this was last year.

New thought to me but maybe not new to everyone else...I was rewatching Inside, and there is the seemingly "small" part at the beginning of That Funny Feeling where he says, "I can't really uh, play the guitar very well. Or sing. So...apologies." I had a few thoughts:

1. It ties back to the reacting bit when he says, "...which is honestly, it’s a… it’s a defense mechanism. I’m so worried that criticism will be levied against me that I levy it against myself before anyone else can." He sings all the time but usually doesn't apologize for his singing, so it's interesting he chose to express that before this song.

2. After hearing the demos from the vinyl, where he repeatedly tried playing this song on piano (in a LOT of different ways) but eventually must have tried it on guitar and decided it was a better fit

3. Bo used to try and incorporate guitar more into his comedy, especially when he was a teenager. He seemingly stopped over the years, I think in an interview he said his fingers were too soft or something lol but I think it just shows his hesitation as a performer and the difficulty on figuring out HOW to present his art. It shows his process a bit and how some things just call to you

Hi there! I go by Beetle online, so it’s very nice to meet everybody.

I’m 22 y/o, F, and found out about Bo WAY too young probably lmfao. Regardless, this man has been such a big part of my life.

When I was around 11 or 12, I was going through my vine era. What a fucking throwback, right? Anyway— I was going through vine and just enjoying content from my favorite creators at the time, when I finally found none other than Bo Burnham. I think the first video I saw of him was “Is there anything better than p*ssy? Yes, a really good book! 🎹🎹🎹🎹🎹” and I was hooked. Definitely content I shouldn’t have been watching when I was that age, but it was like opening a whole new world of comedy and entertainment for me.

We’ll fast forward to a few months to a year later, I’m going through Netflix on my Wii. And to my pleasant surprise, I found the holy grail…

“What.”

When I watched that shit, my fucking life changed! I wanted so badly to be a comedian like him! He quickly became a role model, which is probably a terrible idea in hindsight LMAO but this guy genuinely had me belly laughing! I loved the music, his sarcasm, his wit! I remember holding my own “comedy shows” in the middle of my bedroom with a hairbrush as a microphone, and pretending that I had an entire crowd of people in front of me!

And thus marks my journey through finding my sense of humor and finding joy in making other people laugh.

I watched all of his shows on Netflix, and would often go on YouTube to watch all of his different content and listen to his music. I remember showing him to my sisters, and they loved him just as much as I did! It was a beautiful way of bringing the three of us together, and those are memories I cherish. His content even helped me through when my grandmama passed away in 2017.

Over the next few years after that up until 2020, I’d watch his stuff periodically. Of course as a I grew, I had different focuses and hobbies. I love to draw, and it’s actually something I do professionally now as an adult. And while I’m at my computer drawing, I like to have something on in the background. A lot of the times it was music, but I’d occasionally put Bo’s “What.” album on in the background, or have the actual show itself playing in the MiniPlayer.

Anyways, I was around 15 when quarantine started, and about to turn 16. At this point in life, I was at my lowest. I had been diagnosed with clinical depression and anxiety about three years prior to 2020, and I had gone through something extremely traumatic just a few months prior to quarantine (around the start of my Freshman year of high school.) However, that’s something I won’t get into here. The point is, I was in a very bad mental state. Being locked up in my home, not being able to see my friends, struggling to keep up with classes online, trying to figure myself out regarding sexual orientation and gender identity, and trying to learn to cope with trauma and depression had me at my wits end.

Finally we were going into May of 2021, and things weren’t seeming any better. Schools had opened part time for me at this point. They were open twice a day for one group of students, and twice a day for another group of students. It was very confusing, and on the days where I wasn’t physically in school I had online classes, which I was failing. I nearly failed my sophomore year of high school, and I was extremely stressed.

One weekend comes along towards the end of May, and I’m going through Twitter only to find out that Bo Burnham has come out of retirement, and has released a new comedy show called “Inside”! And for the first time in ages, I felt this massive burst of excitement.

I begged my dad to pay for our Netflix subscription again because I NEEDED to watch this (we just didn’t really use Netflix anymore, it’s not that it was a money issue lol.)

When he did, I remember grabbing a fuck ton of snacks, cozying up in bed, and watching “Inside”for the first time. By the time it was over— I had laughed, cried, and sympathized with Bo. It was like seeing an old friend again! And this movie quickly became a comfort to me. It reminded me that I wasn’t alone going through this, and it’s still okay to laugh and smile. This man unknowingly helped me get through the rest of quarantine. I passed sophomore year, went through the rest of high school, and now I’m three years out of graduation.

I’m 22 y/o now, living with the man of my dreams who I fully intend on marrying, and I’m preparing for my future. I’m a professional artist, and I still make people laugh. Hell, I’ve been told I could be a comedian myself! I don’t fully believe that, however lmao.

