The Meaning of Bo Burnham's Inside - A Philosopher Reacts
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- Опубликовано: 7 июл 2024
- Does Bo Burnham Know Philosophy?
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Bo Burnham spent a year inside making a special that’s equal parts funny, smart, and emotional. But what really stood out to us was how explicit Bo gets in his social and political analysis. Let’s find out what sock puppets can teach us about class consciousness in this episode of A Philosopher Reacts to Bo Burnham: Inside.
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=== Watch More Episodes! ===
The Philosophy of Bo Burnham ► wscrk.com/3xsY082
"Everything All of the Time" - Show Me the Meaning ► wscrk.com/3gFrQyU
How Comedy Got Depressed ► wscrk.com/3hrdFPN
CHAPTERS
00:00 - Intro
01:04 - Socko's Song
06:17 - Shut The F*&# Up
08:28 - Technology
11:01 - Sexting and the Digital World
14:04 - Conclusion
Analyzed and Hosted by Michael Burns
Directed by Michael Luxemburg
Motion Graphics by Jackson Maher
Editing by Brian M Kim
Title card by Amanda Murphy
Shoe Giver, Stuffed Animal Holder, and Jeff Bezos stand in - Matias Rubio
Produced by Evan Yee
Music courtesy of Epidemic Sound
#boburnham #inside #wisecrack
© 2021 Wisecrack / Omnia Media, Inc. / Enthusiast Gaming
"...it's like a joke, but it's actually a *good* song" is the most concise review of "Inside" there is, tbh.
But also non of it was a joke.....
Not much of it was actually a joke. It was humorous presentations of legitimate critiques of consumerist society and the exploitation of capitalism.
Don’t forget the depression and anxiety. You can’t forget the crushing existential forces, lol.
@@acgeewhiz ahh my 3 pillars.
Existential dread, political critique, and sock puppets.
@@FezzRosato This, it’s a super legitimate critique of self and capitalist society, but just presented in a palatable humorous manner.
Considering Bo himself confirmed he’s a fan of Hassan, he’s definitely gone a little Bread Pilled.
“In all eyes on me, Bo does his best yeezus era Kanye impression”
*can’t handle this enters the chat*
The three things he complains about in that song are things not fitting. It's hard to think that's a coincidence. It was metaphorical. He wouldn't have gotten any of this extra stuff in the Chipotle if he knew it wouldn't fit. The ingredients are his fans and all the trappings of fame and his career. And it makes the burrito burst.
God, and after his reflection about how the audience is his biggest problem, he attacks himself to get back to the showmanship, and that's when everyone cheers. Broke my goddamn heart.
"I hope you're happy."
Honestly I don't really see Bo as impersonating Kanye in that song, but rather he's impersonating himself. It's like the "shut the fuck up" segment, he's telling others to shut the fuck up while being part of the problem. Performances like that, including Inside, are implicitly asking people to forget about all the worlds' problems and to just get inside and give attention to the performer
on goooood
“Whaaaaaaaaaooooooooohhhhhhhwwwww…… bllllbbllllbbbbllllllll”
And yet, I still can’t fit my hand inside of a Pringles hand.
Y'all just going to ignore the "neoliberal fascists are destroying the left" line?
You noticed that too, huh?
Ikr? I feel like if they did they’d be in some hot water tho
If they're going to ignore it, why even put in the video, why not just cut it?
@@MaxIronsThird that’s a good question lol
For real. Lol. But it is true.
Isn’t it crazy how none of us have reduced our internet use even after watching this special and been guilt tripped over it for days??
this is so me i literally have no control over myself the only way to stop was to delete the apps off my phone and if that doesn’t work then delete my account😭
@@floradomitrovic1581 Baby steps, it only gets easier overtime. What matters more is you try.
Well clearly we just need to use i better. Didnt know about Fred Hampton till a few hours ago i mean shit
Well we can't just simply quit everything and go live naked in the woods eating raspberries and smelling the flowers. We made it so that's not really an option in the modern world.
i didnt even want to until i watched this video essay about the special : ruclips.net/video/UvYcunuF3Eo/видео.html
honestly im still thinking about the essay. they talk about bo’s statements on internet as a real space we are learning to live in, and also as our extension of ourselves. it also wasn’t purely “hurr bdurr Technology Bad” but just more realistic about the impacts of internet on us and how we should at least be aware of it when we choose where to spend our attention
I wish you could do the whole special. I can't be the only one who wanted this video to be like an hour long.
