bo burnham: inside transcript

HOLMES: Yeah. 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 special is available exclusively on Netflix, while the album can be found on most streaming platforms. Inside is the work of a comic with artistic tools most of his peers ignore or overlook. The scene cuts to black and we see Burnham waking up in his small pull-out couch bed, bookending the section of the special that started when him going to sleep. 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. In his new Netflix special, Inside, Bo Burnham sings about trying to be funny while stuck in a 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. Bo Burnham's career as a young, white, male comedian has often felt distinct from his peers because of the amount of public self-reflection and acknowledgment of his own privileges that he does on stage and off screen. Bo Burnham's new Netflix comedy special "Inside" is jam-packed with references to his previous work. That YouTube commenter might be understood by Burnham if they were to meet him. "Got it? Now get inside.". Just wanted to make sure everybody knew about Bo's comedy special transcripts on Scraps. 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. It's self-conscious. This line comes full circle by the end of the special, so keep it in mind. and concludes that if it's mean, it's not funny. MARTIN: This special is titled, appropriately enough, "Inside," and it is streaming on Netflix now. 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. MARTIN: You know, about that, because it does move into a deeply serious place at some point. But then the video keeps playing, and so he winds up reacting to his own reaction, and then reacting yet again to that reaction. 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. Oops. Not in the traditional senseno music was released prior to the special other than a backing track from Content found in the trailer. 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. Apathy's a tragedy, and boredom is a crime. .] 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 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. But we weren't. Well now the shots are reversed. 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. MARTIN: So Bo Burnham has had a lot of different identities lately. The song brings with it an existential dread, but Burnham's depression-voice tells us not to worry and sink into nihilism. Not a comedy per se, but a masterpiece nonetheless. And you know what? It's wonderful to be with you. He brushes his teeth, eats a bowl of cereal, and begins editing his videos. Likewise. And then the funniest thing happened.". Burnham wrote out: "Does it target those who have been disenfranchised in a historical, political, social, economic and/or psychological context?". And we might. 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. 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.". I've been hiding from the world and I need to reenter.' Research and analysis of parasocial relationships usually revolves around genres of performers instead of individuals. It's as if Burnham knows there are valid criticisms of him that haven't really stuck in the public discourse around his work. But it doesn't. 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. Toward the end, he appears completely naked behind his keyboard. Burnham reacts to his reaction of the song, this time saying, Im being a little pretentious. . The title card appears in white, then changes to red, signaling that a camera is recording. Mid-song, a spotlight turns on Burnham and shows him completely naked as a voice sings: "Well, well, look who's inside again. The reason he started making this special, he explains in the show, is to distract himself from shooting himself in the head, the first of several mentions of suicide (including one in which he tells viewers to just dont). Well, well, buddy you found it, now come out with your hands up we've got you surrounded.". 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? Partway through the song, the battery icon switches to low and starts blinking in warning as if death is imminent. In his first Netflix special (2013's "what. 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. My heart hurts with and for him. Is he content with its content? So let's dive into "Inside" and take a closer look at nearly every song and sketch in Burnham's special. He is leaving it to speak for itself in terms of what it says about isolation and sadness. 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. Simply smiling at the irony of watching his own movie come to life while he's still inside? WebBo Burnham has been critical of his past self for the edgy, offensive comedy he used to make. 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. You know, as silly as that one is, some of the other ones are more sedate. The incentives of the web, those that reward outrage, excess and sentiment, are the villains of this show. A distorted voice is back again, mocking Burnham as he sits exposed on his fake stage: "Well, well, look who's inside again. 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. Bo Burnham 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 comedians lifetime online explains the heart of most of his new songs, I made you some content, comedian Bo Burnham sings in the opening moments of his new Netflix special, Inside. Bo Burnham And many of them discuss their personal connection to the show and their analysis of how Burnham must have been thinking and feeling when he made it. It's an emergence from the darkness. He takes it, and Burnham cries robotically as a tinny version of the song about being stuck in the room plays. All Eyes on Me also earned Bo his first Grammy win for Best Song Written for Visual Media at the 2022 Grammys. 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. The authoritative record of NPRs programming is the audio record. (The question is no longer, Do you want to buy Wheat Thins?, for example. I actually felt true mutual empathy with someone for the first time, and with someone Ive never even met, its kinda funny.. Burnham makes it textual, too. 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. Still terrified of that spotlight? 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. 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. I hope to see you inside at some point. Bo Burnham Well, well, buddy you found it, now come out with your hands up we've got you surrounded.". 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. "All Eyes On Me" starts right after Burnham's outburst of anger and sadness. 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. He had a role in the film "Promising Young Woman." "That's a good start. Its horrific.". Accuracy and availability may vary. That his special is an indictment of the internet by an artist whose career was born and flourished there is the ultimate joke. Hes bedraggled, increasingly unshaven, growing a Rasputin-like beard. An existential dread creeps in, but Burnham's depression-voice tells us not to worry and sink into nihilism. It also seems noteworthy that this is one of the only sketches in "Inside" that fades to black. One comment stuck out to me: Theres something really powerful and painful about, hearing his actual voice singing and breaking at certain points. Bo Burnham Anything and everything all of the time. It chronicles Burnhams life during the pandemic and his journey creating the special. 