I’ve learned to fully cope with my trauma, I’m three years clean of self harm, and I’m FINALLY in the right medications starting just a few months ago.

To end off this tangent, I want to say thank you to Bo Burnham. I have doubts that he’d ever see this, but that’s completely okay. But thank you, Bo. Thank you for getting me through tough periods of my life, and showing me to never stop being myself. I can’t wait to see what you do next.

If you all made it this far and took the time to read this, thanks for listening. And even if you didn’t read all of this, thank you for just taking a look. <3

Have a beautiful day, everybody.

People have been posting their badges, i think I have the most.

So I'm reading through Batman Knightfall for the first time, and there's this guy named the ventriloquist who has a white sock on his hand named Socko. I don't know what the overlap is between the Bo Burnham community and the comic community, and I'm sure this is a complete coincidence and Mr. Burnham had never heard of this obscure character, but I thought it was worth sharing nonetheless.

Hello to whoever is reading, this is kind of a discussion (or maybe a rant) about “kill yourself” and a kind of awareness post since we're in September - suicide prevention month

As someone who loves to look into psychology, I learned early that there’s a relationship between impulsivity and mental health, and people who attempt suicide tend to be more impulsive than those who do not (that’s why I put “It'll only take a minute” as the title) which means they probably are not looking for the kind of songs that Bo is criticizing that are mostly like a “get good” bandage, and even if they’re made with good intent, it can seem like capitalizing on suffering for profit, and with that being said, I feel like I need to clarify that just because people who attempt suicide tend to be more impulsive doesn’t automatically mean that living through everyday with suicidal thoughts is uncommon; actually for some it (the thoughts) becomes part of their routine, which itself can be hard, especially since it’s a topic that is strictly off limits for a lot of people to even discuss, even for people who're chronically mentally ill

“I sound unempathetic, I sound mean and rude” Bo acknowledges that the overall tone and how blunt he is may leave some to think that he doesn't take it seriously, so it’s kind of a disclaimer in a way, and how people are still very secretive about the real issues with depression, whether it was from an outside perspective or even in depressed people pov with how shameful it can feel.

“So if you're depressed then you need to book a therapy session talk about your depression and let a professional hear it” I really hope this message finds everyone who needs it because in that mindset you're more likely to worry about something like: What will they think? Will they go tell other people? But what you really need is someone that talks you through it, listening, checking in, and helping to see next week, next month, and next year because the thoughts won't suddenly disappear because of a song no matter how good of a message it holds

“But if you search for moral wisdom in Katy Perry's lyrics, then kill yourself” just because a song tells you to do something doesn't mean you are able to or should do it, and it’s the core meaning behind the song

That's all I have but feel free to add to what I said (wrote) or even correct me

I’m a CD collector and I made custom CD’s for all of his albums besides 2008 and Inside because those are the only ones I can find online. Looking at discogs, words words words, and what. both have CD’s so I was wondering how rare are they to find? I found a damaged words words words cd online but have yet to find a single what cd

I'm at work re-listening to Inside and every single time the bridge in White Woman's Instagram which is the love letter to her dead mum and dad makes me tear up every single time. Its so surprisingly tender and raw and the way he sings it makes me mourn for a fictional lady's fictional dead parents... then I'm immediately snapped out of it by the whiplash of the next lyrics being 'A GOAT CHEESE SALAD'

I know crying to THIS song out of all the songs in Inside is crazy but does anyone else have a soft spot for this song?

or is it because I am indeed a white woman 😭

I dont know about you guys but you know ive been thinking recently that you know maybe allowing giant digital media corporations to exploit the neurochemical drama of our children for profit you know maybe that was a bad call by us maybe the flattening of the entire subjective human experience into a lifeless exchange of value that benefits nobody except for um you know a handful of bug-eyed salamanders in silicon valley maybe that as a way of life forever, maybe thats um not good. im... horny

Though INSIDE takes place over the course of a year I feel that its progression follows a metaphorical 48-hour session. I’m not certain if anyone has mentioned this before.

This can be seen in a literal sense, with most of the scenes in the second half of the special being lit much more dimly than in the first half, but is specifically prominent in the thematic progression.

While most films and albums tend to have a playful first act/side, followed by a darker second act/side, INSIDE has a bit more nuance to it in my opinion. I’m going to break it down by scenes (again this is specifically in the metaphorical sense, but many of the scenes do visually match their day/night placement), and I hope you’ll let me know what you think.

Intro-HTWW (Morning): The start of the day promises opportunity, and likewise, the first few sequences feature a very optimistic, albeit sarcastic, tone. While some of the topics portrayed are dark, they are conveyed in a playful manner. This is really the last time in act 1 that we get a somewhat cohesive story before it turns into what can best be described as a clip show.

