bo burnham: inside transcript

. And part of it is sometimes he's just in despair. Then, the video keeps going past the runtime of the song and into that reaction itself. 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. Underneath the Steve Martin-like formal trickery has always beaten the heaving heart of a flamboyantly dramatic theater kid. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. During the last 15 minutes of "Make Happy," Burnham turns the comedy switch down a bit and begins talking to the audience about how his comedy is almost always about performing itself because he thinks people are, at all times, doing a "performance" for one another. 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? WebBo Burnham's "Inside" special on Netflix is an incredibly detailed musical-comedy artwork. 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. 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. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. 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. So we broke down each song and sketch and analyzed their meaning and context. For those who are unaware, Bos real name is Robert Burnham. (The question is no longer, Do you want to buy Wheat Thins?, for example. Bo Burnham "Goodbye sadness, hello jokes!". Is he content with its content? Other than Fred Rogers, Bo Burnham is one of the most cited single individual creators when discussing parasocial relationships. 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. True, but it can deepen and clarify art. Burnham was just 16 years old when he wrote a parody song ("My Whole Family") and filmed himself performing it in his bedroom. It's an emergence from the darkness. 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. Though it does have a twist. Might not help but still it couldn't hurt. 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. The incentives of the web, those that reward outrage, excess and sentiment, are the villains of this show. Theres always been a tension in his comedy between an ironic, smarty-pants cleverness and an often melodramatic point of view. HOLMES: Right. Because there's also a little bit Bo Burnham the character in this almost. An ethereal voice (which is really just Burnham's own voice with effects over it) responds to Burnham's question while a bright light suddenly shines on his face, as if he's receiving a message from God. The global pandemic and subsequent lockdown orders of March 2020 put a stop to these plans. .] All Eyes on Me takes a different approach to rattling the viewer. Or was it an elaborate callback to his earlier work, planted for fans seeking evidence that art is lie? ", "I do not think my intention was homophobic, but what is the implicit comedy of that song if you chase it all the way down? 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 Burnham And I think that, 'Oh if I'm self-aware about being a douchebag it'll somehow make me less of a douchebag.' And you can roughly think about this, I think, as a series of short videos that are mostly of him singing songs and that are sewn together with a little bit of other material, whether it's shots of him lying in bed or setting up the cameras. Burnham then kicks back into song, still addressing his audience, who seem unsure of whether to laugh, applaud, or sit somberly in their chairs. 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. 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. A college student navigates life and school while dealing with a unique predicament he's living with a beautiful former K-pop sensation. Went out to look for a reason to hide again. you might have missed in Bo Burnham Back in 2010, Burnham appeared on Showtime's "The Green Room," a comics round table hosted by Paul Provenza. One of those is the internet itself. The whole video is filmed like one big thirst trap as he sweats and works out. 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? His virtuosic new special, Inside (on Netflix), pushes this trend further, so far that it feels as if he has created something entirely new and unlikely, both sweepingly cinematic and claustrophobically intimate, a Zeitgeist-chasing musical comedy made alone to an audience of no one. That quiet simplicity doesn't feel like a relief, but it is. 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. In the worst case, depression can convince a person to end their life. Hes bedraggled, increasingly unshaven, growing a Rasputin-like beard. 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. The label of parasocial relationship is meant to be neutral, being as natural and normal and, frankly, inescapable as familial or platonic relationships. 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. "I didn't perform for five years," he says. BURNHAM: (Singing) Does anybody want to joke when no one's laughing in the background? By inserting that Twitch character in this earlier scene, Burnham was seemingly giving a peek into his daily routine. 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. BURNHAM: (Singing) Start a rumor, buy a broom or send a death threat to a Boomer. So when you get to the end of a song, it often just kind of cuts to something else. Something went wrong. In his first Netflix special (2013's "what. Now, you heard me struggling to describe what this is, so help me out. and concludes that if it's mean, it's not funny. 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 / [. (For example, the song "Straight, White, Male" from the "Make Happy" special). Web9/10. I have a funky memory and I sometimes can't remember things from something I've watched, even if it was just yesterday. 