Burnham makes it textual, too. I think you're getting from him, you know, the entertainment element. HOLMES: Right. '", "Robert's been a little depressed, no!" 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"). 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. Web9/10. Were complicated. Tell us a little bit more about that. It moves kind of all over the place. begins with the question "Is it mean?" The arrogance is taught or it was cultivated. In his first Netflix special (2013's "what. When you're a kid and you're stuck in your room, you'll do any old s--- to get out of it.". 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. I got better. 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. But usually there is one particular voice that acts as a disembodied narrator character, some omniscient force that needles Burnham in the middle of his stand up (like the voice in "Make Happy" that interrupts Burnham's set to call him the f-slur). Today We'll Talk About That Day this breakdown of 31 details you might have missed in "Inside,". Likewise. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Burnham quickly shifts from the song to a reaction video of the song itself in the style of a YouTuber or Twitch streamer. 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.
Bo Burnham Bo Burnham Now, hes come a long way since his previous specials titled What. and Make Happy, where his large audiences roared with laughter For the song "Comedy," Burnham adopts a persona adjacent to his real life self a white male comedian who is driven to try and help make the world a better place. And maybe the rest of us are ready, too. of the internet, welcoming everyone with a decadent menu of options while disco lights twirl. Let's take a closer look at just a few of those bubbles, shall we? Toward the end, he appears completely naked behind his keyboard. 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. The global pandemic and subsequent lockdown orders of March 2020 put a stop to these plans. Under stand up, Burnham wrote "Middle-aged men protecting free speech by humping stools and telling stories about edibles" and "podcasts. Then, of course, the aspect ratio shrinks again as the white woman goes back to posting typical content. The song untangles the way we view peoples social media output as the complete vision of who they are, when really, we cannot know the full extent of someones inner world, especially not just through social media. Not only is this whiteboard a play on the classic comedy rule that "tragedy plus time equals comedy," but it's a callback to Burnham's older work. One comment stuck out to me: Theres something really powerful and painful about, hearing his actual voice singing and breaking at certain points. It's a quiet, banal scene that many people coming out of a depressive episode might recognize. 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. 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. Burnham brings back all the motifs from the earlier songs into his finale, revisiting all the stages of emotion he took us through for the last 90 minutes. 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. And it has a real feel of restlessness to it, almost like stream of consciousness. 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. This is especially true for Patreon campaigns that give fans direct access to creators on platforms like Discord. 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 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. If the answer is yes, then it's not funny. I like this song, Burnham says, before pointing out the the lack of modern songs about labor exploitation. While he's laying in bed, eyes about the close, the screen shows a flash of an open door. Well now the shots are reversed. WebBo Burnham is more than a comedian he's a writer-director-actor who first went viral in 2006. Burnham's hair is shorter in those initial behind-the-scenes moments, but his future-self has a longer, unkempt beard and messy hair. 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. And you know what? 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.". 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. "Healing the world with comedy, the indescribable power of your comedy," the voice sings. Bo Burnhams Inside: A Comedy Special and an Inspired Experiment, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/01/arts/television/bo-burnham-inside-comedy.html. "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. ", "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? But look, I made you some content. The piece also highlights Bos anxieties with becoming older and his legacy as a comedian. Not only has his musical range expanded his pastiche of styles includes bebop, synth-pop and peppy show tunes Burnham, who once published a book of poems, has also become as meticulous and creative with his visual vocabulary as his language.
Bo Burnham 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"). [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. 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.
Bo Burnham 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. Self-awareness does not absolve anyone of anything, he says. Now Burnham is showing us the clutter of the room, where he's almost claustrophobically surrounded by equipment. Perform everything to each other, all the time for no reason. .] 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. 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. HOLMES: Well, logically enough, let's go out on the closing song. 20. HOLMES: It felt very true to me, not in the literal sense. "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. 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. 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 / [. After more sung repetitions of get your fuckin hands up, Burnham says, Get up.
Bo Burnham 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. 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. Disclosure: Mathias Dpfner, CEO of Business Insider's parent company, Axel Springer, is a Netflix board member.
Bo Burnham 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.
