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. 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. "I didn't perform for five years," he says. 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. ", 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. Other than Fred Rogers, Bo Burnham is one of the most cited single individual creators when discussing parasocial relationships. 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. 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. Here's a little bit of that. A part of me loves you, part of me hates you / Part of me needs you, part of me fears you / [. HOLMES: Well, logically enough, let's go out on the closing song. There's also another little joke baked into this bit, because the game is made by a company called SSRI interactive the most common form of antidepressant drugs are called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, aka SSRIs. And it portends and casts doubt on a later scene when his mental health frays and Burnham cries in earnest. 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. "This show is called 'what.,' and I hope there are some surprises for you," he says as he goes to set down the water bottle. Linda, thank you so much for joining us. WebBo Burnham: Inside is a 2021 special written, directed, filmed, edited, and performed by American comedian Bo Burnham. He has one where he's just sitting on a stool with an acoustic guitar describing our modern world. Released on May 30, 2021, Bo Burnham wrote, recorded, directed, and produced Inside while in lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020. Thank you so much for joining us. Today We'll Talk About That Day and concludes that if it's mean, it's not funny. 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"). 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. Mid-song, a spotlight turns on Burnham and shows him completely naked as a voice sings: "Well, well, look who's inside again. 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. The penultimate song "All Eyes on Me" makes for a particularly powerful moment. 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. 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. Inside is a tricky work that for all its boundary-crossing remains in the end a comedy in the spirit of neurotic, self-loathing stand-up. 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. While sifting through fan reactions to Inside, the YouTube algorithm suggested I watch a fan-made video that pitch corrects All Eyes on Me to Burnhams actual voice. Parasocial relationships are neutral, and how we interact with them is usually a mixed bag. Underneath the Steve Martin-like formal trickery has always beaten the heaving heart of a flamboyantly dramatic theater kid. 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. 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. People experiencing depression often stop doing basic self-care tasks, like showering or laundry or brushing their teeth. Burnham's hair is shorter in those initial behind-the-scenes moments, but his future-self has a longer, unkempt beard and messy hair. Now, you heard me struggling to describe what this is, so help me out. The incentives of the web, those that reward outrage, excess and sentiment, are the villains of this show. But, of course, it tangles that right back up; this emotional post was, ultimately, still Content. Even when confronted with works that criticize parasocial attachment, its difficult for fans not to feel emotionally connected to performers they admire. Instead of a live performance, he's recorded himself in isolation over the course of a year. Mirroring the earlier scene where Burnham went to sleep, now Burnham is shown "waking up.". 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. In one interpretation, maybe the smile means he's ready to be outside again. "Inside" kicks off with Burnham reentering the same small studio space he used for the end of "Make Happy," when the 2016 Netflix special transitioned from the live stage to Burnham suddenly sitting down at his piano by himself to sing one final song for the at-home audience. From the very beginning of "Inside," Burnham makes it clear that the narrative arc of the special will be self-referential. WebA grieving woman magically travels through time to 1998, where she meets a man with an uncanny resemblance to her late love. 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.". But unlike many of us, Burnham was also hard at work on a one-man show directed, written and performed all by himself. Though it does have a twist. We see Burnham moving around in the daylight, a welcome contrast to the dark setting of "All Eyes on Me." "All Eyes On Me" starts right after Burnham's outburst of anger and sadness. Bo Burnham defined an era when he created Inside. I got better. 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. Anything and everything all of the time. 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. 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. 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.". Sitting in the meeting room, not making a sound becomes the perceived 24/7 access fans have to DM you, reply to you, ask you questions. On June 9, Burnham released the music from the special in an album titled Inside (The Songs), which hit No. Tell us a little bit more about that. You know, as silly as that one is, some of the other ones are more sedate. That's when the younger Burnham, the one from the beginning of his special-filming days, appears. Burnham is especially aware as a creator constantly reflecting on his own life. A distorted voice is back again, mocking Burnham as he sits exposed on his fake stage: "Well, well, look who's inside again. But what is it exactly - a concert, a comedy special? He brushes his teeth, eats a bowl of cereal, and begins editing his videos. The song is a pitched-down Charli XCX-styled banger of a ballad has minimal lyrics that are mostly just standard crowd instructions: put your hands up, get on your feet. 20. And you know what? HOLMES: That was NPR's Linda Holmes reviewing Bo Burnham's new Netflix special "Inside." this breakdown of 31 details you might have missed in "Inside,". 