Even when confronted with works that criticize parasocial attachment, its difficult for fans not to feel emotionally connected to performers they admire. BURNHAM: (Singing) Could I interest you in everything all of the time, a little bit of everything all of the time? "Robert's been a little depressed," he sings (referring to himself by his birthname). "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.". 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. Parasocial relationships can be positive too, as outlined in culture critic Stitchs essay On Parasocial Relationships and the Boundaries of Celebrity for Teen Vogue. And you know what? 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. He tries to talk into the microphone, giving his audience a one-year update. According to the special, Bo decided he was ready to begin doing stand-up again in January 2020, after dealing with panic attacks onstage during his previous tour, the Make Happy Tour of 2015-2016. Is he content with its content? I'm sitting down, writing jokes, singing silly songs, I'm sorry I was gone. The clean, tidy interior that first connected "Inside" with "Make Happy" is gone in its place is a mess-riddled space. Years later, the comedian told NPR's Terry Gross that performing the special was so tough that he was having panic attacks on stage. As we explained in this breakdown of 31 details you might have missed in "Inside," Bo Burnham's newest special is a poioumenon a type of artistic work that tells the story of its own creation. 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. 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." newsletter, On Parasocial Relationships and the Boundaries of Celebrity, Bo Burnham and the Trap of Parasocial Self-Awareness.. I'm talking to you, get the f--- up.". He slaps his leg in frustration, and eventually gives a mirthless laugh before he starts slamming objects around him. 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. This is a heartbreaking chiding coming from Burnham's own distorted voice, as if he's shaming himself for sinking back into that mental state. 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). This is when the musical numbers (and in-between skits) become much more grim. HOLMES: Yeah. BURNHAM: (Singing) Does anybody want to joke when no one's laughing in the background? Photograph: Netflix Its a measure of the quality of Inside 1.0 that this stuff could end up on the cutting-room floor. Gross asked Burnham if people "misinterpreted" the song and thought it was homophobic. Now Burnham is showing us the clutter of the room, where he's almost claustrophobically surrounded by equipment. 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. Its a visual that signifies a man exposing himself, until you realize hes in a spotlight. Later in Inside, Burnham thanks the audience for their support while holding them at knifepoint. The penultimate song "All Eyes on Me" makes for a particularly powerful moment. The album peaked at #7 on the Billboard 200 chart, #1 on the Comedy Albums chart, and #18 on the Independent Albums chart. 20. 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 / [. Don't overthink this, look in my eye don't be scared, don't be shy, come on in the water's fine."). The special is set almost entirely in one cluttered room. The label of parasocial relationship is meant to be neutral, being as natural and normal and, frankly, inescapable as familial or platonic relationships. 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.". See our analysis of the end of the special, and why Burnham's analogy for depression works so well. And the very format of it, as I said, it's very much this kind of sinister figure trying to get you interested. In his new Netflix special, Inside, Bo Burnham sings about trying to be funny while stuck in a room. "Got it? 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. The first comes when Burnham looks directly into the camera as he addresses the audience, singing, Are you feeling nervous? Not in the traditional senseno music was released prior to the special other than a backing track from Content found in the trailer. 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. It's an emergence from the darkness. 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. One of the most encouraging developments in comedy over the past decade has been the growing directorial ambition of stand-up specials. I think this is something we've all been thinking about. This line comes full circle by the end of the special, so keep it in mind. 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. "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. 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. WebBo's transcripts on Scraps From The Loft. "They say it's like the 'me' generation. 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. MARTIN: So Bo Burnham has had a lot of different identities lately. Web9/10. But Burnham doesn't put the bottle down right, and it falls off the stool. WebA grieving woman magically travels through time to 1998, where she meets a man with an uncanny resemblance to her late love. For those who are unaware, Bos real name is Robert Burnham. / 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. Copyright 2021 NPR. 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. Don't overthink this, look in my eye don't be scared don't be shy come on in the water's fine."). That YouTube commenter might be understood by Burnham if they were to meet him. Having this frame of reference may help viewers better understand the design of "Inside." But now Burnham is showing us the clutter of the room where "Inside" was filmed. It's progress. 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. 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. I think you're getting from him, you know, the entertainment element. And he's done virtually no press about it. Burnham's earlier Netflix specials and comedy albums. Bo Burnhams 2021 special, Inside. "Part of me needs you, part of me fears you. Only he knows. 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: It felt very true to me, not in the literal sense. MARTIN: This special is titled, appropriately enough, "Inside," and it is streaming on Netflix now. 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. ", 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.". 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 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. By inserting that Twitch character in this earlier scene, Burnham was seemingly giving a peek into his daily routine. True, but it can deepen and clarify art. And did you have any favorites? Throughout the song and its accompanying visuals, Burnham is highlighting the "girlboss" aesthetic of many white women's Instagram accounts. 