bo burnham: inside transcript

The songs from the special were released on streaming platforms on June 10, 2021. "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. 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. 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. BURNHAM: (Singing) The live-action "Lion King," the Pepsi halftime show, 20,000 years of this, seven more to go. 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. "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. During the last 15 minutes of "Make Happy," Burnham turns the comedy switch down a bit and begins talking to the audience about how his comedy is almost always about performing itself because he thinks people are, at all times, doing a "performance" for one another. 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 you're a kid and you're stuck in your room, you'll do any old s--- to get out of it.". "I'm so worried that criticism will be levied against me that I levy it against myself before anyone else can. TikTok creator @TheWoodMother made a video about how Burnham's "Inside" is its own poioumenon thanks to the meta scenes of Burnham setting up lights and cameras, not to mention the musical numbers like "Content" and "Comedy" that all help to tell the story of Burnham making this new special. His 2014 song Repeat Stuff and its music video parodies how boy bands and other corporately-owned pop stars prey on young fans desire to feel loved by writing songs with lyrics vague enough anyone can feel like it was written specifically about them. 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. 7 on the Top 200. WebBo Burnham's Netflix special "Inside" features 20 new original songs. Bo Burnham: INSIDE | Trailer - YouTube 0:00 / 2:09 The following content may contain suicide or self-harm topics. Burnham is also the main character in the game, a character who is seen moving mechanically around a room. 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. (The question is no longer, Do you want to buy Wheat Thins?, for example. It's a series of musical numbers and skits that are inherently about the creation of comedy itself. It's as if Burnham is showing how wholesale judgments about the way people choose to use social media can gloss over earnest, genuine expressions of love and grief being shared online. Finally doing basic care tasks for yourself like eating breakfast and starting work in the morning. But Burnham doesn't put the bottle down right, and it falls off the stool. Good. 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. But he knows how to do this. So this is how it ends. 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). "And so today I'm gonna try just getting up, sitting down, going back to work. The whole song sounds like you're having a religious experience with your own mental disorder, especially when new harmonies kick in. Bo Burnham: Inside, was written, edited, and directed by the talent himself and the entire show is shot in one room. He also costarred in the Oscar-winning movie "Promising Young Woman," filmed in 2019. Known as "Art is a Lie, Nothing is Real," there's a bit Burnham did at the start of his 2013 special "what." This is when the musical numbers (and in-between skits) become much more grim. MARTIN: Well, that being said, Lynda, like, what song do you want to go out on? Its a feat, the work of a gifted experimentalist whose craft has caught up to his talent. . The aesthetic telegraphs authenticity and vulnerability, but the specials stunning final shots reveal the misdirection at work, encouraging skepticism of the performativity of such realism. 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. HOLMES: Yeah. I'm sitting down, writing jokes, singing silly songs, I'm sorry I was gone. That YouTube commenter might be understood by Burnham if they were to meet him. 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. I mean, honestly, he's saying a lot right there. 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.". Other than Fred Rogers, Bo Burnham is one of the most cited single individual creators when discussing parasocial relationships. Unpaid Intern isnt just about unpaid internships; when your livelihood as an artist depends on your perceived closeness with each individual fan, fetching a coffee becomes telling someone theyre valid when they vent to you like they would a friend (or a therapist). He's the writer, director, editor, and star of this show. He had a role in the film "Promising Young Woman." In the song, Burnham specifically mentions looking up "derealization," a disorder that may "feel like you're living in a dream. "), Burnham sang a parody song called "Sad" about, well, all the sad stuff in the world. 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. "Any Day Now" The ending credits. The penultimate song, "All Eyes On Me," is the best in the whole special, in this writer's opinion. ", 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 not. ", 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.". 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?. 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. "Oh Jesus, sorry," Burnham says, hurrying over to pick it up. "I was a kid who was stuck in his room, there isn't much more to say about it. Burnham wrote out: "Does it target those who have been disenfranchised in a historical, political, social, economic and/or psychological context?". Still terrified of that spotlight? 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. The flow chat for "Is it funny?" The song is like having a religious experience with your own mental disorder. Accuracy and availability may vary. But, of course, it tangles that right back up; this emotional post was, ultimately, still Content. Burnham starts spiraling in a mental health crisis, mentioning suicidal ideation after lamenting his advance into his 30s. 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. So let's dive into "Inside" and take a closer look at nearly every song and sketch in Burnham's special. Burnham slaps his leg in frustration and eventually gives a mirthless laugh before he starts slamming objects around him. He's showing us how terrifying it can be to present something you've made to the world, or to hear laughter from an audience when what you were hoping for was a genuine connection. Parasocial relationships are neutral, and how we interact with them is usually a mixed bag. And then the funniest thing happened.". I've been hiding from the world and I need to reenter.' "Got it? Released on May 30, 2021, Bo Burnham wrote, recorded, directed, and produced Inside while in lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020. All Eyes on Me also earned Bo his first Grammy win for Best Song Written for Visual Media at the 2022 Grammys. 