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. It's a hint at the promised future; the possibility of once again being able to go outside and feel sunlight again. "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. 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 the very format of it, as I said, it's very much this kind of sinister figure trying to get you interested. Burnhams online success and an awareness of what kind of his audiences perceived closeness made the comedian key to one of the most prominent discussions in a creator- and influencer-driven era of media: the idea of parasocial relationships. 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. "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. In a giddy homage to Cabaret, Burnham, in sunglasses, plays the M.C. Im talking to you. Daddy made you your favorite, open wide.". Gross asked Burnham if people "misinterpreted" the song and thought it was homophobic. I don't think it's perfectly morally defendable.". Burnham slaps his leg in frustration and eventually gives a mirthless laugh before he starts slamming objects around him. WebOn a budget. "Got it? The album peaked at #7 on the Billboard 200 chart, #1 on the Comedy Albums chart, and #18 on the Independent Albums chart. Burnham wrote out: "Does it target those who have been disenfranchised in a historical, political, social, economic and/or psychological context?". 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. And so I think he's always had that stubborn insistence on holding both of those things in his head at the same time. The songs from the special were released on streaming platforms on June 10, 2021. 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. 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. "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. Relieved to be done? After about 35 minutes of candy-colored, slickly designed sketch comedy, the tone shifts with Burnhams first completely earnest song, a lovely indie-rock tune with an ear worm of a hook about trying to be funny and stuck in a room. This is the shows hinge. / 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. I hope to see you inside at some point. Similarly, Burnham often speaks to the audience by filming himself speaking to himself in a mirror. 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). 1 on Billboards comedy albums chart and eventually climbed to No. 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. WebStuck in a passionless marriage, a journalist must choose between her distant but loving husband and a younger ex-boyfriend who has reentered her life. LINDA HOLMES, BYLINE: Thank you, Michel. True, but it can deepen and clarify art. 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. 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 ". If "All Eyes on Me" sounds disconcertingly comforting to you, it could be because you can recognize the mental symptoms of a mood disorder like depression. For those who are unaware, Bos real name is Robert Burnham. 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. Back in 2010, Burnham appeared on Showtime's "The Green Room," a comics round table hosted by Paul Provenza. Relieved to be done? This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Now Burnham is showing us the clutter of the room, where he's almost claustrophobically surrounded by equipment. Burnham uses vocal tuning often throughout all of his specials. In the song Problematic, Burnham sings about his past problematic behavior, asking the audience, Isnt anyone going to hold me accountable? The specials intermission looks like a clear view into Burnhams room, until Burnham washes a window between himself and the viewer an explicit, but invisible, boundary between creator and audience. Burnham lingers on his behind-the-scenes technical tinkering handling lights, editing, practicing lines. "I was in a full body sweat, so I didn't hear most of that," Burnham said after the clip played. 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. It's a hint at the promised future; the possibility of once again being able to go outside and feel sunlight again. Netflix. 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. 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 also, it's clear that there's a lot on his mind. It's not. "The world needs direction from a white guy like [you] who is healing the world with comedy. That quiet simplicity doesn't feel like a relief, but it is. 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.. It moves kind of all over the place. Thank you, Michel. 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. 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. 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. Oops. 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. Toward the end, he appears completely naked behind his keyboard. While talking to the audience during the opening section, Burnham takes a sip out of a water bottle. 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. our full breakdown of every detail and reference you might have missed in "Inside" here. Self-awareness does not absolve anybody of anything.". And it's important to remember, you know, this is a piece of theater. 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. Social media; it's just the market's answer to a generation that demanded to perform so the market said, here, perform. Don't overthink this, look in my eye don't be scared, don't be shy, come on in the water's fine."). It's an emergence from the darkness. ", He then pulls the same joke again, letting the song play after the audience's applause so it seems like a mistake. In the worst case, depression can convince a person to end their life. All rights reserved. Got it? But, like so many other plans and hopes people had in the early months of the pandemic, that goal proved unattainable. Self-awareness does not absolve anyone of anything, he says. that shows this exact meta style. WebBo Burnham's Netflix special "Inside" features 20 new original songs. Burnham is also the main character in the game, a character who is seen moving mechanically around a room. Bo Burnhams 2021 special, Inside. 