Bo Burnham's 2021's comeback special, Inside, is pretty depressing.
- For one thing, Bo filmed the special during the pandemic in his own house without an audience, so as the special goes on, his room becomes less organized with lots of filming equipment on the floor. Plus, he has clearly grown a Beard of Sorrow, and he talks about his struggles with anxiety, depression and suicidal thoughts.
- One part of the special packs a heavy one-two punch. While talking about how he's been working on the special for a year, Bo fumbles his words and starts over a few times, visibly anxious, before he suddenly breaks down into hysterics and exits the scene, thrashing some of his equipment. We then immediately cut to him sitting down and saying the quote below. Even worse? This segment immediately leads into "All Eyes On Me," a song about Bo's anxiety under public scrutiny, and arguably the special's darkest number. This also creates the disturbing juxtaposition of Bo's sobbing and the cheering audience that opens the song.Bo: [struggling to get the words out] I am..... not..... uh, well..... [collapses into sobs]
- "White Woman's Instagram" is one big Take That! of a song, and it's pretty funny seeing him cycle through every worn-out Instagram cliché... until he suddenly humanizes his subject on the bridge, and recites a caption where a woman talks to her long-dead mother about how badly she misses her. It's a heart-wrenching moment where you least expect it. There's an extra tear-jerker hidden in the same humanizing breakdown: the final line is "Give a hug and kiss to Dad", implying that her father died too.
- While "Welcome to The Internet" is darkly humorous for the most part, a hint of sadness creeps into the song in the bridge as Bo muses on the internet's humble beginnings and how it's been corrupted into yet another facet of apathetic, hyper-capitalist modern culture despite originally being used as a safe space from it, with the internet's earlier days becoming little more than a distant memory of an ageing generation.
- Bo does a quiet, somber song on acoustic guitar towards the end of the special, called "That Funny Feeling." What's the funny feeling? It's Bo's feeling that society is collapsing in on itself, and doesn't notice or care due to apathy and shallowness. The lyrics list off shallow displays of self-awareness and materialism by big business and media. Bo has never been this nihilistic - which is saying something - and it's incredibly poignant and sad. The song ends with this repeated stanza, delivered in a major key and giving the impression that Bo can't wait for that societal collapse to happen.Hey, what can you say?
We were overdue
But it'll be over soon
You wait - "All Eyes on Me," as Bo sings to a nonexistent audience and begs them to pay attention to him, then breaks down during the bridge, eventually screaming directly at the camera.You say the ocean's rising
Like I give a shit
You say the whole world's ending
Honey, it already did
You're not gonna slow it
Heaven knows you tried
Got it? Good, now get inside. - "Goodbye." Sanity Slippage, meet Despair Event Horizon.So this is how it ends.
I promise to never go outside again.
Am I going crazy? Would I even know?
Am I right back where I started fourteen years ago?
Wanna guess the ending? If it ever does...
I swear to God that all I've ever wanted was
a little bit of everything all of the time.
A bit of everything all of the time.
Apathy's a tragedy, and boredom is a crime.
I'm finished playing, and I'm staying inside. - The song "Any Day Now," which plays over the credits, capturing the Survival Mantra many have had to tell themselves throughout the pandemic.It'll stop any day now... any day now... any day now...