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. 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. The penultimate song, "All Eyes On Me," is the best in the whole special, in this writer's opinion. he sings as he refers to his birth name. The question is now, Will you support Wheat Thins in the fight against Lyme disease?). People experiencing depression often stop doing basic self-care tasks, like showering or laundry or brushing their teeth. 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. Were complicated. begins with the question "Is it mean?" ", 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.". Copyright 2021 NPR. WebBo Burnham is more than a comedian he's a writer-director-actor who first went viral in 2006. Likewise. 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. WebStuck in a passionless marriage, a journalist must choose between her distant but loving husband and a younger ex-boyfriend who has reentered her life. Its a visual that signifies a man exposing himself, until you realize hes in a spotlight. I feel very close and intimate with him in this version. 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. 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.". 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. Carpool Karaoke, Steve Aoki, Logan Paul. 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. 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. "Robert's been a little depressed," he sings (referring to himself by his birthname). Daddy made you your favorite. ", Right as Burnham is straightening up, music begins blaring over the speakers and Burnham's own voice sings: "He meant to knock the water over, yeah yeah yeah, but you all thought it was an accident. 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. Simply smiling at the irony of watching his own movie come to life while he's still inside? 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. It feels like the ending of a show, a climax, but it's not. 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. 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). I hope to see you inside at some point. The whole song sounds like you're having a religious experience with your own mental disorder, especially when new harmonies kick in. Parasocial relationships are neutral, and how we interact with them is usually a mixed bag. [1] Created in the guest house of Burnham's Los Angeles home during the COVID-19 pandemic without a crew or audience, it was released on Netflix on May 30, 2021. It's progress. Bo Burnham 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." Inside is the work of a comic with artistic tools most of his peers ignore or overlook. Still terrified of that spotlight? But the lyrics Burnham sings seem to imply that he wants to be held accountable for thoughtless and offensive jokes of his past: "Father please forgive me for I did not realize what I did, or that I'd live to regret it, times are changing and I'm getting old, are you gonna hold me accountable?". "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. 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. Whatever it is, NPR's Linda Holmes, host of Pop Culture Happy Hour, has reviewed it, and she liked it. Later in Inside, Burnham thanks the audience for their support while holding them at knifepoint. 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. newsletter, On Parasocial Relationships and the Boundaries of Celebrity, Bo Burnham and the Trap of Parasocial Self-Awareness.. MARTIN: This special is titled, appropriately enough, "Inside," and it is streaming on Netflix now. Audiences who might not read a 1956 essay by researchers about news anchors still see much of the same discussion in Inside. WebA grieving woman magically travels through time to 1998, where she meets a man with an uncanny resemblance to her late love. 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. "Got it? Anyone can read what you share. / 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. His career evolved through YouTube, MTV, Vine, his movie "Eighth Grade," and now Netflix's "Inside." The authoritative record of NPRs programming is the audio record. You can tell that he's watched a ton of livestream gamers, and picked up on their intros, the way the talk with people in the chat, the cadence of their commentary on the game, everything. Its easy to see Unpaid Intern as one scene and the reaction videos as another, but in the lens of parasocial relationships, digital media, and workers rights, the song and the reactions work as an analysis for another sort of labor exploitation: content creation. Down to the second, the clock changes to midnight exactly halfway through the runtime of "Inside.". Bo Burnham 1 on Billboards comedy albums chart and eventually climbed to No. Yes, Bo Burnham posted a trailer via Twitter on April 28, 2021. And you know what? 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. Relieved to be done? One comment stuck out to me: Theres something really powerful and painful about, hearing his actual voice singing and breaking at certain points. Burnham is an extraordinary actor, and "Inside" often feels like we're watching the intimate, real interior life of an artist. 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. BURNHAM: (Singing) The live-action "Lion King," the Pepsi halftime show, 20,000 years of this, seven more to go. MARTIN: So Bo Burnham has had a lot of different identities lately. Yes, Amazon has a pre-order set up for the album on Vinyl. 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. "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. 