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. His new Netflix special Inside was directed, written and performed all inside one room. Yes, Amazon has a pre-order set up for the album on Vinyl. ", "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. Its a visual that signifies a man exposing himself, until you realize hes in a spotlight. It's wonderful to be with you. Finally doing basic care tasks for yourself like eating breakfast and starting work in the morning. Anyone can read what you share. Went out to look for a reason to hide again. "Goodbye sadness, hello jokes!". BURNHAM: (Singing) Start a rumor, buy a broom or send a death threat to a Boomer. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. 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. BURNHAM: (Singing) Does anybody want to joke when no one's laughing in the background? newsletter, On Parasocial Relationships and the Boundaries of Celebrity, Bo Burnham and the Trap of Parasocial Self-Awareness.. With electro-pop social commentary, bleak humour and sock-puppet debates, the comics lockdown creation is astonishing. For the album, Bo is credited as writer, performer, and producer on every song. "I'm so worried that criticism will be levied against me that I levy it against myself before anyone else can. That's what it is. There's no more time left to add to the camera's clock. Burnham's creative background began with being a theater then he transitioned to musical-comedy. Because there's also a little bit Bo Burnham the character in this almost. 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. And notably, Burnhams work focuses on parasocial relationships not from the perspective of the audience, but the perspective of the performer.Inside depicts how being a creator can feel: you are a cult leader, you are holding your audience hostage, your audience is holding you hostage, you are your audience, your audience can never be you, you need your audience, and you need to escape your audience. 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. You know, I was not, you know, I was alone, but I was not trapped in one room. 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. Bo Burnham; former YouTuber, iconic Viner, and acclaimed stand-up comedian has recently released a new Netflix special. It has extended versions of songs, cut songs, and alternate versions of songs that were eventually deleted; but is mainly comprised of outtakes. So let's dive into "Inside" and take a closer look at nearly every song and sketch in Burnham's special. Open wide.. He tries to talk into the microphone, giving his audience a one-year update. 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?). All Eyes on Me also earned Bo his first Grammy win for Best Song Written for Visual Media at the 2022 Grammys. "A part of me loves you, part of me hates you," he sang to the crowd. 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. Parasocial relationships can be positive too, as outlined in culture critic Stitchs essay On Parasocial Relationships and the Boundaries of Celebrity for Teen Vogue. Apathy's a tragedy, and boredom is a crime. At the start of the special, Burnham sings "Content," setting the stage for his musical-comedy. Down to the second, the clock changes to midnight exactly halfway through the runtime of "Inside.". I cant say how Burnham thinks or feels with any authority, but as text and form-driven comedy, Inside urges the audience to reflect on how they interact with creators. Viewer discretion is advised. 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. Other artists have made works on the wavelength of Repeat Stuff, but few creators with a platform as large as Burnhams return to the topic over and over, touching on it in almost all of their works. Right after the song ends, the shot of Burnham's guest house returns but this time it's filled with clutter. 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." jonnyewers 30 May 2021. It's a dangerously tempting invitation to stop caring, coming from the villain of this musical comedy (depression). 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. The special is available exclusively on Netflix, while the album can be found on most streaming platforms. But now Burnham is back. 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. He is not talking about it very much. 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. This plays almost like a glitch and goes unexplained until later in the special when a sketch plays out with Burnham as a Twitch streamer who is testing out a game called "INSIDE" (in which the player has to have a Bo Burnham video game character do things like cry, play the piano, and find a flashlight in order to complete their day). "I'm criticizing my initial reaction for being pretentious, which is honestly a defense mechanism," he says. Bo Burnham, pictured here at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival, wrote, directed and performed the entirety of his new Netflix special, Inside, by himself. And they're biting, but he's also very talented at these little catchy pop hooks. Most creator-made content online is available for free, meaning creators usually have to rely on their fans for income via crowdfunding like Patreon. MARTIN: This special is titled, appropriately enough, "Inside," and it is streaming on Netflix now. He takes it, and Burnham cries robotically as a tinny version of the song about being stuck in the room plays. Feelings of depersonalization and derealization can be very disturbing and may feel like you're living in a dream.". 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 / [. The Volcano, which touched on labor rights. Entertainment correspondent Kim Renfro ranked them in ascending order of greatness. But then the video keeps playing, and so he winds up reacting to his own reaction, and then reacting yet again to that reaction. Instead of working his muscles at open mics or in improv, Burnham uploaded joke songs to the platform in 2006. The flow chat for "Is it funny?" He was alone. HOLMES: Thank you. But he meant to knock the water over, yeah yeah yeah, art is a lie nothing is real. Throughout the song and its accompanying visuals, Burnham is highlighting the "girlboss" aesthetic of many white women's Instagram accounts.
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