Performing "Make Happy" was mentally taxing on Burnham. Comedian and filmmaker Bo Burnham used his time alone during the pandemic to create a one-man show. Netflix did, however, post Facetime with My Mom (Tonight) on YouTube. Not a comedy per se, but a masterpiece nonetheless. 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. And maybe the rest of us are ready, too. It's wonderful to be with you. Anyone can read what you share. And now depression has its grips in him. The song begins with a fade in from back, the shot painfully close to Burnhams face as he looks off to the side. It's a heartbreaking chiding coming from his own distorted voice, as if he's shaming himself for sinking back into that mental state. The question is now, Will you support Wheat Thins in the fight against Lyme disease?). And I think that, 'Oh if I'm self-aware about being a douchebag it'll somehow make me less of a douchebag.' In a giddy homage to Cabaret, Burnham, in sunglasses, plays the M.C. Maybe we'll call it isolation theater. 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. Back in 2010, Burnham appeared on Showtime's "The Green Room," a comics round table hosted by Paul Provenza. And it has a lot of very clever and very quick wordplay about the specific things you can get on the internet. We're a long way from the days when he filmed "Comedy" and the contrast shows how fruitless this method of healing has been. Coined in 1956 by researchers Donald Horton and Richard Wohl, the term initially was used to analyze relationships between news anchors who spoke directly to the audience and that audience itself. Its an origin story of sorts. Please check your email to find a confirmation email, and follow the steps to confirm your humanity. Hes been addressing us the entire time. 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. 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. At various points, the gamer is given the option to make the character cry. I actually felt true mutual empathy with someone for the first time, and with someone Ive never even met, its kinda funny.. Most creator-made content online is available for free, meaning creators usually have to rely on their fans for income via crowdfunding like Patreon. And like unpaid interns, most working artists cant afford a mortgage (and yeah, probably torrent a porn). 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. 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. 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. 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. "All Eyes On Me" starts right after Burnham's outburst of anger and sadness. Its an instinct I have for all my work to have some deeper meaning or something. Bo Burnham defined an era when he created Inside. 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. "The world needs direction from a white guy like [you] who is healing the world with comedy. "A part of me loves you, part of me hates you," he sang to the crowd. After more sung repetitions of get your fuckin hands up, Burnham says, Get up. Burnham reacts to his reaction to his reaction: Im so afraid that this criticism will be levied against me that I levy it against myself before anyone else can. The video keeps going. Its a visual that signifies a man exposing himself, until you realize hes in a spotlight. Partway through the song, the battery icon switches to low and starts blinking in warning as if death is imminent. 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. HOLMES: Right. Then he moves into a new layer of reaction, where he responds to that previous comment. And like those specials, Inside implores fans to think about deeper themes as well as how we think about comedy as a genre. It's a dangerously tempting invitation to stop caring, coming from the villain of this musical comedy (depression). He tries to talk into the microphone, giving his audience a one-year update. 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. People experiencing depression often stop doing basic self-care tasks, like showering or laundry or brushing their teeth. That's what it is. Entertainment correspondent Kim Renfro ranked them in ascending order of greatness. It's prison. Not in the traditional senseno music was released prior to the special other than a backing track from Content found in the trailer. "You say the ocean's rising, like I give a s---," he sings. 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. Went out to look for a reason to hide again. 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"). Underneath the Steve Martin-like formal trickery has always beaten the heaving heart of a flamboyantly dramatic theater kid. Parasocial relationships are neutral, and how we interact with them is usually a mixed bag. Even when confronted with works that criticize parasocial attachment, its difficult for fans not to feel emotionally connected to performers they admire. Trying to grant his dying father's wish, a son discovers an epic love story buried in his family's distant past. 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?. 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. But on the other hand, it is lyrically so playful. 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. I don't think it's perfectly morally defendable.". But in both of those cases, similarity and connection would come from the way the art itself connects people, not any actual tie between Burnham and myself, Burnham and the commenter. The special is set almost entirely in one cluttered room. WebOn a budget. 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. One comment stuck out to me: Theres something really powerful and painful about, hearing his actual voice singing and breaking at certain points. You know, I was not, you know, I was alone, but I was not trapped in one room. 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. The whole song sounds like you're having a religious experience with your own mental disorder, especially when new harmonies kick in. Still, its difficult not to be lulled back into, again, this absolute banger. . So this is how it ends. Its a feat, the work of a gifted experimentalist whose craft has caught up to his talent. 