bo burnham: inside transcript bo burnham: inside transcript

Transcript Comedian and filmmaker Bo Burnham used his time alone during the pandemic to create a one-man show. . There's no more time left to add to the camera's clock. Comedian and filmmaker Bo Burnham used his time alone during the pandemic to create a one-man show. 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. Theres a nostalgic sweetness to this song, but parts of it return throughout the show, in darker forms, one of many variations on a theme. Let's take a closer look at just a few of those bubbles, shall we? MARTIN: This special is titled, appropriately enough, "Inside," and it is streaming on Netflix now. I feel very close and intimate with him in this version. WebBo Burnham is more than a comedian he's a writer-director-actor who first went viral in 2006. All rights reserved. Now get inside.". 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. 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. Anything and everything all of the time. And so I think he's always had that stubborn insistence on holding both of those things in his head at the same time. 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. In his new Netflix special, Inside, Bo Burnham sings about trying to be funny while stuck in a room. "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. Tapping on a synthesizer, he sings about the challenges of isolation as he sits on a cluttered floor, two striking squares of sunlight streaming in through the windows of a dark room. 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. Got it? Finally doing basic care tasks for yourself like eating breakfast and starting work in the morning. That quiet simplicity doesn't feel like a relief, but it is. 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.". "That's a good start. WebOn a budget. BURNHAM: (Singing) Could I interest you in everything all of the time, a little bit of everything all of the time? Linda Holmes, welcome. 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. 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. Most of the comments talk about how visceral it is to hear Burnhams real voice singing the upsetting lyrics. 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. Burnham reacts to his reaction of the song, this time saying, Im being a little pretentious. Most sources discuss fictional characters, news anchors, childrens show hosts, or celebrity culture as a whole. The question is now, Will you support Wheat Thins in the fight against Lyme disease?). 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? 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. But usually there is one particular voice that acts as a disembodied narrator character, some omniscient force that needles Burnham in the middle of his stand up (like the voice in "Make Happy" that interrupts Burnham's set to call him the f-slur). The incentives of the web, those that reward outrage, excess and sentiment, are the villains of this show. HOLMES: So, as you'll hear there, on the one hand, there's a lot of sadness in what he's talking about there. Just wanted to make sure everybody knew about Bo's comedy special transcripts on Scraps. Right after the song ends, the shot of Burnham's guest house returns but this time it's filled with clutter. It's prison. Anyone can read what you share. But on the other hand, it is lyrically so playful. jonnyewers 30 May 2021. 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. 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. The structured movements of the last hour and half fall away as Burnham snaps at the audience: "Get up. That YouTube commenter might be understood by Burnham if they were to meet him. "And so, today, I'm gonna try just getting up, sitting down, going back to work. Inside takes topics discussed academically, analytically, and delivers them to a new audience through the form of a comedy special by a widely beloved performer. And I don't think that I can handle this right now. It's like the mental despair of the last year has turned into a comfort. Its an origin story of sorts. ", He then pulls the same joke again, letting the song play after the audience's applause so it seems like a mistake. Social media; it's just the market's answer to a generation that demanded to perform so the market said, here, perform. But look, I made you some content. This is when the musical numbers (and in-between skits) become much more grim. Good. The special is set almost entirely in one cluttered room. "The quiet comprehending of the ending of it all," is another of Burnham's lyrics in this song that seems to speak to the idea that civilization is nearing collapse, and also touches on suicidal ideation. A part of me loves you, part of me hates you / Part of me needs you, part of me fears you / [. The song begins with a fade in from back, the shot painfully close to Burnhams face as he looks off to the side. 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. Later in Inside, Burnham thanks the audience for their support while holding them at knifepoint. 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. 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. Likewise. It's a series of musical numbers and skits that are inherently about the creation of comedy itself. I was not, you know, having these particular experiences. Entertainment correspondent Kim Renfro ranked them in ascending order of greatness. Netflix. 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. Burnham starts spiraling in a mental health crisis, mentioning suicidal ideation after lamenting his advance into his 30s. 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 penultimate song, "All Eyes On Me," is the best in the whole special, in this writer's opinion. Might not help, but still, it couldn't hurt.". But Burnham doesn't put the bottle down right, and it falls off the stool. Netflix did, however, post Facetime with My Mom (Tonight) on YouTube. One of those is the internet itself. Mirroring the earlier scene where Burnham went to sleep, now Burnham is shown "waking up.". The whole song sounds like you're having a religious experience with your own mental disorder, especially when new harmonies kick in. It's a heartbreaking chiding coming from his own distorted voice, as if he's shaming himself for sinking back into that mental state. 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. And it portends and casts doubt on a later scene when his mental health frays and Burnham cries in earnest. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. The authoritative record of NPRs programming is the audio record. 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. BURNHAM: (Singing) Start a rumor, buy a broom or send a death threat to a Boomer. 