Agreed, maybe we can appeal to their overlords to make a Snyder cut of this video by promising it will be profitable.
This would be incredible. I would watch the sht out of it
Yes. This. Please. Hell, do the whole special as it plays and make the video a couple hours.
Definitely. I’m also so interested in the relationship between the first analysis of the three specials and this one. It shows a clear connection between one implication of Bo’s “post-post modernism” from Make happy and the collapse into nihilism
The video as as laid out didn't even have a chance to talk about "That Funny Feeling" a song that's been infecting and killing off the pleasure centers of my brain and whatever portion generates the thing we call "hope"
I think the biggest talent of Bo is understanding the history and interconnectivity of philosophy, communism, capitalism, 21st century living, introspection, agoraphobia, anxiety... just all these seemingly disconnected themes and weaving them together in a unique voice with an artistic narrative.
I agree, and also thought it was very thoughtful and clever how it was made in such a way that many people see it as a piece of pandemic media, but I don't think he mentioned the pandemic once. It is not about the pandemic, but rather about pre existing social issues that have really been brought to a head and made salient in the public conscious by the pandemic. In this way, his special is both very topical, but also timeless. It's meaning is not confined to the context of the pandemic
Dialectical materialism, yeah. Plus numerous BIPOC artists, writers and activists have been addressing these things forever. I think the pandemic and contradictory relationship between Bo, Netflix, and us the audience/intrapersonal relationships are things that Wisecrack could have done a better job at addressing, since it's such a core feature of Bo's comedy
@@Ravael123X ooh I'd love an example of a BIPOC artist/writer/activist who has addressed dialectical materialism if there happens to be one in particular that sticks out in your mind. sounds like something really interesting to me
@@countesspoppie totally! I'd start with learning about Thelonious Monk, la paperson, Angela Davis, Frida Kahlo, Basquiat
@@Ravael123X la paperson is a totally new name for me, thanks so much for this!
The irony of video needing to end on a positive note to appease advertisers on RUclips, one of the monolithic engines of digital capitalism, is palpable.
That funny feeling lol
I think when Bo Burnham was talking about “the world is ending/Honey it already did” he was specifically talking about for him, which you get from understanding the context that he was having panic attacks on stage and and to quit comedy. Panic attacks make you feel like you’re dying. It’s not just “the world is over for everybody, we’re all rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic”, it’s “your doomsday talk can’t scare me anymore because I’ve already been through what feels like the worst. you want me to contemplate the end of the world? I’m already there, I’ve been doing that for a while now.”
No, I think it's pretty evident that he's talking about the ideas represented in his own project, and literally in the song before he also claims that everything will be over soon. I'm pretty sure he's saying that due to our own lack of foresight and selfishness we have already begun the strip down society.
@libby1973 yeah I also understand this line this way but I guess there are many interpretations anyways
I felt like so many people were overlooking how capitalism is one of the connecting themes of Inside and more focusing on the individual parts of the special. Glad you pointed it out
Classic American reaction to something clearly about how capitalism and hyper individualism is destroying the world
Dude he went mask off antifa 😍
@@Hayanomie not all marxists are antifa, and not all antifa are marxists.
He went mask off marxist lol.
Sometimes I wonder: is the explanaition really that easy? Was abigail right in saying that conspiracies are obsolete, because the answer is starring us right in the face?
@@justcallmenoah5743 the right wing used these things interchangeably so I used the term ironically but he literally says "neoliberal fascists are destroying the left" too
Y’all gotta give the people what they want. Everyone’s asking for a part 2 and it would be sooooo good, please consider
Amen
HECK YES PART 2. EVEN PART 3? There is so much to unpack! 💛
LET US CONSUME MORE
Seconded and thirded
i made an article about it, this special means so much for me, i wrote my heart out about it, and its all real (for me and generation) please check it out, my medium page is nabou321 (my name in it is Nabil Houari), medium is like a huge blog if u don't know about it. with all love {333 AND WE LOVE BO BURNHAM INSIDE
I recently rewatched Make Happy, and during a serious moment, he says “If you can live your life without an audience, do it.” I realized that during Inside, he did. During All Eyes On Me he said he was having panic attacks on stage, and that’s why he quit.
Imagine covering the philosophy of a film documenting the mental breakdown of an isolated entertainer and not even touching on mental health
Oh, hell yes. He talks about his panic attacks, feeling suicidal, and apparently his very distant relationship with his dad. He's not joking about these things, I'm sure.
