Bo Burnham’s ‘Inside’ is More than Just a “Comedy-Special”

‘Inside’ is a Netflix special that wonderfully represents the COVID period by being brutally honest, realistic, soothing, and immensely amusing.

The COVID-19 pandemic and the premise of living in isolation are central concepts in the special. While the special appears to be focused on Burnham’s own life during the pandemic at first glance, it is really a tremendously relatable work that makes the audience feel less alone.

“At first I thought Inside was just another Bo Burnham special, until Bo started to play “That Funny Feeling” on his guitar. It was emotional and eerily relatable” said Thomas X., a senior at AISG.

Inside is an hour-and-a-half collection of songs, snippets, monologues, and meta videos of Burnham filming in his attic room over the course of a year, whose organization splinters and spirals along with his sadness. Burnham becomes pallid and jittery as his mental state hits an “all-time low”, exacerbated by the overload of being an online personality.

‘Inside’ opens with a set of well-produced, catchy songs that has a broad variety from parent’s poor FaceTiming to mocking Jeffrey Bezos’s wealth and ability to get away with anything. However, in contrast to his previous specials, instead of ending on an amusing and funny note, the last two-thirds of the special descends into heightened worry and a numbing knowledge of Burnham’s own online-exacerbated uneasiness and intensified neuroses.

For example, Burnham spoofs a popular YouTube trope, reaction videos, with a cruel twist: his reaction to a short song becomes a nesting doll of instant reactions to his prior reactions, Burnham critiquing himself on four levels of performance – the most accurate depiction of my social brain calcified into a constant state of self-revision and anticipation of criticism I’ve ever seen.

As the special progresses, Bo Burnham’s appearance becomes more disheveled, adding to how relatable the special is during COVID-19 as his hair and beard grow longer. His temper swings wildly, becoming more intense as his room starts to fill with junk. These simple shifts in his surroundings and his appearance easily persuade the audience that Burnham is just like them (and has been affected by COVID in the same way), establishing a safe environment.

‘Inside’ is an incredible program that makes the audience feel both uneasy and comfortable because of how raw and honest Burnham appears to be. It is a program that bonds with audience and reflects their own feelings, ideas and emotions.