Laughing on the Inside
A look into Bo Burnham’s frank comedy special sparing no insight
Written by Nina Johnson, Arts Editorial Assistant
Graphic by Anjika Verma, Contributing Artist
Comedy about the pandemic and the state of the world we’re all immersed in grew old, fast. However, Bo Burnham’s latest ninety-minute special, “Inside,” brought much more to the table than the antiquated and humdrum jokes we’ve grown accustomed to. He created a hilarious and novel commentary of life in the pandemic and the new decade we’ve found ourselves in. This time, there’s no audience—he’s alone in a room for the entirety of the show and boasts 21 original songs to accompany his words. He’s entirely raw, and it’s artfully done.
Immediately, Burnham wants to make a few things clear. He precedes his commentary with a summary of sorts. The catchy song “Comedy” encapsulates his fears and anxieties, and the potential ridiculousness of his attempting to joke, as a cis-gender white man, as the entire world seems to be falling apart. He asks his listeners “Should I be joking at a time like this?” This initial jump is essential to understanding the rest of his special. He’s concerned by the reality of the fact that there isn’t time for something like “this” right now. And, even if there is time, does he even have the right to share his opinions in the first place?
Being relatable is one of the greatest pulls to Burnham, as he creates a world that brings everyone into the world of his jokes. What better way to do this than to center his newest narrative about the most universally experienced event—what it’s really like to be in a pandemic. Burnham skips the trite and decidedly boring commentary on toilet paper shortages or “working in your sweats” and gets straight to the punch.
Creating content that’s truly relatable is not an easy feat. “Inside”’s power lies in its incredible nuance. Burnham presents a rawness so comprehensible by us all, as he seamlessly dips between talking about something as benign as nightly FaceTimes with his mom to his overwhelming concern for the state of the environment. It’s realistic. Our thoughts naturally work like this, jumping from one area to another in seconds and somehow finding a way to handle it. Seeing it performed as masterfully as Burnham feels as though someone is putting words to our own thoughts.
Burnham’s song “Welcome to the Internet,” tells us “Apathy’s a tragedy, and boredom is a crime.” In Burnham’s search for the root of all of these problems in the 21st century, he’s time and time again rerouted to the internet being its source. We have everything at our fingertips right now, and Burnham argues it’s undoubtedly the worst thing that we could have done to ourselves. At a time when the issues facing our world appear to be stacking up, is it even valid to call yourself bored?
America, capitalism and the media is a plainly muddled place. So, if you have a piece critiquing America and corporations, how do you go about promoting it? With “Inside” being a Netflix special, that move seems either ironic or suffocatingly depressing, or a mix of both. Burnham’s piece blatantly blames large companies and their negligence for the downfall of society—be it his multiple poignant songs criticizing Jeffery Bezos, Amazon’s CEO, or his anger for the irreversible ecological damage facilitated by greed and consumerism.
Burnham is first to admit the fact that he’s complicit in this society and the aspects of it that deeply bother him. At the end of the day, whether Burnham’s aware of his own subjugation to a large group like Netflix, its saliency persists—there really is no escaping the world as it is right now, and it’s going to require substantial change to remove yourself from the endless cycles that exist.
Burnham’s special reminds us that comedy’s purest form is an art form. Though the realm of high art may not always take stand-up as seriously as literature or film, Burnham continuously urges that comedy deserves a fair shot. Guilt about creating art when pressing societal problems need attention is something Burnham is both anxious about and is seeking answers for. At the end of the day, we are only people, who know how to create as a way to make sense of the world we live in. It is not our job alone to fix every systemic problem. We simply can’t. Burnham simultaneously heightens our concern for the problems at hand, but finds a way to tell us that we aren't the only ones to blame and that we might even be okay.
Comedy is a performance intended to pierce the most unnerving thoughts we possess in the most natural way we know how: making light of it. The genius of Burnham encapsulates this succinctly and makes it forcefully palatable for us. To address the severity of the issues whose prominence will only grow, it begins with a conversation, and the simplest way to do that is to first be able to laugh at it. Comedy makes us better, and pushes us to sit with emotions that are demanding to be felt.
Burnham says it best, that he’s “making a literal difference, metaphorically,” or he at least hopes to. He alone cannot stop wealth inequality, systemic racism or climate change. He knows how to make art and make people laugh, though, and that’s the best he can hope for.
Lyric source: https://genius.com/albums/Bo-burnham/Inside-the-songs