Those themes were present in the special, but they were more obvious to the average viewer. Like most of us could clearly see Bo's mental health struggles (some were even explicitly mentioned). Wisecrack looking at the subtext (criticisms of capitalism, nialism with the state of the world, etc) is more appropriate in a series called "philosopher reacts" since regular viewers are more likely to have missed those themes.
@@KrisMadas I’m not gonna lie, I was pretty high when I made this comment and thought ab it a little more and came to a similar conclusion, so thank you for your comment
Philosopher's
Dude/dudette, I gotta tell you, post-COVID USA is fucked when it comes to health. You can pretty much bet we're heading to mass psychosis if we're not already there
I wish you focused a bit on Socko’s minority status leaving him essentially in thrall to and simultaneously responsible for the development of Bo’s political understanding, and when Socko rejects this he is subjugated
While Burnham may well have changed his own mind in the past four years, he's also expressed frustration with the, "It's not my job to explain it to you," position in the past, as something of a cop-out from having to do the real work that consciousness-raising takes, similarly expressing frustration at the primacy of race over class in modern American leftist politics as basically a top-down misdirection by elites to protect themselves from what would otherwise be a lot of angry political energy pointed their way. These were all in a 2016 conversation with Pete Holmes on his podcast, You Made it Weird. Obviously, after four years (these past four years in particular), it's possible his positions on that have changed drastically, but I think this was more likely a classic case of Burnham's "post-irony": that is, intentionally muddying the waters between sincerity and irony. By playing up the Socko character in ways that are simultaneously sympathetic and sincere and but also radical to the point of being tongue-and-cheek, we instead get the audience projecting their own perception of what's real and what isn't, a theme that appears throughout the special as well as Burnham's past works. There's never any guessing that he's playing the villain in this as he banishes Socko back into limbo, but Socko is intentionally made unclear whether he's a sincere expression, or... you know, a sock puppet, an animated caricature of something real. I think that was Burnham's intent.
@@ExterminatorElite yea, i completely understand that it can be hard to educate people, but what's the alternative? Not educating them? if you want the world to be better, you're going to have to get you're hands a little dirty.
@@__D10S__ My understanding is that it's not that people don't want to teach others, but that too often minorities are unwillingly given the job of constantly explaining prejudice and bigotry to people, only for the explained to continue their prejudice and bigotry, to the point that they might as well not bother trying to educate them in the first place.
@@daneofducks6601 The same can be said for any criticism of capitalism. You can give an incredibly simple, and impossible to misunderstood definition of socialism, and they'll still use the oldest arguments against it. So yeah. Best not to bother most of the time.
@@daneofducks6601 i try to educate people on (something so simple it shouldnt have to be said) hating people for existing is a shitty thing to do and when i explain simple shit like that to people over and over who hate me or others just for existing and continue to hate us after we explain it kinda sucks and makes explaining a tedious and depressing cycle of hoping they understand only to have them shit on us for trying to explain why us existing shouldnt be seen as a bad thing
a good example would be people who are from an older generation who have learned to think hatred of the "abnormal" is normal and thus impose that view on others (my grandparents for example. it kinda sucks to be hated by your own family) and passing down that view
idk im tired and ranty i guess
i just think it sucks to be hated for your skin colour or who you like or even how you fucking dress
hating someone for those things is like hating them for their eye or hair colour its stupid
i dont remember what my point was but i hope i expressed it well
have a nice day
I honestly think you could have (and maybe should have) went longer in this video. There is a lot in that special. Maybe a part 2?
Agreed. Didn't even cover Welcome to the Internet
Well the wisecrack crew is pro capitalism and anti socialism, honestly seems like they are just making this video because their fans.
He said so himself - the channel is constrained by the very things Bo talks about. They likely can't get into because someone managing the company (the channel) is risk adverse and does not want to lose advertising revenue, or darken the channels rep, or whatever.
I'd love to see a part two!
@@Hasshodo I don’t think bad mouthing capitalism would fuck them up that much
"Every single cricket every fish in the sea
Gives what they can and gets what they need"
That line of How the World Works is also a reference to Karl Marx. Specifically: "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need".
This line is how the idealistic verse of the song that reflects how nature works ends.
So, I guess he's saying nature works with this balance of what each individual gives and takes from the world and when that balance is broken we get Socko's verse, a world filled with exploitation.
change the last word to exploitation
@@Muykle and they say comradery is dead... Thanks for the help mate!