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. 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. Burnham lingers on his behind-the-scenes technical tinkering handling lights, editing, practicing lines. The structured movements of the last hour and half fall away as Burnham snaps at the audience: "Get up. 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. HOLMES: Yeah. 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. In his first Netflix special (2013's "what. Here's a little bit of that. Bo Burnham's new Netflix comedy special "Inside" is jam-packed with references to his previous work. Relieved to be done? But I described it to a couple of people as, you know, this looks like what the inside of my head felt like because of his sort of restlessness, his desire to create, create, create. The song made such a splash in its insight that it earned its own episode in Shannon Struccis seminal Fake Friends documentary series, which broke down what parasocial relationships are and how they work. 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. Its folly to duplicate the feel of a live set, so why not fully adjust to the screen and try to make something as visually ambitious as a feature? 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. "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. HOLMES: I liked a bunch of the songs in this, and a lot of them are silly songs about the things that his comedy has already been concerned with for a long time, right? 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. Burnham quickly shifts from the song to a reaction video of the song itself in the style of a YouTuber or Twitch streamer. Having this frame of reference may help viewers better understand the design of "Inside." And she's with us now to tell us more about it. Only he knows. Released on May 30, 2021, Bo Burnham wrote, recorded, directed, and produced Inside while in lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020. Burnham uses vocal tuning often throughout all of his specials. If the answer is yes, then it's not funny. Like most of Burnhams specials, it includes comedic songs and creative lighting effects. Perform everything to each other, all the time for no reason. Might not help but still it couldn't hurt. Burnham starts spiraling in a mental health crisis, mentioning suicidal ideation after lamenting his advance into his 30s. 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. 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. A gift shop at the gun range, a mass shooting at the mall. 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). The vocal key used in "All Eyes On Me" could be meant to represent depression, an outside force that is rather adept at convincing our minds to simply stay in bed, to not care, and to not try anymore. 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. How does one know if the joke punches down? 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.". 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. And then, of course, he had previous standup comedy specials. He's almost claustrophobically surrounded by equipment. 20. Bo Burnhams latest Netflix special, Inside, is a solo venture about the comedian and filmmakers difficult experience in quarantine thats earned enthusiastic critical acclaim. 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. 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. 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" feels like the creative culmination of Bo Burnham's career over the last 15 years, starting with his first viral YouTube video in 2006. 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. 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. And then the funniest thing happened.". 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.. Please enter a valid email and try again. 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. Simply smiling at the irony of watching his own movie come to life while he's still inside? Burnham slaps his leg in frustration and eventually gives a mirthless laugh before he starts slamming objects around him. I got better. 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. His hair and beard were shorter, and he was full of inspired energy. Most sources discuss fictional characters, news anchors, childrens show hosts, or celebrity culture as a whole. 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. Copyright 2021 NPR. While this special is the product of evolution, Burnham is pointing out its also a regression. WebBo Burnham's "Inside" special on Netflix is an incredibly detailed musical-comedy artwork. 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. It's conscious of self. 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. For the song "Comedy," Burnham adopts a persona adjacent to his real life self a white male comedian who is driven to try and help make the world a better place. Burnham then kicks back into song, still addressing his audience, who seem unsure of whether to laugh, applaud, or sit somberly in their chairs. He tries to talk into the microphone, giving his audience a one-year update. He is now back to where he was, making jokes alone in his room, an effort to escape his reality. The video is an hour-long edit of footage that was deleted from the making of Inside. "Truly, it's like, for a 16-year-old kid in 2006, it's not bad. He had a role in the film "Promising Young Woman." Burnham may also be trying to parody the hollow, PR-scripted apologies that celebrities will trot out before they've possibly had the time to self-reflect and really understand what people are trying to hold them accountable for. 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. Most of the comments talk about how visceral it is to hear Burnhams real voice singing the upsetting lyrics. But, like so many other plans and hopes people had in the early months of the pandemic, that goal proved unattainable. But by the end of the tune, his narrative changes into irreverence. Relieved to be done? A college student navigates life and school while dealing with a unique predicament he's living with a beautiful former K-pop sensation. 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.
bo burnham: inside transcript
