BURNHAM: (Singing) Does anybody want to joke when no one's laughing in the background? HOLMES: That was NPR's Linda Holmes reviewing Bo Burnham's new Netflix special "Inside." I think you're getting from him, you know, the entertainment element. The tension between creator and audience is a prominent theme in Burnhams work, likely because he got his start on YouTube. Bo Burnham newsletter, On Parasocial Relationships and the Boundaries of Celebrity, Bo Burnham and the Trap of Parasocial Self-Awareness.. Don't overthink this, look in my eye don't be scared don't be shy come on in the water's fine."). 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?". NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. "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. At the forefront of this shift has been Bo Burnham, one of YouTubes earliest stars, who went on to make his own innovative specials with satirical songs backed by theatrical lighting and disembodied voices. How does one know if the joke punches down? 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). Still, its difficult not to be lulled back into, again, this absolute banger. Please enter a valid email and try again. But now Burnham is showing us the clutter of the room where "Inside" was filmed. I'm sitting down, writing jokes, singing silly songs, I'm sorry I was gone. 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. When Burnham's character decides he doesn't want to actually hear criticism from Socko, he threatens to remove him, prompting Socko's subservience once again, because "that's how the world works.". This is especially true for Patreon campaigns that give fans direct access to creators on platforms like Discord. HOLMES: Right. I think this is something we've all been thinking about. Don't overthink this, look in my eye don't be scared, don't be shy, come on in the water's fine."). 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. Daddy made you your favorite. 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. In one interpretation, maybe the smile means he's ready to be outside again. Review: Bo Burnham's 'Inside Instead, thanks to his ultra-self-aware style, he seems to always get ahead of criticism by holding himself accountable first. 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. 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. He takes it, and Burnham cries robotically as a tinny version of the song about being stuck in the room plays. I have a funky memory and I sometimes can't remember things from something I've watched, even if it was just yesterday. Bo Burnhams Inside: A Comedy Special and an Inspired Experiment, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/01/arts/television/bo-burnham-inside-comedy.html. It also seems noteworthy that this is one of the only sketches in "Inside" that fades to black. 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. Now, hes come a long way since his previous specials titled What. and Make Happy, where his large audiences roared with laughter Bo Burnham 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. 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). "The world needs direction from a white guy like [you] who is healing the world with comedy. I hope to see you inside at some point. 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. Trying to grant his dying father's wish, a son discovers an epic love story buried in his family's distant past. I don't think it's perfectly morally defendable.". At various points, the gamer is given the option to make the character cry. 1 on Billboards comedy albums chart and eventually climbed to No. Anyone can read what you share. Might not help but still it couldn't hurt. "You say the whole world's ending, honey it already did, you're not gonna slow it, heaven knows you tried. ", From then on, the narrative of "Inside" follows Burnham returning to his standard comedic style and singing various parody songs like "FaceTime with My Mom" and "White Woman's Instagram.". 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). WebBo Burnham: Inside (2021) 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. It's a heartbreaking chiding coming from his own distorted voice, as if he's shaming himself for sinking back into that mental state. 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. Even when confronted with works that criticize parasocial attachment, its difficult for fans not to feel emotionally connected to performers they admire. It's prison. Bo Burnham Bo Burnham Most of the comments talk about how visceral it is to hear Burnhams real voice singing the upsetting lyrics. The global pandemic and subsequent lockdown orders of March 2020 put a stop to these plans. 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. And the very format of it, as I said, it's very much this kind of sinister figure trying to get you interested. Its a stupid song, and, uh, it doesnt really mean anything. The video continues. 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. Also, Burnham's air conditioner is set to precisely 69 degrees throughout this whole faux music video. Theres always been a tension in his comedy between an ironic, smarty-pants cleverness and an often melodramatic point of view. Accuracy and availability may vary. 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. And like unpaid interns, most working artists cant afford a mortgage (and yeah, probably torrent a porn). Thank you, Michel. Its an uncanny, dystopian view of Burnham as an instrument in the soulless game of social media. 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. For the album, Bo is credited as writer, performer, and producer on every song. But unlike many of us, Burnham was also hard at work on a one-man show directed, written and performed all by himself. In Unpaid Intern, Burnham sings about how deeply unethical the position is to the workers in a pastiche of other labor-focused blues. "Got it? "The poioumenon is calculated to offer opportunities to explore the boundaries of fiction and reality the limits of narrative truth," Fowler wrote in his book "A History of English Literature.". At just 20 years old, Burnham was a guest alongside Judd Apatow, Marc Maron, Ray Romano, and Garry Shandling. 