Burnham reads bookchin confirmed???? Hahah
I love the little “you did it!!” Bits, really conveys how there are billions of people who have little to nothing, and he has the power to help them and change the whole world, but he rather go to the moon, just to say that “I did it!” Gotta love the endless cycle of consumerism
Have you watched the special?
The beauty of “All Eyes On Me” is that he’s speaking on his role as an entertainer. Keep your eyes on me, so u don’t notice or are about the world that’s burning around us
How can you say that so confidently? It can be interpreted many ways.
yess! finally found someone interpreting it the same way as me!
I have an interpretation for you. The whole song is about covid-19.
Are you Feeling nervous, are you having fun? (are you worried about the virus, are you just enjoying your time away from work).
It's almost over, it's just begun.. (15 day quarantine turning into a year long lockdown).
Don't overthink this, look into my eyes! (Don't think, just obey what we say).
Don't be scared don't be shy step on in the waters fine. (Just comply, you see? it's not so bad)
We're going to go where everybody knows everybody(we're going to be confined inside our homes)
You are told to Put your hands up only to be told to put your heads down right after multiple times which could represent the confusion of all the covid policies and how little sense they can make. Finally when someone chooses to not comply with Bo's demands they are made an example of and Bo uses force to stand them up. (The government having a monopoly on the use of force.)
There's my interpretation of this song that makes every lyric make sense and go along with the same theme.
So to kind of argue and both agree with everyone in this comment thread all at once; No all of your interpretations fall short, and yes, every single one of you is correct. It is supposed to combine all of these themes. COVID-19 is the most obvious underlying theme as the piece's impetus was the pandemic and its a commentary on the state of the world. Yes, he is speaking on his role as an entertainer, because as Bo has said in previous interviews, all he knows is performing and all of his specials are meta commentary on being a performer. Yes, its what this video described about capitalism being the system that broke us, so its not going to be the system that saves us, and its already over. I also think its supposed to represent a nihilistic world view that he's been talking about through the whole special as well (that i'm surprised this video never touched on.) It's art, it is designed to be interpretted in multiple ways. If it wasn't, it wouldn't be art; it would be a lecture.
@@JeffSpurlock The Meta commentary of being a performer was being applied to our state officials as well. They are putting on a show.
And nihilism will never save anyone, socialism will make a miserable nihilist out of anyone and inevitably cause you to despise your fellow man because YOU are responsible for your neighbor.
Which means you can't appreciate your success because what is success? Success just means you owe someone else. And if you lack ability and have no success then you are owed and resent the ones dragging you through life. You're either exploited or an exploiter in his world view and it's disgusting.
Socialism transforms those with ability, (ideas and innovators, i'm not talking ability to swing a hammer), into slaves to those with none. Which destroys those who would create wealth's incentive to innovate or invest further in technology because it's not worth the financial risk.
We don't think of these success stories like a jeff bezos or Steve Jobs as heroes but they create jobs or technology that we're willing to trade our money for of our own free will. We vote them rich with our dollars and they deserve it because I would pay way more for this technology I'm using right now. We're lucky those ideas had capitalism to help them grow and make the world an all around better place.
This was an immediate click
same!
I agree
Ikr
On this channel? Always
and sort of a regret, no or yes
You gotta dig deeper, there's so much more. Its an entire depiction of his life and what it's like to like with anxiety and depression. Especially with the dichotomy of Bo's stage character to Robert, himself in the film. It's very interesting and incredible. All eyes on me says so much
he's not a psychologist
This was very educational, thank you. Wish you could do the whole thing.
I will say about “All eyes on me” my interpretation was that Bo’s depression was the one saying the world is already over, against Burnham’s attempts to leave the world better than he found it
It's an acknowledgement that it's basically impossible for anyone born today to leave the world better than they found it because the global society we all participate in necessitates our destruction of all life on Earth in order to sustain the ever-expanding consumption required under capitalism, and that we've already passed the threshold to stop this destruction and are now just waiting for the relatively short and violent consequences of our society's actions.
I also think it's a way of portraying how seductive nihilism can be and how even it can be packaged and sold. paradoxically, it gets people to really care about not caring. And it definitely worked because it is the most shared part of the special that I've seen.
I agree, I think it’s about the seduction of depression and nihilism, not about his actually view that the world is hopeless.
@@ashesmandalay1762 Hey that's what The Good Place is about! lol
@@Kelarys I believe it was a direct comment on how those ideas are cotrolled to fit into a narrow-minded depiction of market appeal, and how shows like that are withheld of their full potential.