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. 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). Its an uncanny, dystopian view of Burnham as an instrument in the soulless game of social media. It's an emergence from the darkness. 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. Even when confronted with works that criticize parasocial attachment, its difficult for fans not to feel emotionally connected to performers they admire. Its easy to see Unpaid Intern as one scene and the reaction videos as another, but in the lens of parasocial relationships, digital media, and workers rights, the song and the reactions work as an analysis for another sort of labor exploitation: content creation. And I'm just wondering, like, how would you describe that? While he's laying in bed, eyes about the close, the screen shows a flash of an open door. "Truly, it's like, for a 16-year-old kid in 2006, it's not bad. Instead, thanks to his ultra-self-aware style, he seems to always get ahead of criticism by holding himself accountable first. Now, hes come a long way since his previous specials titled What. and Make Happy, where his large audiences roared with laughter Also, Burnham's air conditioner is set to precisely 69 degrees throughout this whole faux music video. Self-awareness does not absolve anyone of anything, he says. So we broke down each song and sketch and analyzed their meaning and context. Linda Holmes, welcome. Like most of Burnhams specials, it includes comedic songs and creative lighting effects. It's a quiet, banal scene that many people coming out of a depressive episode might recognize. He says his goal had been to complete filming before his 30th birthday. And did you have any favorites? 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. He has one where he's just sitting on a stool with an acoustic guitar describing our modern world. I feel very close and intimate with him in this version. Burnham is an extraordinary actor, and "Inside" often feels like we're watching the intimate, real interior life of an artist. 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. "The world needs direction from a white guy like [you] who is healing the world with comedy. How does one know if the joke punches down? 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. I got so much better, in fact, that in January of 2020, I thought 'you know what I should start performing again. 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.". The hustle to be a working artist usually means delivering an unending churn of content curated specifically for the demands of an audience that can tell you directly why they are upset with you because they did not actually like the content you gave them, and then they can take away some of your revenue for it. The video is an hour-long edit of footage that was deleted from the making of Inside. 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. Burnham is especially aware as a creator constantly reflecting on his own life. 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. Its a visual that signifies a man exposing himself, until you realize hes in a spotlight. It's a hint at the promised future; the possibility of once again being able to go outside and feel sunlight again. And you know what? Only he knows. Might not help, but still, it couldn't hurt.". Netflix. A series of eerie events thrusts an unlikely trio (John Boyega, Jamie Foxx and Teyonah Parris) onto the trail of a nefarious government conspiracy. That's what it is. I was not, you know, having these particular experiences. Throughout the song and its accompanying visuals, Burnham is highlighting the "girlboss" aesthetic of many white women's Instagram accounts. 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. Many of his songs begin seriously, then shift into the joke, but this one doesnt. 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.". 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. The penultimate song "All Eyes on Me" makes for a particularly powerful moment. "Robert's been a little depressed," he sings (referring to himself by his birthname). Under stand up, Burnham wrote "Middle-aged men protecting free speech by humping stools and telling stories about edibles" and "podcasts. Get the fuck up! Burnham walks towards the camera and grabs it like hes grabbing the viewer by the throat. I don't know exactly how it tracks his experience, Bo Burnham, the person, right? The special is set almost entirely in one cluttered room. ", Right as Burnham is straightening up, music begins blaring over the speakers and Burnham's own voice sings: "He meant to knock the water over, yeah yeah yeah, but you all thought it was an accident. "I'm criticizing my initial reaction for being pretentious, which is honestly a defense mechanism," he says. The frame is intimate, and after such an intense special, something about that intimacy feels almost dangerous, like you should be preparing for some kind of emotional jump scare. "And I spent that time trying to improve myself mentally. 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. "I don't know that it's not," he said. jonnyewers 30 May 2021. Burnham then kicks back into song, still addressing his audience, who seem unsure of whether to laugh, applaud, or sit somberly in their chairs. Toward the end, he appears completely naked behind his keyboard. Likewise. It's wonderful to be with you. 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 so, today, I'm gonna try just getting up, sitting down, going back to work. "All Eyes On Me" starts right after Burnham's outburst of anger and sadness. 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. Entertainment correspondent Kim Renfro ranked them in ascending order of greatness. 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.". And if you go back and you look at a film like "Eighth Grade," he's always been really consumed by sort of the positive and the negative of social media and the internet and the life of of young kids. 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. Bo Burnham: Inside review this is a claustrophobic masterpiece. 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?". 