I don’t find Bo Burnham all that funny. I’ve tried his specials before and they are not that great to me.
This one, however, was different. He clearly filmed the entire thing alone over the course of the pandemic and I think his humor works better without an audience.
I found myself chuckling and laughing throughout. I really recommend everyone needing a good laugh to check it out. Hit and miss like any comedy special, but a lot of hits.
yup, just saw it last night.
I didn’t care for his other comedy from what I’ve seen of it. I think I tried to watch make happy and gave up halfway through.
But inside was really good. funny, sad, meaningful all at the same time.
I’ve been listening to eyes on me via YouTube ever since seeing it.
White Woman Instagram is amazing.
…I only got as far as the opening few moments. When he was playing with the lights, using a ruler to measure the distance to the camera. Because at the start of the pandemic I was doing the very same thing. I was considering filming myself during lockdown and I was doing the same lighting tests and focus tests that Bo was doing. Ultimately I didn’t do it. But that moment hit me like a ton of bricks.
So I turned it off. I was only half-watching at the time. But it deserves to be watched properly. So I’ll wait till I can give it the time and space it deserves.
Official youtube release of Welcome to the Internet:
Can I interest you in anything, all of the time?
A comment I saw likened it to a Disney villain song and another noted the circus barker tone.
Bo’s Can’t Handle This (Kanye Rant) from Make Happy is one of the best performances, of any kind, I’ve ever seen.
Wouldn’t have got the peppers if I knew they wouldn’t fit …
I’m a long time fan of Bo Burnham ever since Words Words Words and I thought this comedy special was spot on. It really hit that uncomfortable and angsty sweet spot that is so reflective of what many of us have been through over the last 14 months. We get it, Bo.
Official youtube release of White Woman’s Instagram:
White Woman's Instagram -- Bo Burnham (from "Inside" -- ALBUM OUT NOW) - YouTube
I liked Welcome much more.
My favorite bit was
"Can… can anyone, any… any… any one, any single one, can any one… shut the fuck up about anything–
About any… any single thing?
Can any single person shut the fuck up about any single thing for an hour?"
Official release of All Eyes on Me:
All Eyes On Me -- Bo Burnham (from "Inside" - album out now) - YouTube
I don’t really care for this song. I really dislike the vocal effect and it lacks the musical cleverness that Bo ordinarily brings.
The entire special is a work of mad genius, but I’ve become especially fond of “Welcome to the Internet”. I must have watched that video at least 20 times.
Same. It’s so catchy.
I’ll tell you this. It’s catchy. I can’t stop singing it and I’m not that crazy about it either. I think I would if someone else was singing it but he has this weird throaty sound I can’t properly describe that makes my own throat twinge when I hear it. But the lyrics are kind of cool.
I wasn’t just crazy about any of the songs in particular but the way he put it all together really drew me in. I meant to put it on in the background while I did other things and I kept catching myself going back. I probably watched at least 3/4ths of it the first time and then showed it to my daughter. I don’t generally watch anything twice but I found myself really relating to it, like I’m sure many people are.
Welcome to the Internet has been solidly lodged inside my internal MP3 autoplayed for two weeks now. Like like an enormous container ship in the Suez. no one seems to know what to do and, while it hasn’t yet reached ‘problem’ stage, it has definitely risen above simple ‘annoying.’
The ‘insatiable you’ bridge isn’t really a bridge, I think it’s the same chords but the transition is so well done, if feels like a different song. The foggy but colorful lighting effect is right on and nods to the optimism of youth and the early internet.
And, then, the maniacal, unhinged laughter kicks in and we get a taste of the real internet. It’s no longer a place we go to visit, it’s what were we live, we do it and use it every day. You can’t not do it and you can’t not use it. Anything and everything, all of the time.
It’s an outstanding piece of work and I’m ready to forget it from echoing around my skull for once and for all.
I hear a couple of the tracks a week ago, then watched the whole thing last night. Dang, it wasn’t quite what I expected but it was fantastic! A lot more depth and artistic merit to it than I expected.
My favorite songs were definitely How the World Works and Welcome to the Internet. Both are fun amusing tunes with deeper undertones and moments that are downright chilling.
The highlight of “How the World Works” is the ending. Sure, you get Bo’s surface level, traditional, simplistic interpretation. Then you have Socko’s cynical, outraged take. But the way the world REALLY works isn’t contained in Bo’s verse, nor Socko’s. Rather, the third verse and the interaction between the two captures “how the world works”.
“I hope you learned your lesson”
“I did and it hurt!”
“That’s how --”
“It works”
And then Bo rips Socko off his hand anyways.
For “Welcome to the Internet”, by far the creepiest line (especially as someone who is only just old enough to remember the time “before the towers fell” as Bo so poignantly put it) is:
“And it did all the things we designed it to do”
Such a simple line - and yet so very sinister…
It was always the plan to put the world in your hand…
That line - along with “And if we stick together who knows what we’ll do?” - makes me think that the song, while clearly critical of the internet and wary of its dangers, also recognizes the possibility and promise of the internet. If things are so bad, why not abandon it entirely? Well… because if we keep the internet, who knows how far we’ll go? Both in the sense of advancement, and in the sense of degeneracy.
Another (potential) connection:
“Which Power Ranger are you?/Take this quirky quiz!” is followed by “Obama sent the immigrants to vac-cin-nate your kids!”
The connection: those “quirky quizes” on Facebook were used to collect tons and tons of personal data. Said personal data was used to fine tune the algorithms that are now used to determine which headlines will get the most click - leading to the rise of articles with titles like “Obama sent the immigrants to vaccinate your kids”
…
Also, with regards to my earlier thought about potential optimism: we do get that “if we stick together/who knows what we’ll do” line during a relatively sincere sounding section… right before an insane laugh, followed by “Can I interest you in anything all of the time” returning. Almost like the internet had huge potential and hope at first - until it was corrupted by the anything/all of the time issue.
It sounds like the the “Talk Back” skit on “Saturday Night Live”, where Buck Henry was a talk radio host desperate for listeners. He starts out with benign topics like muni bonds, but when that doesn’t get the phones ringing, he gradually ramps up to more and more controversial topics. At the end he’s saying:
I guess back then it would have been called something like “call bait”.
My issue with it is that, from looking him up, he’s in a long term relationship and doesn’t actually live alone. He filmed Inside in a studio that’s part of his house, not his entire home where he has to be 24/7, as it’s presented. And he was an able-bodied person who was perfectly capable of leaving his house for exercise.
It feels fake to me. Most of his stuff does. “I was picked on at high school,” says the tall, handsome, articulate, straight, white, able-bodied, middle-class teenager getting paid for comedy skits at the age of 19 (one of his earlier shows). Right.