Inside got me to laugh and even sent me into a depressive episode for a week straight with the cherry on top being an existential mental breakdown. So incredibly well done. You got me, Mr. Burnham. Well fuckin done
well fuckin done indeed
I hope the special almost made you end it all!
Kind of had the opposite effect on me. I mean I'm not like cured of my depression or anxiety but it's been better since I've seen it. Idk it was extremely cathartic in a good way for me.
@@KaneK1234 what the fuck is wrong with you?!
@@Thebees21 yeah it was definitely kind of cathartic. also, i felt like i was on this brief holiday where i could stop worrying about my anxieties and view someone else's. i guess that was pretty therapeutic
Your explanation of the “private property” line is missing a key part. In Marxist philosophy the “private” in “private property” is the same as that in the “private sector”: it’s the property owned by corporations and the capitalist class. What we think of as private property a Marxist would call “personal property”
Sounds like a distinction without a difference.
@@oblivionspartan Not really. Your house, your car, your toothbrush, your clothes etc are all personal property which a Leftist wouldn't touch. Private property is things that belong to corporations: office buildings, computers, software, manufacturing equipment, etc.
Now, the reason "private property is inherently theft" is because Leftists believe the people whose labor generates value(the workers) should own the tools they use to generate said value. But under capitalism those tools are the property of a private business. One might even call the tools "private property." By denying the workers ownership of these tools, despite using the value they generate to purchase and maintain the tools, a capitalist steals them from the workers. This also gets into surplus value theft
@@agentwashingtub9167 Private property is defined as land or belongings owned by a person or group and kept for their exclusive use. Even if I agree with the leftist "definition" of private property though, it's still a ridiculous notion. Why do the workers that I hire, provide money, equipment, insurance, and more to deserve any ownership of the company I started? I took all the risk.
@@oblivionspartan Let me just get this out of the way first: If you're a smart business owner you were insured against that risk, so it's not that big a deal. Plus, just because you took "risk" doesn't entitle you to anyone's surplus value.
Here's the leftist reason: All of the value your company has is generated by the labor of your workers. Without them your company would be worthless based solely on the fact that it's not possible for one person(you) to do the same work as all of the employees. Furthermore, I'm guessing you took out a loan to start the business and repaid it with the profits. Those profits only exist by stealing the surplus value of your workers. What's surplus value you ask? After paying expenses, surplus value is the difference between the amount of money someone's labor generates and what you actually pay them. By paying them less than the amount of money they generate, a leftist would say you're stealing some of their money. Because you use this money that should belong to the workers to repay your business loan(essentially buying the business from the bank over time), a leftist would argue that the workers are the true owners of the business and should own it.
As for disagreeing on the definition, if you've spent any time in academia you'll know that every paper written has its own definition for key terms. You gave the capitalist definition of private property which differs from the leftist definition. But that doesn't inherently prove anything
@@agentwashingtub9167 Well it's usually a good idea to agree on terms. And yes in fact, taking the risk of starting a business entitles you to the extra value generated. There is a real risk because if the business fails I owe the debt still. It's very nieve to believe all businesses are successful. Additionally the business would not exist at all without someone taking a risk, and starting it. The employees are compensated at a fixed amount they agreed on, and make less money because they invested nothing into the company.
This is the problem with the left, they have good sounding ideas that in no way hold up to reality.
I’m so disappointed in how bland and surface level this analysis was. There was no engagement with the deeper and more revolutionary aspects. This was just a surface reading of the text with the names of some philosophers sprinkled in
@@-natdog-9516 people just want to be comforted by the fact that their feelings are felt by everyone else without having to have the uncomfortable task of evolving that conversation into action. Viewing bo’s special and wisecrack’s video is like having a conversation without the social aspect of having a conversation (the back and forth dialogue that eventually leads to action). By watching a video you agree that once the video ends the conversation and your duty to act ends.
I see this channel as a kind of primer on philosophy. It basically analyzes modern culture, says, "hey, philosopher X has done this before," provides a tiny summary, and moves on. It's more for piquing folks' interest to get them to dive in further than to be a university-level lecture.
That said, got some channels to share that dive deeper?
The problem with philosophy is that you really don't want to deep that's where the meaning is lost because you lose yourself to the theming of the ideals. Philosophy is like salt a bit makes anything better too much makes anything unbareable.