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. And I don't think that I can handle this right now. "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. Well, well, buddy you found it, now come out with your hands up we've got you surrounded.". MARTIN: This special is titled, appropriately enough, "Inside," and it is streaming on Netflix now. On the simplest level, Inside is the story of a comic struggling to make a funny show during quarantine and gradually losing his mind. Here's a little bit of that. HOLMES: That was NPR's Linda Holmes reviewing Bo Burnham's new Netflix special "Inside." You can stream "Inside" on Netflix now, and see our ranking of all 20 original songs from the special here. (For example, the song "Straight, White, Male" from the "Make Happy" special). Copyright 2021 NPR. 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. 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. Because there's also a little bit Bo Burnham the character in this almost. It's a quiet, banal scene that many people coming out of a depressive episode might recognize. That's when the younger Burnham, the one from the beginning of his special-filming days, appears. He takes it, and Burnham cries robotically as a tinny version of the song about being stuck in the room plays. I actually felt true mutual empathy with someone for the first time, and with someone Ive never even met, its kinda funny.. By keeping that reveal until the end of the special, Burnham is dropping a hammer on the actual at-home audience, letting us know why his mental health has hit an ATL, as he calls it ("all time low"). The special is hitting an emotional climax as Burnham shows us both intense anger and then immediately after, a deep and dark sadness. Linda, thank you so much for joining us. ", "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. 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. 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. 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. A part of me loves you, part of me hates you / Part of me needs you, part of me fears you / [. Daddy made you your favorite. Maybe we'll call it isolation theater. And maybe the rest of us are ready, too. 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." The title card appears in white, then changes to red, signaling that a camera is recording. WebOn a budget. 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. He is not talking about it very much. 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. 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. Feelings of depersonalization and derealization can be very disturbing and may feel like you're living in a dream.". It's progress. 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. "You say the whole world's ending, honey it already did, you're not gonna slow it, heaven knows you tried. 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. Bo Burnham, pictured here at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival, wrote, directed and performed the entirety of his new Netflix special, Inside, by himself. 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. Most of the comments talk about how visceral it is to hear Burnhams real voice singing the upsetting lyrics. Web9/10. 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. WebBo Burnham's new Netflix comedy special "Inside" is jam-packed with references to his previous work. 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 / [. Viewer discretion is advised. Not in the traditional senseno music was released prior to the special other than a backing track from Content found in the trailer. . He tries to talk into the microphone, giving his audience a one-year update. And it's important to remember, you know, this is a piece of theater. "I didn't perform for five years," he says. "Problematic" is a roller coaster of self-awareness, masochism, and parody. His hair and beard were shorter, and he was full of inspired energy. I got better. Later in Inside, Burnham thanks the audience for their support while holding them at knifepoint. The song begins with a fade in from back, the shot painfully close to Burnhams face as he looks off to the side. Bo Burnhams latest Netflix special, Inside, is a solo venture about the comedian and filmmakers difficult experience in quarantine thats earned enthusiastic critical acclaim. 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. 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. Photograph: Netflix Its a measure of the quality of Inside 1.0 that this stuff could end up on the cutting-room floor. of the internet, welcoming everyone with a decadent menu of options while disco lights twirl. WebBo Burnham: Inside is by far one of the riskiest and original comedy specials to come out in years. He's almost claustrophobically surrounded by equipment. Whatever it is, NPR's Linda Holmes, host of Pop Culture Happy Hour, has reviewed it, and she liked it. The fun thing about this is he started writing it and recording it early on, so you get to see clips of him singing it both, you know, with the short hair and with the long hair - when he had just started this special and when he was finishing it. 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"). Its called INSIDE, and it will undoubtedly strike your hearts forevermore. BURNHAM: (Singing) Could I interest you in everything all of the time, a little bit of everything all of the time? 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. Partway through the song, the battery icon switches to low and starts blinking in warning as if death is imminent. And like unpaid interns, most working artists cant afford a mortgage (and yeah, probably torrent a porn). So for our own little slice of the world, Burnham's two time spans seem to be referencing the start and end of an era in our civilization. He brushes his teeth, eats a bowl of cereal, and begins editing his videos. See our analysis of the end of the special, and why Burnham's analogy for depression works so well. "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. ", When asked about the inspiration for the song, like if people he knew thought he was gay, Burnham said, "A lot of my close friends were gay, and, you know, I wasn't certain I wasn't at that point.". One of the most encouraging developments in comedy over the past decade has been the growing directorial ambition of stand-up specials. And so I think he's always had that stubborn insistence on holding both of those things in his head at the same time. 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. Its an instinct I have for all my work to have some deeper meaning or something. Theyre complicated. The first comes when Burnham looks directly into the camera as he addresses the audience, singing, Are you feeling nervous?

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