bo burnham: inside transcript

I did! 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. Inside is the work of a comic with artistic tools most of his peers ignore or overlook. 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. In recent years, he has begun directing other comics specials, staging stand-up sets by Chris Rock and Jerrod Carmichael with his signature extreme close-ups. Instead, thanks to his ultra-self-aware style, he seems to always get ahead of criticism by holding himself accountable first. 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. 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. 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. Still terrified of that spotlight? "That's a good start. 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. He has one where he's just sitting on a stool with an acoustic guitar describing our modern world. 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. Bo Burnham, pictured here at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival, wrote, directed and performed the entirety of his new Netflix special, Inside, by himself. Got it? It's like Burnham's special has swallowed you whole, bringing you fully into his mind at last. 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. 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. Many of his songs begin seriously, then shift into the joke, but this one doesnt. "The world needs direction from a white guy like [you] who is healing the world with comedy. I feel very close and intimate with him in this version. Inside One comment stuck out to me: Theres something really powerful and painful about, hearing his actual voice singing and breaking at certain points. The penultimate song "All Eyes on Me" makes for a particularly powerful moment. Anything and everything all of the time. The tension between creator and audience is a prominent theme in Burnhams work, likely because he got his start on YouTube. That's what it is. "And so today I'm gonna try just getting up, sitting down, going back to 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. An astronaut's return after a 30-year disappearance rekindles a lost love and sparks interest from a corporation determined to learn why he hasn't aged. "You say the whole world's ending, honey it already did, you're not gonna slow it, heaven knows you tried. Inside doesnt give clear answers like parasocial relationships good or parasocial relationships bad, because those answers do not, and cannot, exist. "Goodbye sadness, hello jokes!". 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. The album peaked at #7 on the Billboard 200 chart, #1 on the Comedy Albums chart, and #18 on the Independent Albums chart. The label of parasocial relationship is meant to be neutral, being as natural and normal and, frankly, inescapable as familial or platonic relationships. The frame is intimate, and after such an intense special, something about that intimacy feels almost dangerous, like you should be preparing for some kind of emotional jump scare. Bo Burnham; former YouTuber, iconic Viner, and acclaimed stand-up comedian has recently released a new Netflix special. But he knows how to do this. How does one know if the joke punches down? 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. Is he content with its content? And they're biting, but he's also very talented at these little catchy pop hooks. 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. Went out to look for a reason to hide again. 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. The songs from the special were released on streaming platforms on June 10, 2021. But by the end of the tune, his narrative changes into irreverence. 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. "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. Like most of Burnhams specials, it includes comedic songs and creative lighting effects. HOLMES: Yeah. 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. It's prison. When you're a kid and you're stuck in your room, you'll do any old s--- to get out of it.". Its an origin story of sorts. Something went wrong. 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. Using cinematic tools other comics overlook, the star (who is also the director, editor and cameraman) trains a glaring spotlight on internet life mid-pandemic. He is not talking about it very much. I like this song, Burnham says, before pointing out the the lack of modern songs about labor exploitation. See our analysis of the end of the special, and why Burnham's analogy for depression works so well. 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. 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. Parasocial relationships can be positive too, as outlined in culture critic Stitchs essay On Parasocial Relationships and the Boundaries of Celebrity for Teen Vogue. The penultimate song, "All Eyes On Me," is the best in the whole special, in this writer's opinion. Now, the term is applied to how viewers devote time, energy, and emotion to celebrities and content creators like YouTubers, podcasters, and Twitch streamers people who do not know they exist. Just wanted to make sure everybody knew about Bo's comedy special transcripts on Scraps. 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. HOLMES: Thank you. The penultimate song "All Eyes on Me" makes for a particularly powerful moment. 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. Even when confronted with works that criticize parasocial attachment, its difficult for fans not to feel emotionally connected to performers they admire. Burnham is also the main character in the game, a character who is seen moving mechanically around a room. 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. WebA grieving woman magically travels through time to 1998, where she meets a man with an uncanny resemblance to her late love. 