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. 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. But, of course, it tangles that right back up; this emotional post was, ultimately, still Content. 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. Bo Burnham 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. I've been singing that song for about a week NOW. Burnham spoofs a PewDiePie-like figure a YouTuber who narrates his playing of a video game with a dead-eyed smugness, as shown in an image at the bottom-right corner of the screen. "I didn't perform for five years," he says. It's conscious of self. They may still be comical, but they have a different feel. Most of the comments talk about how visceral it is to hear Burnhams real voice singing the upsetting lyrics. 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 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. I like this song, Burnham says, before pointing out the the lack of modern songs about labor exploitation. He's the writer, director, editor, and star of this show. The album peaked at #7 on the Billboard 200 chart, #1 on the Comedy Albums chart, and #18 on the Independent Albums chart. Photograph: Netflix Its a measure of the quality of Inside 1.0 that this stuff could end up on the cutting-room floor. It's not. HOLMES: That was NPR's Linda Holmes reviewing Bo Burnham's new Netflix special "Inside." I think you're getting from him, you know, the entertainment element. So we broke down each song and sketch and analyzed their meaning and context. 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.". Down to the second, the clock changes to midnight exactly halfway through the runtime of "Inside.". this breakdown of 31 details you might have missed in "Inside,". It's so good to hear your voice. 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. It's a series of musical numbers and skits that are inherently about the creation of comedy itself. 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. And now depression has its grips in him. @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.". Likewise. In a giddy homage to Cabaret, Burnham, in sunglasses, plays the M.C. Bo Burnham defined an era when he created Inside. But now Burnham is back. 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. 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. Finally doing basic care tasks for yourself like eating breakfast and starting work in the morning. Each of the songs from the first half of the special are in line with Burnham's earlier Netflix specials and comedy albums. In the song, Burnham specifically mentions looking up "derealization," a disorder that may "feel like you're living in a dream. Were complicated. 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.". ", 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 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. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. "Truly, it's like, for a 16-year-old kid in 2006, it's not bad. Its a visual that signifies a man exposing himself, until you realize hes in a spotlight. 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. Social media; it's just the market's answer to a generation that demanded to perform so the market said, here, perform. (For example, the song "Straight, White, Male" from the "Make Happy" special). jonnyewers 30 May 2021. "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 maybe the rest of us are ready, too. 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. He has one where he's just sitting on a stool with an acoustic guitar describing our modern world. Its an origin story of sorts. And she's with us now to tell us more about it. When that future-Burnham appears, it's almost like a precursor to what he'll have shown us by the end of the special: That both he, and his audience, could never have known just how brutal the next year was about to be. Netflix 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. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Bo Burnham's Netflix Special, 'Inside Today We'll Talk About That Day 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 The penultimate song, "All Eyes On Me," is the best in the whole special, in this writer's opinion. When you're a kid and you're stuck in your room, you'll do any old s--- to get out of it.". "You say the whole world's ending, honey it already did, you're not gonna slow it, heaven knows you tried. Throughout the song and its accompanying visuals, Burnham is highlighting the "girlboss" aesthetic of many white women's Instagram accounts. He is not talking about it very much. Feelings of depersonalization and derealization can be very disturbing and may feel like you're living in a dream.". 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. Audiences who might not read a 1956 essay by researchers about news anchors still see much of the same discussion in Inside. 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. 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. "A part of me loves you, part of me hates you," he sang to the crowd. He's freely admitting that self-awareness isn't enough while also clearly unable to move away from that self-aware comedic space he so brilliantly holds. Parasocial relationships can be positive too, as outlined in culture critic Stitchs essay On Parasocial Relationships and the Boundaries of Celebrity for Teen Vogue. Entertainment correspondent Kim Renfro ranked them in ascending order of greatness. 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. "And I spent that time trying to improve myself mentally. Comedian and filmmaker Bo Burnham used his time alone during the pandemic to create a one-man show. I got so much better, in fact, that in January of 2020, I thought 'you know what I should start performing again. Relieved to be done? 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.". Thank you so much for joining us. 1 on Billboards comedy albums chart and eventually climbed to No. BURNHAM: (Singing) Could I interest you in everything all of the time, a little bit of everything all of the time? He was alone. Carpool Karaoke, Steve Aoki, Logan Paul. Its a lyrically dense song with camerawork that speeds up with its rhythm. Bo Burnham "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. Viewer discretion is advised. Anyone can read what you share. 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. And part of it is sometimes he's just in despair. "And so, today, I'm gonna try just getting up, sitting down, going back to work. 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. 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 Good. From the very beginning of "Inside," Burnham makes it clear that the narrative arc of the special will be self-referential.