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. He was alone. Im talking to you. We're a long way from the days when he filmed "Comedy" and the contrast shows how fruitless this method of healing has been. Bo Burnham Bo Burnham: INSIDE | Trailer - YouTube 0:00 / 2:09 The following content may contain suicide or self-harm topics. "And I spent that time trying to improve myself mentally. The final shot is of him looking positively orgasmic, eyes closed, on the cross. There's no more time left to add to the camera's clock. Burnham reacts to his reaction of the song, this time saying, Im being a little pretentious. Like, what is it? It moves kind of all over the place. They Cloned Tyrone. "And so, today, I'm gonna try just getting up, sitting down, going back to work. I've been singing that song for about a week NOW. "I'm criticizing my initial reaction for being pretentious, which is honestly a defense mechanism," he says. Similarly, Burnham often speaks to the audience by filming himself speaking to himself in a mirror. "They say it's like the 'me' generation. Its an uncanny, dystopian view of Burnham as an instrument in the soulless game of social media. Comedian Bo Burnham recently a new comedy special for Netflix aptly titled Inside which was filmed entirely by himself while under lockdown during the Coronavirus Pandemic in 2020. But now Burnham is showing us the clutter of the room where "Inside" was filmed. 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 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. Right after the song ends, the shot of Burnham's guest house returns but this time it's filled with clutter. And then the funniest thing happened.". Bo Burnham: Inside - The 10 Funniest Quotes From The Netflix Special In his new Netflix special, Inside, Bo Burnham sings about trying to be funny while stuck in a room. 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. From the very beginning of "Inside," Burnham makes it clear that the narrative arc of the special will be self-referential. Netflix. And it's important to remember, you know, this is a piece of theater. Each of the songs from the first half of the special are in line with Burnham's earlier Netflix specials and comedy albums. But by the end of the tune, his narrative changes into irreverence. 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. And that can be a really - if you're not very good at it, that kind of thing, where there's a balance between sort of the sarcastic and ironic versus the very sincere can be really exhausting. @TheWoodMother made a video about how Burnham's "Inside" is its own poioumenon, which led to his first viral video on YouTube, written in 2006, is about how his whole family thinks he's gay, defines depersonalization-derealization disorder, "critical window for action to prevent the effects of global warming from becoming irreversible.". Remember how Burnham's older, more-bearded self popped up at the beginning of "Inside" when we were watching footage of him setting up the cameras and lighting? Please enter a valid email and try again. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. Burnham uses vocal tuning often throughout all of his specials. And I'm just wondering, like, how would you describe that? It's like Burnham's special has swallowed you whole, bringing you fully into his mind at last. The album peaked at #7 on the Billboard 200 chart, #1 on the Comedy Albums chart, and #18 on the Independent Albums chart. 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. 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" feels like the creative culmination of Bo Burnham's career over the last 15 years, starting with his first viral YouTube video in 2006. Burnham's earlier Netflix specials and comedy albums. WebBo's transcripts on Scraps From The Loft. Photograph: Netflix Its a measure of the quality of Inside 1.0 that this stuff could end up on the cutting-room floor. Anything and everything all of the time. 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. this breakdown of 31 details you might have missed in "Inside,". How does one know if the joke punches down? With electro-pop social commentary, bleak humour and sock-puppet debates, the comics lockdown creation is astonishing. 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. Long before the phrase parasocial relationship had entered the mainstream zeitgeist, Burnhams work discussed the phenomenon. It's conscious of self. On the Netflix special, however, Josh Senior is credited as a producer, Cooper Wehde is an assistant producer, and a number of people are credited for post-production, editing, and logistical coordinating. Burnham reacts to his reaction to his reaction to his reaction, focusing so intently on his body and image that he panics, stops the videoand then smiles at his audience, thanking them for watching. One of the most encouraging developments in comedy over the past decade has been the growing directorial ambition of stand-up specials. 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. But Burnham is of course the writer, director, editor, and star of this show. WebOn a budget. Is he content with its content? Its an origin story of sorts. Thank you, Michel. And I think that's what you're getting here. He also revealed an official poster, a single frame from the special, and the cover art prior to its release. Doona! ", "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. Bo Burnham It has extended versions of songs, cut songs, and alternate versions of songs that were eventually deleted; but is mainly comprised of outtakes.

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