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. Thank you, Michel. Right after the song ends, the shot of Burnham's guest house returns but this time it's filled with clutter. At first hearing, this is a simple set of lyrics about the way kids deal with struggles throughout adolescence, particularly things like anxiety and depression. Burnham then kicks back into song, still addressing his audience, who seem unsure of whether to laugh, applaud, or sit somberly in their chairs. Went out to look for a reason to hide again. When we see it again towards the end of the special, it's from a new camera angle. 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. But he's largely been given a pass by his fans, who praise his self-awareness and new approach. 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. Might not help but still it couldn't hurt. Bo WebBo Burnham: Inside is a 2021 special written, directed, filmed, edited, and performed by American comedian Bo Burnham. The final shot is of him looking positively orgasmic, eyes closed, on the cross. . Burnham is an extraordinary actor, and "Inside" often feels like we're watching the intimate, real interior life of an artist. 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. 1 on Billboards comedy albums chart and eventually climbed to No. Still terrified of that spotlight? 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? 7 on the Top 200. So when you get to the end of a song, it often just kind of cuts to something else. Got it? I did! It's an instinct that I have where I need everything that I write to have some deeper meaning or something, but it's a stupid song and it doesn't really mean anything, and it's pretty unlikable that I feel this desperate need to be seen as intelligent.". He was only 16. 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"). 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. 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. Likewise. "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.". The penultimate song "All Eyes on Me" makes for a particularly powerful moment. 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. His hair and beard were shorter, and he was full of inspired energy. That's a really clever, fun little rhyme in this, you know, kind of heavy song. 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. 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?. Like most of Burnhams specials, it includes comedic songs and creative lighting effects. WebBo Burnham has been critical of his past self for the edgy, offensive comedy he used to make. ", The Mayo Clinic defines depersonalization-derealization disorder as occurring "when you persistently or repeatedly have the feeling that you're observing yourself from outside your body or you have a sense that things around you aren't real, or both. It's like the mental despair of the last year has turned into a comfort. Gross asked Burnham if people "misinterpreted" the song and thought it was homophobic. See our full breakdown of every detail and reference you might have missed in "Inside" here. 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. Burnham uses vocal tuning often throughout all of his specials. A part of me loves you, part of me hates you / Part of me needs you, part of me fears you / [. MARTIN: You know, about that, because it does move into a deeply serious place at some point. Even when confronted with works that criticize parasocial attachment, its difficult for fans not to feel emotionally connected to performers they admire. "I'm so worried that criticism will be levied against me that I levy it against myself before anyone else can. All Eyes on Me takes a different approach to rattling the viewer. HOLMES: Right. On June 9, Burnham released the music from the special in an album titled Inside (The Songs), which hit No. He doesn't really bother with any kind of transitions. At just 20 years old, Burnham was a guest alongside Judd Apatow, Marc Maron, Ray Romano, and Garry Shandling. I'm sitting down, writing jokes, singing silly songs, I'm sorry I was gone. Apathy's a tragedy, and boredom is a crime. But he meant to knock the water over, yeah yeah yeah, art is a lie nothing is real. Its called INSIDE, and it will undoubtedly strike your hearts forevermore. And it portends and casts doubt on a later scene when his mental health frays and Burnham cries in earnest. 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. 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. 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.". Self-awareness does not absolve anyone of anything, he says. 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. The lead-in is Burnham thanking a nonexistent audience for being there with him for the last year. Get up. Daddy made you your favorite, open wide.". He is not talking about it very much. Good. The authoritative record of NPRs programming is the audio record. A harsh skepticism of digital life (a life the pandemic has only magnified) is the dominant subject of the special. While this special is the product of evolution, Burnham is pointing out its also a regression. Bo Burnhams Inside: A Comedy Special and an Inspired Experiment, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/01/arts/television/bo-burnham-inside-comedy.html. 