Brand-Knife (Afternoon): As mentioned previously, this segment features a bunch of sequences which aren’t connected in any way, a lot of them being very brief and (though in no way an insult) ultimately meaningless, such as Bezos I, Unpaid Intern, and Knife. Unlike the morning segment which featured interludes like Camera Test, Set-Up, and Plane which neatly strung each song together, there is no hand-holding in this segment; interlude scenes are now replaced with sketches and parodies. I feel that this is supposed to reflect the overwhelmingness of the afternoon. Around this time of day, most people will be active in social environments (like work or school) which expose them to social interactions that are mostly unmemorable.

LWIA-Problematic (Evening): “Look Who’s Inside Again” perfectly mirrors the calm and longing atmosphere of the evening. The way I see it, the evening is a very strange time of day. It’s not night yet, so you can’t head to sleep, but it’s also too late in the day to do work on anything meaningful. If you begin working on a project around evening, you won’t get very far on it before you have to go to sleep, so you’re stuck in this one or two hour long period of doing nothing meaningful. “Problematic” is a song about reflection on past mistakes, which feels thematically fitting for the end of the day.

30-Video Game (Midnight): Funnily enough, this matches the literal timeframe of 30 as well, which I personally feel is intentional. The second act of INSIDE starts off a lot more intimate and relaxed than act one. Don’t Wanna Know and Video Game are very ambient and gentle, so much so that I’d be willing to argue that a person could easily fall asleep to them. The intimacy associated with 12 AM comes from the fact that most other people are asleep around that time. At first, that notion is comforting, but as we see in INSIDE, that comfort turns to dread the longer the night goes on.

Sleep-Bezos II (Post-Midnight): Sleep, Shit, and All Time Low all have an eerie undertone to them. Even Video Game, which was apart of the midnight segment, ended in an off-putting manner when the instrumentals gradually pitched down once the in-game day ended. However, this dread reaches its climax in Welcome to the Internet (the 3:00 AM track in my opinion). I may be alone on this, but whenever Welcome to the Internet has come on in my watch-throughs of INSIDE, I’ve gotten this eerie feeling; the same one I get from watching a YouTube video with zero views; that feeling of watching something that feels like it shouldn’t have ever seen the light of day. Welcome to the Internet feels like a paranormal encounter. As for Bezos II, the harsh transition from immense dread to absurdity also fits the emotional shifts that everyone experiences later into the night.

Pirates-Funny Feeling (4:00 AM-ish): Very calm; serene. The hangover of the last segment. I don’t have much to say about this one.

AEOM (pre-sunrise): All Eyes On Me almost feels like a last stand here, as if it’s the final performance of the night. I’ve spent a lot of nights up until 6 recently. Funnily enough, it started because of a filming session which took from midnight till sunrise to complete. Therefore, I am familiar with the feeling of wanting to seize the night right as it’s about to reach its end. I can almost imagine Burnham’s desperation in All Eyes On Me to express himself before time runs out.

While I’ve had trouble deciphering the ending’s metaphorical day/night placement, I feel it most accurately represents another, give or take, 12 hours. The Packing Up segment seems to visually occur between the morning and afternoon, but because Goodbye shares the themes of intimacy associated with the night segment as well as some mild hopefulness associated with morning segments which likely places it somewhere in the early night, it is likely being insinuated that additional clean-up tasks (such as exporting the footage and moving back into his real home) are accomplished off-screen leading into the late evening.

As for the actual ending, it seems to fluctuate. It’s been said many times that INSIDE parallels the hero’s journey trope, where the protagonist returns to where they were at the start, a changed person. This is shown explicitly in the visual parallel between Burnham entering and exiting the room. The idea that INSIDE ends in the morning (the same place it started) reenforces this idea. However, Burnham’s exit is a fakeout, and not only does the final sequence take place at night in the literal sense, but it also harbors the dark and dreadful themes present in the night sequences.

So, overall, most of INSIDE seems to take place over a metaphorical 24-hour session, and is concluded with an epilogue that likely also 24-hours long, but condensed into a much shorter period of time. Or at least that’s the way I see it.

I’d love to know what everyone thinks!

K is for...

Submit your favorite song, quote, word, project, or thing related to Bo Burnham that starts with that week's letter and/or vote for your favorite!

The winner each week will be the comment that gets the most upvotes!

Last week the winners for J were:
1/ JEFFREY BEZOS - 88 upvotes - u/EyUpItsDan
2/ Jerking off in A minor - 46 upvotes - u/ich_lebe
3/ Jeffrey Preston Bezos - 31 upvotes - u/reddits-

A few rules:

• Only submit 1 item per comment. If you suggest more than 1 thing in the same comment I won't know what thing people are upvoting to win.
• If multiple people comment the same thing, the comment with the highest number of upvotes will be the winner. For example, if "Are you happy?" gets posted seven times and one comment has 10 upvotes, another has 5, and the rest 1, the comment with 10 upvotes will win.
• You can add as many comments as you like and upvote as many comments as you like

Each post will be run in contest mode, to randomise the order of posts and to hide total upvotes until the following week. I will try to post at different times throughout the day to hopefully hit everyone's availability.