Bo Burnham: Inside - The 10 Funniest Quotes From The Netflix Special All Eyes on Me also earned Bo his first Grammy win for Best Song Written for Visual Media at the 2022 Grammys. 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. Social media; it's just the market's answer to a generation that demanded to perform so the market said, here, perform. 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." 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. 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. The question is now, Will you support Wheat Thins in the fight against Lyme disease?). Then he moves into a new layer of reaction, where he responds to that previous comment. When we see it again towards the end of the special, it's from a new camera angle. But what is it exactly - a concert, a comedy special? He was only 16. HOLMES: Yeah.
Bo Burnham: Inside Burnham is an extraordinary actor, and "Inside" often feels like we're watching the intimate, real interior life of an artist. A distorted voice is back again, mocking Burnham as he sits exposed on his fake stage: "Well, well, look who's inside again. 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. 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. Burnham reacts to his reaction of the song, this time saying, Im being a little pretentious. It chronicles Burnhams life during the pandemic and his journey creating the special. It's progress. Gross asked Burnham if people "misinterpreted" the song and thought it was homophobic. The special is set almost entirely in one cluttered room. Photograph: Netflix Its a measure of the quality of Inside 1.0 that this stuff could end up on the cutting-room floor. And it portends and casts doubt on a later scene when his mental health frays and Burnham cries in earnest. Because there's also a little bit Bo Burnham the character in this almost. / 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. 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.
Bo Burnham WebBo Burnham: Inside is a 2021 special written, directed, filmed, edited, and performed by American comedian Bo Burnham. It's prison. 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. He takes it, and Burnham cries robotically as a tinny version of the song about being stuck in the room plays. One of the most encouraging developments in comedy over the past decade has been the growing directorial ambition of stand-up specials. Instead of working his muscles at open mics or in improv, Burnham uploaded joke songs to the platform in 2006. Well, well, buddy you found it, now come out with your hands up we've got you surrounded.". Now, you heard me struggling to describe what this is, so help me out. HOLMES: So before he was this celebrated filmmaker, Bo Burnham was himself a YouTube star. 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?".
Bo Burnham 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. (SOUNDBITE OF COMEDY SPECIAL, "BO BURNHAM: INSIDE"). In the same way that earlier vocal distortion represented God, the effect on his voice in "All Eyes on Me" seems to signal some omniscient force outside of Burnham. 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. Good. I got so much better, in fact, that in January of 2020, I thought 'you know what I should start performing again. Performing "Make Happy" was mentally taxing on Burnham. Burnham uses vocal tuning often throughout all of his specials. Thematically, it deals with the events of 2020, rising wealth inequality, racial injustice, isolation, mental health, social media, and technologys role in our lives. The label of parasocial relationship is meant to be neutral, being as natural and normal and, frankly, inescapable as familial or platonic relationships. As we explained in this breakdown of 31 details you might have missed in "Inside," Bo Burnham's newest special is a poioumenon a type of artistic work that tells the story of its own creation. Hes bedraggled, increasingly unshaven, growing a Rasputin-like beard. Instead of a live performance, he's recorded himself in isolation over the course of a year. 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. 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. "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. 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. Or was it an elaborate callback to his earlier work, planted for fans seeking evidence that art is lie? 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 rights reserved. Don't overthink this, look in my eye don't be scared, don't be shy, come on in the water's fine."). "They say it's like the 'me' generation. 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. In one interpretation, maybe the smile means he's ready to be outside again. It's a quiet, banal scene that many people coming out of a depressive episode might recognize. Back in 2010, Burnham appeared on Showtime's "The Green Room," a comics round table hosted by Paul Provenza. Its a visual that signifies a man exposing himself, until you realize hes in a spotlight. 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. Other than Fred Rogers, Bo Burnham is one of the most cited single individual creators when discussing parasocial relationships. That's what it is. 