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. BURNHAM: (Singing) Does anybody want to joke when no one's laughing in the background? "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." But it doesn't. And maybe the rest of us are ready, too. HOLMES: So, as you'll hear there, on the one hand, there's a lot of sadness in what he's talking about there. 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. I think this is something we've all been thinking about. And it portends and casts doubt on a later scene when his mental health frays and Burnham cries in earnest. 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. My heart hurts with and for him. Toward the end, he appears completely naked behind his keyboard. In the song, Burnham specifically mentions looking up "derealization," a disorder that may "feel like you're living in a dream. Its an uncanny, dystopian view of Burnham as an instrument in the soulless game of social media. The first comes when Burnham looks directly into the camera as he addresses the audience, singing, Are you feeling nervous? And part of it is sometimes he's just in despair. Now, hes come a long way since his previous specials titled What. and Make Happy, where his large audiences roared with laughter Its a visual that signifies a man exposing himself, until you realize hes in a spotlight. Thematically, it deals with the events of 2020, rising wealth inequality, racial injustice, isolation, mental health, social media, and technologys role in our lives. The clean, tidy interior that first connected "Inside" with "Make Happy" is gone in its place is a mess-riddled space. Bo Burnham Entertainment correspondent Kim Renfro ranked them in ascending order of greatness. 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. Parasocial relationships are neutral, and how we interact with them is usually a mixed bag. Good. But also, it's clear that there's a lot on his mind. 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 / [. WebBo Burnham: Inside is by far one of the riskiest and original comedy specials to come out in years. Similarly, Burnham often speaks to the audience by filming himself speaking to himself in a mirror. 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. 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. At the second level of the reaction video, Burnham says: "I'm being a little pretentious. "All Eyes On Me" starts right after Burnham's outburst of anger and sadness. Bo Burnham So we broke down each song and sketch and analyzed their meaning and context. "Robert's been a little depressed," he sings (referring to himself by his birthname). HOLMES: Yeah. For fans who struggle with panic attacks (myself included) its a comfort to see yourself represented in an artist whose work you respect. But Burnham is of course the writer, director, editor, and star of this show. 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. Next in his special, Burnham performs a sketch song about being an unpaid intern, and then says he's going to do a "reaction" video to the song in classic YouTube format. It's a quiet, banal scene that many people coming out of a depressive episode might recognize. Perform everything to each other, all the time for no reason. And it's important to remember, you know, this is a piece of theater. WebBo Burnham's new Netflix comedy special "Inside" is jam-packed with references to his previous work. 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. One of the most encouraging developments in comedy over the past decade has been the growing directorial ambition of stand-up specials. "Oh Jesus, sorry," Burnham says, hurrying over to pick it up. MARTIN: Well, that being said, Lynda, like, what song do you want to go out on? The result, a special titled "Inside," shows all of Burnham's brilliant instincts of parody and meta-commentary on the role of white, male entertainers in the world and of poisons found in internet culture that digital space that gave him a career and fostered a damaging anxiety disorder that led him to quit performing live comedy after 2015. 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. "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. 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.. The picturesque view of sun-soaked clouds was featured in "Comedy," during the section of the song when Burnham stood up and decided that the only thing he (or his character in the song) could do was "heal the world with comedy.". 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. Its called INSIDE, and it will undoubtedly strike your hearts forevermore. The special is available exclusively on Netflix, while the album can be found on most streaming platforms. Viewer discretion is advised. Its a feat, the work of a gifted experimentalist whose craft has caught up to his talent. 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. 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. So in "Inside," when we see Burnham recording himself doing lighting set up and then accidentally pull down his camera was that a real blooper he decided to edit in? ", "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. It's so good to hear your voice. At just 20 years old, Burnham was a guest alongside Judd Apatow, Marc Maron, Ray Romano, and Garry Shandling. Bo Burnham That's a really clever, fun little rhyme in this, you know, kind of heavy song. But on the other hand, it is lyrically so playful. Well now the shots are reversed. But, of course, it tangles that right back up; this emotional post was, ultimately, still Content. Who Were We Running From? 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. You know, I was not, you know, I was alone, but I was not trapped in one room. MARTIN: And it's deep, too. Poioumenon (from the Greek word for "product") is a term created by author Alastair Fowler and usually used to refer to a kind of metafiction. Bo Burnham On the other two sides of that question ("no" and "not sure") the flowchart asks if it could be "interpreted" as mean (if so, then it's "not funny") or if it "punches down.". 