Please enter a valid email and try again. I've been hiding from the world and I need to reenter.' He tries to talk into the microphone, giving his audience a one-year update. 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. That YouTube commenter might be understood by Burnham if they were to meet him. WebA grieving woman magically travels through time to 1998, where she meets a man with an uncanny resemblance to her late love. 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. And I think that's what you're getting here. 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. It's a dangerously tempting invitation to stop caring, coming from the villain of this musical comedy (depression). 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. 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. "Any Day Now" The ending credits. 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. 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. BO BURNHAM: (Singing) If you'd have told me a year ago that I'd be locked inside of my home, I would have told you a year ago, interesting, now leave me alone. By inserting that Twitch character in this earlier scene, Burnham was seemingly giving a peek into his daily routine. It's a reprieve of the lyrics Burnham sang earlier in the special when he was reminiscing about being a kid stuck in his room. ", 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.". Underneath the Steve Martin-like formal trickery has always beaten the heaving heart of a flamboyantly dramatic theater kid. 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. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Get up. When that future-Burnham appears, it's almost like a precursor to what he'll have shown us by the end of the special: That both he, and his audience, could never have known just how brutal the next year was about to be. 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. 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.. Inside doesnt give clear answers like parasocial relationships good or parasocial relationships bad, because those answers do not, and cannot, exist. 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. That's when the younger Burnham, the one from the beginning of his special-filming days, appears. I was not, you know, having these particular experiences. Hes bedraggled, increasingly unshaven, growing a Rasputin-like beard. Parasocial relationships are neutral, and how we interact with them is usually a mixed bag. The structured movements of the last hour and half fall away as Burnham snaps at the audience: "Get up. Most of the comments talk about how visceral it is to hear Burnhams real voice singing the upsetting lyrics. 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. 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 his first Netflix special (2013's "what. "A part of me loves you, part of me hates you," he sang to the crowd. The whole video is filmed like one big thirst trap as he sweats and works out. The whole song sounds like you're having a religious experience with your own mental disorder, especially when new harmonies kick in. HOLMES: Yeah. 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. I think this is something we've all been thinking about. Most sources discuss fictional characters, news anchors, childrens show hosts, or celebrity culture as a whole. Its an origin story of sorts. Burnham slaps his leg in frustration and eventually gives a mirthless laugh before he starts slamming objects around him. And it has a real feel of restlessness to it, almost like stream of consciousness. But on the other hand, it is lyrically so playful. Its an uncanny, dystopian view of Burnham as an instrument in the soulless game of social media. 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. 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. When we see it again towards the end of the special, it's from a new camera angle. 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. He was alone. It's a heartbreaking chiding coming from his own distorted voice, as if he's shaming himself for sinking back into that mental state. It's a hint at the promised future; the possibility of once again being able to go outside and feel sunlight again. WebBo Burnham is more than a comedian he's a writer-director-actor who first went viral in 2006. 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. 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. Its a visual that signifies a man exposing himself, until you realize hes in a spotlight. Theyre complicated. In this case, it's likely some combination of depression/anxiety/any other mental disorder. 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. A college student navigates life and school while dealing with a unique predicament he's living with a beautiful former K-pop sensation. 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. He's almost claustrophobically surrounded by equipment. 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. And finally today, like many of us, writer, comedian and filmmaker Bo Burnham found himself isolated for much of last year - home alone, growing a beard, trying his best to stay sane. Like, what is it? 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. "You say the whole world's ending, honey it already did, you're not gonna slow it, heaven knows you tried. It's so good to hear your voice. Now, you heard me struggling to describe what this is, so help me out. Disclosure: Mathias Dpfner, CEO of Business Insider's parent company, Axel Springer, is a Netflix board member. . 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. 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. The song begins with a fade in from back, the shot painfully close to Burnhams face as he looks off to the side. WebA Girl and an Astronaut. 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." A series of eerie events thrusts an unlikely trio (John Boyega, Jamie Foxx and Teyonah Parris) onto the trail of a nefarious government conspiracy. Known as "Art is a Lie, Nothing is Real," there's a bit Burnham did at the start of his 2013 special "what." In the worst case, depression can convince a person to end their life. Don't overthink this, look in my eye don't be scared, don't be shy, come on in the water's fine."). 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. Mirroring the earlier scene where Burnham went to sleep, now Burnham is shown "waking up.". 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. That's what it is. WebBo Burnham: Inside is by far one of the riskiest and original comedy specials to come out in years. Now get inside.". If the answer is yes, then it's not funny. I actually felt true mutual empathy with someone for the first time, and with someone Ive never even met, its kinda funny.. "Goodbye sadness, hello jokes!". Just as often, Burnhams shot sequencing plays against the meaning of a song, like when he breaks out a glamorous split screen to complement a comic song about FaceTiming with his mom. 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. WebBo Burnham has been critical of his past self for the edgy, offensive comedy he used to make. 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. Burnham makes it textual, too. 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. 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 But in recent years, theres been enough awareness of online behavior to see how parasocial relationships can have negative impacts on both the creator and the audience if left uninterrogated by both parties. 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. 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. 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. Burnham's creative background began with being a theater then he transitioned to musical-comedy.
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