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. Its an instinct I have for all my work to have some deeper meaning or something. Burnham was just 16 years old when he wrote a parody song ("My Whole Family") and filmed himself performing it in his bedroom. The comedy special perfectly encapsulated the world's collective confusion, frustration, and exhaustion amid ongoing pandemic lockdowns, bringing a quirky spin to the ongoing existential terror that was the year 2020. Inside is the work of a comic with artistic tools most of his peers ignore or overlook. When we saw that projection the first time, Burnham's room was clean and orderly. Its a feat, the work of a gifted experimentalist whose craft has caught up to his talent. His hair and beard were shorter, and he was full of inspired energy. Carpool Karaoke, Steve Aoki, Logan Paul. Its an origin story of sorts. He tries to talk into the microphone, giving his audience a one-year update. He also revealed an official poster, a single frame from the special, and the cover art prior to its release. 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. You know, I was not, you know, I was alone, but I was not trapped in one room. WebOn a budget. MARTIN: So as you can hear in that bit, he sounds something like other comedic songwriters who do these kind of parody or comedy songs, whether it's Tom Lehrer, Weird Al or whoever. Also, Burnham's air conditioner is set to precisely 69 degrees throughout this whole faux music video. 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). 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 Volcano, which touched on labor rights. HOLMES: Thank you. "And so, today, I'm gonna try just getting up, sitting down, going back to work. BURNHAM: (Singing) Does anybody want to joke when no one's laughing in the background? 7 on the Top 200. Thank you, Michel. It's conscious of self. Theyre complicated. The first comes when Burnham looks directly into the camera as he addresses the audience, singing, Are you feeling nervous? 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. Only he knows. Burnham's earlier Netflix specials and comedy albums. Still terrified of that spotlight?
Bo Burnham He had a role in the film "Promising Young Woman." 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. With menacing horror movie sound effects and hectic, dreamy camerawork, what becomes clear is Burnhams title has a double meaning: referring to being inside not just a room, but also his head. He's the writer, director, editor, and star of this show. 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. 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.
Inside He brushes his teeth, eats a bowl of cereal, and begins editing his videos. But now Burnham is showing us the clutter of the room where "Inside" was filmed.
A Detailed Breakdown of How Bo Burnham 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. I mean, honestly, he's saying a lot right there.
Review: Bo Burnham's 'Inside "A part of me loves you, part of me hates you," he sang to the crowd. 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. "Robert's been a little depressed," he sings (referring to himself by his birthname). The penultimate song, "All Eyes On Me," is the best in the whole special, in this writer's opinion. MARTIN: So Bo Burnham has had a lot of different identities lately. And I think that's what you're getting here. A part of me loves you, part of me hates you / Part of me needs you, part of me fears you / [. 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. I was not, you know, having these particular experiences. "I don't know that it's not," he said. Bo Burnham also uploaded Welcome to the Internet and White Womans Instagram on his YouTube channel. (For example, the song "Straight, White, Male" from the "Make Happy" special). He is now back to where he was, making jokes alone in his room, an effort to escape his reality. Bo Burnham: Inside, was written, edited, and directed by the talent himself and the entire show is shot in one room. 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. With electro-pop social commentary, bleak humour and sock-puppet debates, the comics lockdown creation is astonishing. 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. The song's melody is oddly soothing, and the lyrics are a sly manifestation of the way depression convinces you to stay in its abyss ("It's almost over, it's just begun. The special is hitting an emotional climax as Burnham shows us both intense anger and then immediately after, a deep and dark sadness. 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. 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. Netflix. The song is like having a religious experience with your own mental disorder. Anything and everything all of the time.
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. It's not.
Bo Burnham Went out to look for a reason to hide again. So we broke down each song and sketch and analyzed their meaning and context. We see Burnham moving around in the daylight, a welcome contrast to the dark setting of "All Eyes on Me." From the very beginning of "Inside," Burnham makes it clear that the narrative arc of the special will be self-referential. And we might. I actually felt true mutual empathy with someone for the first time, and with someone Ive never even met, its kinda funny.. "), Burnham sang a parody song called "Sad" about, well, all the sad stuff in the world. Its folly to duplicate the feel of a live set, so why not fully adjust to the screen and try to make something as visually ambitious as a feature? On June 9, Burnham released the music from the special in an album titled Inside (The Songs), which hit No. 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.