know, I was alone, but I was not trapped in one room. And the biggest risk Burnham takes in the show is letting his emotional side loose, but not before cracking a ton of jokes. I don't think it's perfectly morally defendable.". 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. This line comes full circle by the end of the special, so keep it in mind. 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. 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 this is how it ends. That cloud scene was projected onto Burnham during the section of "Comedy" when Burnham stood up right after the God-like voice had given him his directive to "heal the world with comedy." Still terrified of that spotlight? 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. 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. 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.". 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. WebBo Burnham: Inside is a 2021 special written, directed, filmed, edited, and performed by American comedian Bo Burnham. A part of me loves you, part of me hates you / Part of me needs you, part of me fears you / [. It moves kind of all over the place. Burnham's growth is admirable, but also revealing of how little we expect from men in the industry. I've been hiding from the world and I need to reenter.' Bo Burnham 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.. Instead of a live performance, he's recorded himself in isolation over the course of a year. Released on May 30, 2021, Bo Burnham wrote, recorded, directed, and produced Inside while in lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020. Burnham had no idea that his song would be seen more than 10 million times,nor that it would kick start his career in a niche brand of self-aware musical comedy. He's almost claustrophobically surrounded by equipment. 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.
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