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. The Volcano, which touched on labor rights. Inside is the work of a comic with artistic tools most of his peers ignore or overlook. Might not help, but still, it couldn't hurt.". 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 ". And he's done virtually no press about it. 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. On May 30, 2022, Burnham uploaded the video Inside: The Outtakes, to his YouTube channel, marking a rare original upload, similar to how he used his YouTube channel when he was a teenager. 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. "Healing the world with comedy, the indescribable power of your comedy," the voice sings. The battery is full, but no numbers are moving. And it has a real feel of restlessness to it, almost like stream of consciousness. Well, well, buddy you found it, now come out with your hands up we've got you surrounded.". He tries to talk into the microphone, giving his audience a one-year update. Still, its difficult not to be lulled back into, again, this absolute banger. Instead, thanks to his ultra-self-aware style, he seems to always get ahead of criticism by holding himself accountable first. But unlike many of us, Burnham was also hard at work on a one-man show directed, written and performed all by himself. Burnham is also the main character in the game, a character who is seen moving mechanically around a room. Audiences who might not read a 1956 essay by researchers about news anchors still see much of the same discussion in Inside. It's wonderful to be with you. Transcript Comedian and filmmaker Bo Burnham used his time alone during the pandemic to create a one-man show. Or was it an elaborate callback to his earlier work, planted for fans seeking evidence that art is lie? One of the most encouraging developments in comedy over the past decade has been the growing directorial ambition of stand-up specials. Its horrific.". And that can be a really - if you're not very good at it, that kind of thing, where there's a balance between sort of the sarcastic and ironic versus the very sincere can be really exhausting. 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 now Burnham is showing us the clutter of the room where "Inside" was filmed. Is he content with its content? 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. He has one where he's just sitting on a stool with an acoustic guitar describing our modern world. Linda Holmes, welcome. WebA grieving woman magically travels through time to 1998, where she meets a man with an uncanny resemblance to her late love. It's self-conscious. WebOn a budget. MARTIN: Well, that being said, Lynda, like, what song do you want to go out on? 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. 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. 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. Bo Burnham, pictured here at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival, wrote, directed and performed the entirety of his new Netflix special, Inside, by himself. Bo Burnham newsletter, On Parasocial Relationships and the Boundaries of Celebrity, Bo Burnham and the Trap of Parasocial Self-Awareness.. At the start of the special, Burnham sings "Content," setting the stage for his musical-comedy. MARTIN: This special is titled, appropriately enough, "Inside," and it is streaming on Netflix now. He's the writer, director, editor, and star of this show. That's what it is. He's also giving us a visual representation of the way social media feeds can jarringly swing between shallow photos and emotional posts about trauma and loss. Burnham makes it textual, too. It's a series of musical numbers and skits that are inherently about the creation of comedy itself. 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. our full breakdown of every detail and reference you might have missed in "Inside" here. And like unpaid interns, most working artists cant afford a mortgage (and yeah, probably torrent a porn). Bo Burnhams latest Netflix special, Inside, is a solo venture about the comedian and filmmakers difficult experience in quarantine thats earned enthusiastic critical acclaim. 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. We're a long way from the days when he filmed "Comedy" and the contrast shows how fruitless this method of healing has been. The first comes when Burnham looks directly into the camera as he addresses the audience, singing, Are you feeling nervous? But, of course, it tangles that right back up; this emotional post was, ultimately, still Content. Just wanted to make sure everybody knew about Bo's comedy special transcripts on Scraps. 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. It's an emergence from the darkness. 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. Now, the term is applied to how viewers devote time, energy, and emotion to celebrities and content creators like YouTubers, podcasters, and Twitch streamers people who do not know they exist. 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.". Most of the comments talk about how visceral it is to hear Burnhams real voice singing the upsetting lyrics. Burnham skewers himself as a virtue-signaling ally with a white-savior complex, a bully and an egoist who draws a Venn diagram and locates himself in the overlap between Weird Al and Malcolm X.
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