All rights reserved. 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. And it's important to remember, you know, this is a piece of theater. Its called INSIDE, and it will undoubtedly strike your hearts forevermore. Each of the songs from the first half of the special are in line with Burnham's earlier Netflix specials and comedy albums. "I'm so worried that criticism will be levied against me that I levy it against myself before anyone else can. It's prison. ", The Mayo Clinic defines depersonalization-derealization disorder as occurring "when you persistently or repeatedly have the feeling that you're observing yourself from outside your body or you have a sense that things around you aren't real, or both. The voices of the characters eventually blend together to tell the live Burnham on stage, We think we know you.. But now Burnham is back. It's a dangerously tempting invitation to stop caring, coming from the villain of this musical comedy (depression). His career evolved through YouTube, MTV, Vine, his movie "Eighth Grade," and now Netflix's "Inside." Similarly, Burnham often speaks to the audience by filming himself speaking to himself in a mirror. It's wonderful to be with you. 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. Please check your email to find a confirmation email, and follow the steps to confirm your humanity. The battery is full, but no numbers are moving. 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. In a giddy homage to Cabaret, Burnham, in sunglasses, plays the M.C. Research and analysis of parasocial relationships usually revolves around genres of performers instead of individuals. Well now the shots are reversed. "Inside" kicks off with Burnham reentering the same small studio space he used for the end of "Make Happy," when the 2016 Netflix special transitioned from the live stage to Burnham suddenly sitting down at his piano by himself to sing one final song for the at-home audience. I'm sitting down, writing jokes, singing silly songs, I'm sorry I was gone. our ranking of all 20 original songs from the special here. . It chronicles Burnhams life during the pandemic and his journey creating the special. 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. Now get inside.". 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. 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 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. 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? So he has, for example, a song in which he adopts the persona of a kind of horror movie carnival barker, you might call it, who is trying to sell people the internet. He had a role in the film "Promising Young Woman." WebBo Burnham has been critical of his past self for the edgy, offensive comedy he used to make. I did! But before that can register, Burnham's eyes have closed and the special transitions to the uncannily catchy song "S---," bopping about how he hasn't showered in nine days or done any laundry. 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's when the younger Burnham, the one from the beginning of his special-filming days, appears. Doona! That's a really clever, fun little rhyme in this, you know, kind of heavy song. BURNHAM: (Singing) Could I interest you in everything all of the time, a little bit of everything all of the time? Under the TV section, he has "adults playing twister" (something he referenced in "Make Happy" when he said that celebrity lip-syncing battles were the "end of culture") and "9 season love letter to corporate labor" (which is likely referencing "The Office"). 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. I got so much better, in fact, that in January of 2020, I thought 'you know what I should start performing again. . Still terrified of that spotlight? When he appeared on NPR's radio show "Fresh Air" with Terry Gross in 2018, the host played a clip of "My Whole Family" and Burnham took his headphones off so he didn't have to relisten to the song. By keeping that reveal until the end of the special, Burnham is dropping a hammer on the actual at-home audience, letting us know why his mental health has hit an ATL, as he calls it ("all time low"). 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. Good. WebA grieving woman magically travels through time to 1998, where she meets a man with an uncanny resemblance to her late love. While talking to the audience during the opening section, Burnham takes a sip out of a water bottle. Then, the video keeps going past the runtime of the song and into that reaction itself. MARTIN: Well, that being said, Lynda, like, what song do you want to go out on? "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.". We see Burnham moving around in the daylight, a welcome contrast to the dark setting of "All Eyes on Me." MARTIN: So Bo Burnham has had a lot of different identities lately. Accuracy and availability may vary. My heart hurts with and for him. Because there's also a little bit Bo Burnham the character in this almost. Down to the second, the clock changes to midnight exactly halfway through the runtime of "Inside.". At various points, the gamer is given the option to make the character cry. 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. And it has a lot of very clever and very quick wordplay about the specific things you can get on the internet. HOLMES: That was NPR's Linda Holmes reviewing Bo Burnham's new Netflix special "Inside." He is not talking about it very much. Finally doing basic care tasks for yourself like eating breakfast and starting work in the morning. 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. 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. Known as "Art is a Lie, Nothing is Real," there's a bit Burnham did at the start of his 2013 special "what." He has one where he's just sitting on a stool with an acoustic guitar describing our modern world. So when you get to the end of a song, it often just kind of cuts to something else. Parasocial relationships are neutral, and how we interact with them is usually a mixed bag. 