While it’s certainly possible to give creators more credit than they deserve as far as self awareness goes, I think that “it feels fake” is one of the primary points of the whole thing.
Creating content is an inherently dishonest and unauthentic endeavor. He makes that point implicitly and explicitly throughout the film.
The context that he creates is, well, created. When he has outbursts, breaks down, or does anything in this film-and-also-making-of, is it capturing an authentic moment, or is it another scripted bit?
To me, the way he creates an experience in which the audience is progressively asked to believe more and more in the authenticity of what we see as the emotional stakes get higher while at the same time he keeps warning us against taking manufactured content as truth is what makes this movie work.
I loved the moment near the end when
he kept trying to get through the lines about being not well. He starts and stops a number of times, and ultimately knocks over a camera. I remember thinking “um, ok, maaaybe that was real, but what if it was scripted? What if this is the third take of him trying to create that emotional moment to serve the narrative? Holy shit- this is the white woman’s instagram! None of it is real, and the whole point is that he is asking us to question everything ever done for an audience. If there’s honesty there, can you even parse it out of the rest of the made-up shit? Do the creators of content even know when they are being honest or when they shape themselves into a designed version of themselves?
And that’s why he’s a genius. There were the seeds of this idea in the song Art is Dead and he’s always presented the idea of artifice (“make happy”) along with a sincere desire to do something meaningful with his work, and that juxtaposition of artifice with genuine passion and never being quite sure if you’re being put on (or if he’s putting himself on) is part of the journey. He’s doing high-concept stuff here. It’s not Kauffman but there are echoes of Kauffman in the way he pushes the comfort envelope and at times seems apathetic to the idea that comedy should be funny.
Take White Woman’s Instagram. He’s mocking the artifice through artifice and halfway through he drops the white woman’s sentiment about the death of her father, going on at length about this woman’s grief, and suddenly you are made to feel deeply uncomfortable for mocking a real person (even though it’s not a real person!)
And if he’d shown his actual situation, we wouldn’t have that visceral claustrophobic reaction from seeing how we’ve felt this past 16 months playing out on screen. Inside is the physical representation of how many of us felt. And probably how Bo felt. Lockdown was a nightmare for many of us with mental health issues like his.
There are other comedians I love more, but he’s one of the few I can think of that takes these kinds of artistic risks. He’s working on a level that I can’t compare to anyone else today.
Totally. And, the thing is, to some degree what he’s doing in his songs is very simple- it’s almost like a regressive move back towards observational comedy (I’m not an expert on comedy, so I may have that descriptor wrong). This is like a modern musical version of Seinfeld (or a mix of Weird Al and MLK) asking “what’s the deal with airline snacks, they’re so small!?!?” No he’s not coming up with an original idea, he’s just turning a small oddness into something funny. Similarly, “people are so fake on social media” or “you know what’s strange? When people who dedicate themselves to projecting a curated life online drop in oddly personal and honest details in and among the staged perfection” are not unique or inightful observations.
All of the songs and scenes in this are, as individual items, smart and clever, but not revolutionary.
What makes it magic is the narrative framing. The camera filming a camera filming Bo Burnham. How many artists can successfully call themselves and their audiences into question as he did while still creating excellent versions of their art?
Sorry for rambling a bit. I really loved this and don’t get to talk about it much
I think Welcome to the Internet is the best song I’ve heard in years and I gushed as much upthread. However, I want to add one more technical point that just multiplies the genius: He got it in one take. Not the first take, no doubt, and I’m sure there was some editing but it really stands out when he sings the part quoted as he looks at different cameras for the ‘vac-cin-nate your kids.’ His head is, as they say, on a swivel and doesn’t know where to look because it’s coming from up, down & all around. You should kill your mom.