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. "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.". "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. 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. Its called INSIDE, and it will undoubtedly strike your hearts forevermore. MARTIN: And it's deep, too. Bo Burnham As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. WebBo Burnham's new Netflix comedy special "Inside" is jam-packed with references to his previous work. 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. Inside 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. 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. It's self-conscious. "Robert's been a little depressed," he sings (referring to himself by his birthname). Bo Burnham Burnham's growth is admirable, but also revealing of how little we expect from men in the industry. . Entertainment correspondent Kim Renfro ranked them in ascending order of greatness. The songs from the special were released on streaming platforms on June 10, 2021. "That's a good start. 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. HOLMES: Well, logically enough, let's go out on the closing song. 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. On June 9, Burnham released the music from the special in an album titled Inside (The Songs), which hit No. (The question is no longer, Do you want to buy Wheat Thins?, for example. People experiencing depression often stop doing basic self-care tasks, like showering or laundry or brushing their teeth. See our analysis of the end of the special, and why Burnham's analogy for depression works so well. I've been hiding from the world and I need to reenter.' [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. 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.". 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.". 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). See our analysis of the end of the special, and why Burnham's analogy for depression works so well. Bo Burnham The title card appears in white, then changes to red, signaling that a camera is recording. Bo Burnham's new Netflix comedy special "Inside" is jam-packed with references to his previous work. 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. If we continue to look at it from the lens of a musical narrative, this is the point at which our protagonist realizes he's failed at his mission. Years later, the comedian told NPR's Terry Gross that performing the special was so tough that he was having panic attacks on stage. 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.". A distorted voice is back again, mocking Burnham as he sits exposed on his fake stage: "Well, well, look who's inside again. In his new Netflix special, Inside, Bo Burnham sings about trying to be funny while stuck in a room. Bo Burnham our ranking of all 20 original songs from the special here. His career evolved through YouTube, MTV, Vine, his movie "Eighth Grade," and now Netflix's "Inside." 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 / [. I have a lot of material from back then that I'm not proud of and I think is offensive and I think is not helpful. And did you have any favorites? And now depression has its grips in him. 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. Most creator-made content online is available for free, meaning creators usually have to rely on their fans for income via crowdfunding like Patreon. 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. Thank you so much for joining us. 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. Each of the songs from the first half of the special are in line with Burnham's earlier Netflix specials and comedy albums. ", 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. Bo Burnham's Netflix Special, 'Inside 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. The flow chat for "Is it funny?" 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. Doona! "And so, today, I'm gonna try just getting up, sitting down, going back to work. One comment stuck out to me: Theres something really powerful and painful about, hearing his actual voice singing and breaking at certain points. And like those specials, Inside implores fans to think about deeper themes as well as how we think about comedy as a genre. He tries to talk into the microphone, giving his audience a one-year update. Burnham was just 16 years old when he wrote a parody song ("My Whole Family") and filmed himself performing it in his bedroom. Bo Burnham: Inside is a devastating portrait of the actor-director-singer-comedian's dysfunctional interiority and 2020's unyielding assault on mental and social health. Tell us a little bit more about that. 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. Comedian Bo Burnham recently a new comedy special for Netflix aptly titled Inside which was filmed entirely by himself while under lockdown during the Coronavirus Pandemic in 2020. True, but it can deepen and clarify art. Please check your email to find a confirmation email, and follow the steps to confirm your humanity. Bo Burnham; former YouTuber, iconic Viner, and acclaimed stand-up comedian has recently released a new Netflix special. He's almost claustrophobically surrounded by equipment. I actually felt true mutual empathy with someone for the first time, and with someone Ive never even met, its kinda funny.. you might have missed in Bo Burnham HOLMES: So before he was this celebrated filmmaker, Bo Burnham was himself a YouTube star. "Goodbye sadness, hello jokes!". Good. 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. 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.
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