On September 25th, 2021, I viewed Bo Burnham’s comedy special, Inside, using Netflix.  In this experimental documentary, Burnham covers the struggles of quarantine in a special that he personally wrote, shot, edited, and produced over the year 2020.  Burnham’s clever use of random objects, such as phone lights or headlamps, or projectors and blank walls, was an extremely influential visual aspect, and showed how he truly made use of ordinary objects while alone in his home during quarantine.  The use of smaller sound effects was also super effective in filling up bare spaces, especially when there was an eerie ringing to foreshadow an intense scene that was approaching, or a hint at a musical motif to show the monotony of living in the same room every day.  As opposed to written dialogue and stand-up comedy the entire time, a majority of the special involved musical performances, which were also created and written by Burnham.  The music in the documentary was especially impressive, especially in the way that he altered pitch and tempo throughout each song, and managed to invent different melodies while also including hints of the larger musical motif in each of his songs.  Each song also had catchy and meaningful lyrics, which made them all interesting to listen to, memorable, and influential on listeners.

In terms of his actual content, Burnham began the special in a more upbeat context, with pokes at serious issues in funny ways that generally addressed the strangeness that everyone experienced in quarantine.  He managed to intertwine humor with information about more serious topics, such as racial biases, income inequality, capitalism, and the world of social media and the internet.  Especially within his song, “White Woman’s Instagram,” Burnham juxtaposes the basic nature of knowing someone on the surface level with understanding their deeper, emotional past and lives.  However, as the special continues, Burnham begins to address mental health issues in a very intimate, more serious manner.  He is very authentic and honest about his true self, explaining how he struggled with mental health issues even before the pandemic, and how much worse being stuck in quarantine made him.  He spoke about the topics and issues that most people are afraid to talk about, and did them with very thought provoking musical lines such as, “Am I going crazy? / Would I even know? / Am I right back where I started fourteen years ago” or “Apathy’s a tragedy and boredom is a crime.”  His special depicted what it was like for people when they were stuck in quarantine, especially with both the great and debilitating aspects of the online world, but Burnham also did a much deeper dive into how much harder the pandemic was for performers and people with pre-existing mental health issues.   Overall, this special was impactful in my life, as both a musician who appreciated Burnham’s compositions as well as someone struggling with some of the same issues, and I have and will definitely continue to listen to his music in my everyday life.