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. He is not talking about it very much. Bo Burnham also uploaded Welcome to the Internet and White Womans Instagram on his YouTube channel. 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. 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. "Healing the world with comedy, the indescribable power of your comedy," the voice sings. With electro-pop social commentary, bleak humour and sock-puppet debates, the comics lockdown creation is astonishing. Well, well, buddy you found it, now come out with your hands up we've got you surrounded.". Instead, thanks to his ultra-self-aware style, he seems to always get ahead of criticism by holding himself accountable first. 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. 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. Or was it an elaborate callback to his earlier work, planted for fans seeking evidence that art is lie? Self-awareness does not absolve anyone of anything, he says. 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. Bo Burnhams Inside: A Comedy Special and an Inspired Experiment, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/01/arts/television/bo-burnham-inside-comedy.html. The tension between creator and audience is a prominent theme in Burnhams work, likely because he got his start on YouTube. From the very beginning of "Inside," Burnham makes it clear that the narrative arc of the special will be self-referential. Burnhams eyes are sharply in focus; the rest of him faded out subtly, a detail you might not even notice with how striking his eyes are. Burnham starts spiraling in a mental health crisis, mentioning suicidal ideation after lamenting his advance into his 30s. Now get inside.". Finally doing basic care tasks for yourself like eating breakfast and starting work in the morning. It moves kind of all over the place. 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. 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. 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. 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. He was only 16. That quiet simplicity doesn't feel like a relief, but it is. The voices of the characters eventually blend together to tell the live Burnham on stage, We think we know you.. While talking to the audience during the opening section, Burnham takes a sip out of a water bottle. WebBo Burnham is more than a comedian he's a writer-director-actor who first went viral in 2006. 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. "I didn't perform for five years," he says. Today We'll Talk About That Day But then the video keeps playing, and so he winds up reacting to his own reaction, and then reacting yet again to that reaction. And maybe the rest of us are ready, too. 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. People experiencing depression often stop doing basic self-care tasks, like showering or laundry or brushing their teeth. The second emotional jump scare comes when Burnham monologues about how he stopped performing live because he started having panic attacks on stage, which is not a great place to have them. The monologue increases that sense of intimacy; Burnham is letting the audience in on the state of his mental health even before the global pandemic. 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. Netflix did, however, post Facetime with My Mom (Tonight) on YouTube. And I'm just wondering, like, how would you describe that? "Truly, it's like, for a 16-year-old kid in 2006, it's not bad. Thought modern humans have been around for much longer than 20,000 years, that's around how long ago people first migrated to North America. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. 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" feels like the creative culmination of Bo Burnham's career over the last 15 years, starting with his first viral YouTube video in 2006. 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. But he's largely been given a pass by his fans, who praise his self-awareness and new approach. "All Eyes On Me" starts right after Burnham's outburst of anger and sadness. MARTIN: And I understand you were saying that it moves between genres. His career evolved through YouTube, MTV, Vine, his movie "Eighth Grade," and now Netflix's "Inside." Carpool Karaoke, Steve Aoki, Logan Paul. It's a quiet, banal scene that many people coming out of a depressive episode might recognize. Burnham was just 16 years old when he wrote a parody song ("My Whole Family") and filmed himself performing it in his bedroom. Here's a little bit of that. 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. 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. Each of the songs from the first half of the special are in line with Burnham's earlier Netflix specials and comedy albums. But then the music tells the audience that "he meant to play the track again" and that "art's still a lie, nothing's still real.". It's not. Released on May 30, 2021, Bo Burnham wrote, recorded, directed, and produced Inside while in lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020. 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. In this case, it's likely some combination of depression/anxiety/any other mental disorder. 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. In his first Netflix special (2013's "what. And it has a lot of very clever and very quick wordplay about the specific things you can get on the internet. 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. Good. It feels like the ending of a show, a climax, but it's not. The battery is full, but no numbers are moving. .] The song, written in 2006, is about how his whole family thinks he's gay, and the various conversations they're having trying to figure it out. Hes been addressing us the entire time. 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. 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 it's important to remember, you know, this is a piece of theater. The structured movements of the last hour and half fall away as Burnham snaps at the audience: "Get up. 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. Mirroring the earlier scene where Burnham went to sleep, now Burnham is shown "waking up.". (For example, the song "Straight, White, Male" from the "Make Happy" special). Now get inside.". But, of course, it tangles that right back up; this emotional post was, ultimately, still Content.
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