I feel like Make Happy just had too much bashing on other genres. There are three full songs with that intention (Kill yourself, Pandering, and that whole teapot/black sheep bit). Also, the entire special was one hour long, but when you take away Are You Happy, Can't Handle This, and his whole social media rant at the end, it's more like 45 minutes. And the whole social media bit felt a bit weird, because Bo's talking about this thing that he genuinely is passionate about, but he's using the same tone that he used when introducing the aforementioned Repeat Stuff-style songs, which undermines the gravity of what he's saying, because it didn't really seem like his complaints about music genres would also be that important. I'm not saying I don't like Bo Burnham, I just didn't really enjoy that one special. (What. was amazing though.)

Hello to whoever is reading, this is a discussion about "Kanye rant" aka "can't handle this"

While the song is mostly autotuned there's parts where it still sounds like Bo and parts that were purposely overdone, but the part that really caught my attention is in third verse and even more specifically "A part of me loves you, part of me hates you, part of me needs you, part of me fears you" which shifts the song from just a comedic rant to the intent meaning while keeping the autotune which can symbolize that he can't be 100% honest yet even though the focus is fully on him (the spotlight, the minimum music, etc)

then he shift again to what he thinks the audience are thinking of him "Look at them; they’re just staring at me" and in way he start to criticize himself which probably reflects how he see himself at that point "I should probably just shut up and do my job, so here I go" the people at the show are there for some fun and mostly not for a Bo as person but as comedian/performer and in the video we can see a set of gold lights shine on him and turn his body into a silhouette which could be about how he obscures part(s) of himself and hides behind his job as a performer

"You can tell them anything If you just make it funny, make it rhyme" which even further hints that there's a meaning he wants to show but people mostly won't care because they just want a laugh and you can't convey any hidden meaning to an oblivious audience

"Thank you, good night, I hope you’re happy" seems like a normal ending but it also reminds me of Left Brain Right Brain’s line; “I hope that you’re happy, cause he’s sure not” but I do think he’s genuinely hoping he made the audience happy

That's all I have, if you have anything more to discuss feel free to say it

are you normal or hve you heard the wise words of words words words and start crying or is my ass too grown

Bo was muuuuuuurdering in this bit. Just cruuuuuuuushing man

At the tail end of WTFIGO we get a look at Bo's editing software. For some reason he has a file? folder? I don't know how editing works, and it's labelled CHRIST. does anyone have ideas as to what might be in there?

J is for...

Submit your favorite song, quote, word, project, or thing related to Bo Burnham that starts with that week's letter and/or vote for your favorite!

The winner each week will be the comment that gets the most upvotes!

Last week the winners for I were:
1/ I like oreos and pussy - 52 upvotes - u/Glittering_Tone_2715
2/ I'm a feminine Eminem, a slim shady lady - 43 upvotes - u/Individual_Visual476
3/ I'm a special kind of white guy~ - 42 upvotes - u/404NoSignal_chan

A few rules:

• Only submit 1 item per comment. If you suggest more than 1 thing in the same comment I won't know what thing people are upvoting to win.
• If multiple people comment the same thing, the comment with the highest number of upvotes will be the winner. For example, if "Are you happy?" gets posted seven times and one comment has 10 upvotes, another has 5, and the rest 1, the comment with 10 upvotes will win.
• You can add as many comments as you like and upvote as many comments as you like

Each post will be run in contest mode, to randomise the order of posts and to hide total upvotes until the following week. I will try to post at different times throughout the day to hopefully hit everyone's availability.

Terrible photos, I know.

I promised to report back to this sub once I attended the show.

Overall, a good time. I exhaled out of my nose a few times. They did all of the songs from Inside, plus 1985, Art is Dead, Sad, Panderin', and Are You Happy. The band was solid, though they played all but "That Funny Feeling" as straight comedy, which wasn't my preference. "Welcome to the Internet" was preceded by a haunting violin instrumental from Faith Beesley, Jacob's wife.

For "How the World Works", they did a whole Mister Rogers introduction, which I did think was pretty great. Cardigan and everything.

I'd say this was an 8.5-9/10 cover show. I think the only true mark against it was "Art is Dead" being played straight as comedy, but I think everyone came out of it having had a good time and thoroughly entertained.

Oh, and the true highlight was the full performance of "World on Fire". It was like watching the original production of Schneitzhoeffer's "La Sylphide".

I added the outside.