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 ". At the end of the song, "Inside" cuts to a shot of Burnham watching his own video on a computer in the dark. It moves kind of all over the place. WebBo Burnham's Netflix special "Inside" features 20 new original songs. And I think that, 'Oh if I'm self-aware about being a douchebag it'll somehow make me less of a douchebag.' "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. Its a stupid song, and, uh, it doesnt really mean anything. The video continues. We're a long way from the days when he filmed "Comedy" and the contrast shows how fruitless this method of healing has been. Burnham's hair is shorter in those initial behind-the-scenes moments, but his future-self has a longer, unkempt beard and messy hair. You can stream "Inside" on Netflix now, and see our ranking of all 20 original songs from the special here. The special was nominated for six Emmy Awards in 2021, of which it won three: Outstanding Writing for a Variety Special, Outstanding Directing for a Variety Special, and Outstanding Music Direction. 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. Other than Fred Rogers, Bo Burnham is one of the most cited single individual creators when discussing parasocial relationships. 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. "I'm so worried that criticism will be levied against me that I levy it against myself before anyone else can. Bo Burnham's Netflix Special, 'Inside .] "Healing the world with comedy, the indescribable power of your comedy," the voice sings. At the start of the special, Burnham sings "Content," setting the stage for his musical-comedy. By inserting that Twitch character in this earlier scene, Burnham was seemingly giving a peek into his daily routine. 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. ", 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.". Bo Burnham Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. And I don't think that I can handle this right now. Were complicated. BURNHAM: (Singing) Could I interest you in everything all of the time, a little bit of everything all of the time? 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. our ranking of all 20 original songs from the special here. And I'm just wondering, like, how would you describe that? While this special is the product of evolution, Burnham is pointing out its also a regression. The special is set almost entirely in one cluttered room. 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 the biggest risk Burnham takes in the show is letting his emotional side loose, but not before cracking a ton of jokes. Or was it an elaborate callback to his earlier work, planted for fans seeking evidence that art is lie? Anyone can read what you share. He takes it, and Burnham cries robotically as a tinny version of the song about being stuck in the room plays. 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." Bo Burnham It's as if Burnham is showing how wholesale judgments about the way people choose to use social media can gloss over earnest, genuine expressions of love and grief being shared online. 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? 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 Volcano, which touched on labor rights. Get the fuck up! Burnham walks towards the camera and grabs it like hes grabbing the viewer by the throat. 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. 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. 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.". But then, just as Burnham is vowing to always stay inside, and lamenting that he'll be "fully irrelevant and totally broken" in the future, the spotlight turns on him and he's completely naked. 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. 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. 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. Though it does have a twist. Bo Burnham also uploaded Welcome to the Internet and White Womans Instagram on his YouTube channel. I don't think it's perfectly morally defendable.". The piece also highlights Bos anxieties with becoming older and his legacy as a comedian. In his first Netflix special (2013's "what. "I'm criticizing my initial reaction for being pretentious, which is honestly a defense mechanism," he says. 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.". It's a heartbreaking chiding coming from his own distorted voice, as if he's shaming himself for sinking back into that mental state. He is now back to where he was, making jokes alone in his room, an effort to escape his reality. ", He then pulls the same joke again, letting the song play after the audience's applause so it seems like a mistake. 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?. Burnham starts spiraling in a mental health crisis, mentioning suicidal ideation after lamenting his advance into his 30s. But look, I made you some content. And I think that's what you're getting here. 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. 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. The arrogance is taught or it was cultivated. A distorted voice is back again, mocking Burnham as he sits exposed on his fake stage: "Well, well, look who's inside again. Daddy made you your favorite. 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. Released on May 30, 2021, Bo Burnham wrote, recorded, directed, and produced Inside while in lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020. 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. We see Burnham moving around in the daylight, a welcome contrast to the dark setting of "All Eyes on Me." ", 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.". At various points, the gamer is given the option to make the character cry. 20. Bo Burnham defined an era when he created Inside. Don't overthink this, look in my eye don't be scared, don't be shy, come on in the water's fine."). this breakdown of 31 details you might have missed in "Inside,". Photograph: Netflix Its a measure of the quality of Inside 1.0 that this stuff could end up on the cutting-room floor. 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.".

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