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. of the internet, welcoming everyone with a decadent menu of options while disco lights twirl. Burnham is especially aware as a creator constantly reflecting on his own life. Burnham's growth is admirable, but also revealing of how little we expect from men in the industry. 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 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. HOLMES: It felt very true to me, not in the literal sense. WebBo Burnham's Netflix special "Inside" features 20 new original songs. BURNHAM: (Singing) The live-action "Lion King," the Pepsi halftime show, 20,000 years of this, seven more to go. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. Or was it an elaborate callback to his earlier work, planted for fans seeking evidence that art is lie? 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. Please enter a valid email and try again. 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. "I'm criticizing my initial reaction for being pretentious, which is honestly a defense mechanism," he says. We see Burnham moving around in the daylight, a welcome contrast to the dark setting of "All Eyes on Me." 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. Burnham's earlier Netflix specials and comedy albums. 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. Though it does have a twist. Its horrific.". Were complicated. Inside doesnt give clear answers like parasocial relationships good or parasocial relationships bad, because those answers do not, and cannot, exist. With electro-pop social commentary, bleak humour and sock-puppet debates, the comics lockdown creation is astonishing. You can stream "Inside" on Netflix now, and see our ranking of all 20 original songs from the special here. "All Eyes On Me" starts right after Burnham's outburst of anger and sadness. 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. When you're a kid and you're stuck in your room, you'll do any old s--- to get out of it.". Now, five years later, Burnham's new parody song is digging even deeper at the philosophical question of whether or not it's appropriate to be creating comedy during a horrifyingly raw period of tragedy like the COVID-19 pandemic and the social reckoning that followed George Floyd's murder. "You say the whole world's ending, honey it already did, you're not gonna slow it, heaven knows you tried. Something went wrong. Bo Burnham: Inside is a devastating portrait of the actor-director-singer-comedian's dysfunctional interiority and 2020's unyielding assault on mental and social health. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. The arrogance is taught or it was cultivated. Its called INSIDE, and it will undoubtedly strike your hearts forevermore. 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. For those who are unaware, Bos real name is Robert Burnham. MARTIN: Well, that being said, Lynda, like, what song do you want to go out on? our full breakdown of every detail and reference you might have missed in "Inside" here. Burnham then kicks back into song, still addressing his audience, who seem unsure of whether to laugh, applaud, or sit somberly in their chairs. In the song, Burnham specifically mentions looking up "derealization," a disorder that may "feel like you're living in a dream. 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. I don't think it's perfectly morally defendable.". our ranking of all 20 original songs from the special here. You know, as silly as that one is, some of the other ones are more sedate. The song is like having a religious experience with your own mental disorder. Underneath the Steve Martin-like formal trickery has always beaten the heaving heart of a flamboyantly dramatic theater kid. Burnham's hair is shorter in those initial behind-the-scenes moments, but his future-self has a longer, unkempt beard and messy hair. Get up. Some of the things he mentions that give him "that funny feeling" include discount Etsy agitprop (aka communist-themed merchandise) and the Pepsi halftime show. Im talking to you. "I don't know that it's not," he said. While he's laying in bed, eyes about the close, the screen shows a flash of an open door. This is especially true for Patreon campaigns that give fans direct access to creators on platforms like Discord. 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. Performing "Make Happy" was mentally taxing on Burnham. Like most of Burnhams specials, it includes comedic songs and creative lighting effects. A gift shop at the gun range, a mass shooting at the mall. 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. And like unpaid interns, most working artists cant afford a mortgage (and yeah, probably torrent a porn). Research and analysis of parasocial relationships usually revolves around genres of performers instead of individuals. 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.". So let's dive into "Inside" and take a closer look at nearly every song and sketch in Burnham's special. 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. So we broke down each song and sketch and analyzed their meaning and context. Burnham was just 16 years old when he wrote a parody song ("My Whole Family") and filmed himself performing it in his bedroom. 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. Relieved to be done? He's the writer, director, editor, and star of this show. MARTIN: And I understand you were saying that it moves between genres. 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). It's so good to hear your voice. But by the end of the tune, his narrative changes into irreverence. Simply smiling at the irony of watching his own movie come to life while he's still inside? 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. Bo Burnham: Inside review this is a claustrophobic masterpiece. "Oh Jesus, sorry," Burnham says, hurrying over to pick it up. "I didn't perform for five years," he says. 20. Perform everything to each other, all the time for no reason. But also, it's clear that there's a lot on his mind. But what is it exactly - a concert, a comedy special? 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 global pandemic and subsequent lockdown orders of March 2020 put a stop to these plans. 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. Likewise. We're a long way from the days when he filmed "Comedy" and the contrast shows how fruitless this method of healing has been. 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. 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? Thematically, it deals with the events of 2020, rising wealth inequality, racial injustice, isolation, mental health, social media, and technologys role in our lives. HOLMES: So before he was this celebrated filmmaker, Bo Burnham was himself a YouTube star. "Problematic" is a roller coaster of self-awareness, masochism, and parody. 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.