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. The penultimate song "All Eyes on Me" makes for a particularly powerful moment. 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. (The question is no longer, Do you want to buy Wheat Thins?, for example. Linda Holmes, welcome. At the end of the song, "Inside" cuts to a shot of Burnham watching his own video on a computer in the dark. "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. Most sources discuss fictional characters, news anchors, childrens show hosts, or celebrity culture as a whole. Burnham's hair is shorter in those initial behind-the-scenes moments, but his future-self has a longer, unkempt beard and messy hair. Still terrified of that spotlight? 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. Instead of working his muscles at open mics or in improv, Burnham uploaded joke songs to the platform in 2006. 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). Here's a little bit of that. Soering New insights from various parties come to light that raise questions about Jens Sring's conviction of the 1985 murders of his then-girlfriend's parents. "I didn't perform for five years," he says. He's almost claustrophobically surrounded by equipment. Burnham wrote out: "Does it target those who have been disenfranchised in a historical, political, social, economic and/or psychological context?". And did you have any favorites? 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. We're a long way from the days when he filmed "Comedy" and the contrast shows how fruitless this method of healing has been. 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. I've been singing that song for about a week NOW. 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. 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. And the biggest risk Burnham takes in the show is letting his emotional side loose, but not before cracking a ton of jokes. 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 "That's a good start. Now, hes come a long way since his previous specials titled What. and Make Happy, where his large audiences roared with laughter One comment stuck out to me: Theres something really powerful and painful about, hearing his actual voice singing and breaking at certain points. The album peaked at #7 on the Billboard 200 chart, #1 on the Comedy Albums chart, and #18 on the Independent Albums chart. And they're biting, but he's also very talented at these little catchy pop hooks. The whole video is filmed like one big thirst trap as he sweats and works out. He tries to talk into the microphone, giving his audience a one-year update. But also, it's clear that there's a lot on his mind. That his special is an indictment of the internet by an artist whose career was born and flourished there is the ultimate joke. Inside, a new Netflix special written, performed, directed, shot, and edited by comedian Bo Burnham, invokes and plays with many forms. Theres always been a tension in his comedy between an ironic, smarty-pants cleverness and an often melodramatic point of view. of the internet, welcoming everyone with a decadent menu of options while disco lights twirl. It's so good to hear your voice. "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. Long before the phrase parasocial relationship had entered the mainstream zeitgeist, Burnhams work discussed the phenomenon. Disclosure: Mathias Dpfner, CEO of Business Insider's parent company, Axel Springer, is a Netflix board member. It's like the mental despair of the last year has turned into a comfort. he sings as he refers to his birth name. 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. MARTIN: You know, about that, because it does move into a deeply serious place at some point. Who Were We Running From? Other than Fred Rogers, Bo Burnham is one of the most cited single individual creators when discussing parasocial relationships. 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.. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. In Unpaid Intern, Burnham sings about how deeply unethical the position is to the workers in a pastiche of other labor-focused blues. 20. Oops. Please enter a valid email and try again. At the start of the special, Burnham sings "Content," setting the stage for his musical-comedy. 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. 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? Get the fuck up! Burnham walks towards the camera and grabs it like hes grabbing the viewer by the throat. But now Burnham is showing us the clutter of the room where "Inside" was filmed. He brushes his teeth, eats a bowl of cereal, and begins editing his videos. This is when the musical numbers (and in-between skits) become much more grim. Likewise. Its a feat, the work of a gifted experimentalist whose craft has caught up to his talent. 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. Something went wrong. Like he's parodying white people who think that by crucifying themselves first they're somehow freed from the consequences of their actions. And it has a real feel of restlessness to it, almost like stream of consciousness. It's a reminder, coming almost exactly halfway through the special, of the toll that this year is taking on Burnham. The whole song sounds like you're having a religious experience with your own mental disorder, especially when new harmonies kick in. Burnham reacts to his reaction of the song, this time saying, Im being a little pretentious. It's a quiet, banal scene that many people coming out of a depressive episode might recognize. If the answer is yes, then it's not funny. 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.". "Healing the world with comedy, the indescribable power of your comedy," the voice sings.
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