Ty Watches "Inside"

I will get to the NBA game 7's that happened this weekend later this week. But today I have to talk about the movie my wife and I watched on our quarantine date night this past Friday.

I know things are opening up, and more people are going back into the world, but not my wife and I. We are still staying at home most weekend nights, we have seen a few more friends, but they are all vaccinated, our kids do play sports, but I am masked and we still enjoy our new Friday date night routine. We still order from a local restaurant and we pick a movie to watch after our kids go to bed. This week was my turn and I picked the new Bo Burnham special "Inside". RD has told me to watch this. A friend of mine told me to watch this. I watched the trailer which made me want to watch this.

I will say, I am so happy RD and my buddy told me nothing about it, and the trailer is very vague. It is best to go into this thing not knowing what to expect. I absolutely adored this special. My wife wasn't as into it as I am, but she did like the music. My wife's problem, there wasn't enough comedy in it for her. I was absolutely blown away by what I witnessed. I keep calling it a "special", and not a "comedy special". My wife is right, it is not very comedic. There are jokes, some of the songs are funny, but this is more a piece of art posed as a comedy special.

When “Inside” starts we see Burnham in a room by himself. He goes on to explain that he is doing this special by himself. He wrote, directed, edited, arranged, he did everything on this project. He had one producer, but I have to assume that was after the fact. This is all Burnham. So to see the way he did this, how he did this, to see the background stuff, to see some of the outtakes, to see him going through a massive change in his emotions, I was floored. Seriously, I was moved by this special. The whole idea was to do a one hour comedy show, but with no audience and by himself. He does it with no audience and by himself, but it is so, so much more than comedy. At the beginning Burnham is unshaven and has shaggy hair. He then goes into his routine. His first song is a short and sweet pop groove called "Content". It is classic Burnham. He is hammy and jokey and pointing out everyday foibles. He then goes into some more songs and bits that follow his usual path. The song "Comedy" is such a great F U to people who think they are holier than thou. "Facetime with my Mom" is downright hilarious. It starts to get a little darker on "How the World Works", but I love that song. It is so true and so of the time and so needed. Socko is a genius. "White Woman's Instagram" kind of goes back to classic Burnham, but there is this moment of clarity when he talks about a girl posting a picture of her deceased mom and the caption accompanying it. It shows growth. "Unpaid Intern" is a hilarious bebop parody. He then shifts into a very of the time bit about doing a response video. My son watches stuff like this all the time, and Burnham nails it. When he plays it on that loop it is wild. The first "Bezos" song comes out of nowhere, and it is totally off the rails, but I loved it. Then we get "Sexting", and this is a very funny song about how people are intimate in modern times. It does end on a dreary note. Then we get "Problematic", and this is such a great song which shows Burnham is embarrassed and ashamed of some of his past bits. He is apologizing in his own way for what he has done. It is fantastic.

Then, right in the middle of the special we get a complete tonal shift. Burnham turns 30 during the special. He stops and talks about it and we even see a clock that reads 11:58. He talks about how he thought he would be done with this special before his birthday, but he is not. Then this gets dark. The whole thing changes, and it is amazing to watch. He performs the song "30", and it is such a perfect way of explaining how most of us accomplish almost nothing when we turn 30. Burnham says nearly everything I thought when I turned 30, but I did have a kid and married my wife prior to 30. At this point in the special Burnham's hair and beard are much longer and very unkempt. He is also wearing the same clothes day after day. He is clearly going through some stuff. And it is all on film. He does a great little tune called "Don't Wanna Know". It is all of his personal thoughts laid out. Then we get real depressing stuff, "Shit" and "All Time Low". These songs are about how he is feeling bad, how he is depressed and how he doesn't know if he will get out of this or not. The loneliness and solitude are clearly getting to him. Then there is this vaudeville esque song called "Welcome to the Internet". It is bleak and sad and gloomy and scary and 100 percent true. I do not know if a more apt lyric than "can I interest you in anything and everything all of the time" has ever been sung. We also get some bleak bits in this portion where Burnham pretends to stream a game that is just him crying and barely moving, him posing with a knife and doing a YouTube-esque subscribe video. He is also clearly losing it when he talks to the camera and cannot get the words out without punching his leg. He is frustrated and losing his grip. There is a second "Bezos" song that is more bizarre than the first, but again, it slaps. Then he plays an acoustic guitar and sings a song called "That Funny Feeling". If this were sung by someone like Father John Misty or Conor Oberst from Bright Eyes, people would call it genius. Burnham nails this impression, and the song is so good. He then breaks down on camera. He starts crying and it goes black. Then he performs "All Eyes on Me". This is the quintessential portion of this special. This is Burnham letting it all out, really going for it and really just letting his mental stuff take hold. Again, it is bleak and brutal, but it hits so many chords. It hits so many feelings that all of us have had during this pandemic. He then closes it out with "Goodbye" and "Any Day Now". Both songs touch on things from earlier in the special, and they kind of wrap it all up. We also see Burnham finally step outside and a fake audience is clapping and cheering for him. This turns into laughter and he is terrified by it. He wants back inside. But then we see him watching this bit and a shy smile comes across his face and it ends.

Look, I was completely and utterly blown away by this. I have never seen anything like it. I think it is the best representation of life during this pandemic. Burnham absolutely nails every aspect of it. He hits a homerun with every song and every bit. It is perfect. I have watched it twice now and been listening to the music on Spotify. This is one of the best pieces of art that I have been able to witness. I do not know what Burnham was trying to achieve or get out of this. but man did he do something that I will never forget. "Inside" is genius. Of course I think you should watch it.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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