@@DictatorDraco This is by no means an end all list, but I personally enjoy these channels and figured I’d share :)
Philosophy Tube
Innuendo Studios
José
ContraPoints
Shaun
@@harmony_moni2589 duuuuuuuude thank you! I'll check them out
You didn't cover "Welcome to the internet", really? I thought that was probably the most explicit critique of the current zeitgeist in the whole special.
It's probably also the segment that needs the least explanation, though. There like wasn't much for him to break down there.
Ive always said my kids will not have unfettered internet access but that song perfectly encapsulated my feelings behind this
Yeah, it doesn’t need much breaking down, but he did give it a shout out with the sunglasses and light show at 3:49. Maybe in a part two?
@@TurboNerdNews I always described it to the people I was trying to convince to enable thier parental control settings to letting thier kids wander around a big city unsupervised.
And it's also goddamn good song!
I feel like How the World Works only really comes into its own after Socko's section of the song, when it's made clear that for all of his radical beliefs he is ultimately still a puppet under the control of a dominant power structure.
That, and I think there's a broader meaning to the whole special as one cohesive whole that is being missed a bit here. Not sure if taking the text section-by-section was necessarily the right decision for this vid.
What did you think the broader meaning was?
@@SamPhoenixKnight Hm, if I had to come up with something right off the top of my head as I'm typing this, I'd say it involves, appropriately enough, the concept of being "inside." There's the obvious literal moment this special was created in, a pandemic that forced both creator and audience to remain indoors for fear of catching a disease (I'd say in many ways that the online aspect of a lot of the segments could serve to inform this, as this historic moment has lead to people using the internet and connecting to each other through that more than ever).
But there's also the more figurative, sort of metaphysical concept of being inside expressed by a song like Look Who's Inside Again, which seems to express a sense of both anxiety of the outside world and also a desire to escape isolation, these two clashing and interconnected emotions driving Bo to create art for an audience, as art is something inherently done in a sort of isolation (it all happens at first in your head) and also something inherently made for others. There's a reason for the reprise of this song at the very end; once again, Bo bares himself naked to the world and "comes outside" after a year of working by himself on this project, but now that it's out there he can't go back inside and escape the audience he both works so hard for and also fears on a seemingly existential level. There's also the very last shot, where all this is shown as a film that Bo is watching and entertaining himself with, implying that everything I just talked about is to some extent artificial, that the loneliness and seeming sincerity expressed by Bo as an artist is something he is deliberately utilizing with full knowledge of how it affects his audience.
It just kinda feels like there's a lot more here than just "Sock puppet is a marxist, hilarious!" Which isn't to say that it isn't hilarious, because it is, but when examining a work I just think it makes more sense to look at it cohesively as a total work of art than it does to split it up into distinct sections and not really try to see how they might all inform each other.
Yo mama knows what’s up
@@yomama5368 I don't think that Bo would agree that art is inherently made for other people, nor do I think he makes art for the benefit of 'us' the audience. For my first point, Bo has several songs that have themes of art being less meaningful when made for others, those being "Pandering," "Repeat Stuff," and "Art is Dead." When you make art specifically for the purpose of making profit then authenticity doesn't matter as much, and thus art as a whole is made less meaningful. In this way, capitalism is the end of art. Bo himself is, of course, also guilty of this and he jokes about it, that's what "Art is Dead" is about. Everything you've seen from Bo is because he chose to share it, and when he did it made himself more famous and thus more money. He even comments on this in bit about the working class song reaction bit,
"I'm criticizing my initial reaction for being pretentious which is honestly a defense mechanism, I'm so worried that criticism will be levied against me that I levy it against myself before anyone else can, and I think 'oh if I'm self aware about being a douche bag then it'll make me less of a douche bag' but it doesn't. Self awareness doesn't absolve anyone of anything."
In that same bit we get this quote:
"It's an instinct I have where everything I write has to have a deeper meaning or something, but it's a stupid song and it doesn't really mean anything. It's pretty unlikable that I feel this need to be seen as intelligent"
In "How the world works" we also get this exchange from the Socko bit:
Bo: What can I do to help?"
Socko: Read a book or something I don't know, just don't burden me with the responsibility of educating you, its incredibly exhausting
Bo is a narcissist but a self-aware one. He doesn't actually want to 'make the world better' and if he did then his core messages wouldn't be hidden behind so many layers. I find it hard to believe Bo has any actual interest in making the world a better place with these in mind, nor do I think he really cares about his audience past their ability to push himself forward. As he himself says, being self aware doesn't absolve you of anything.
@@trisramhughes9935 he obviously wants to make the world a better place. Have you even watched the special? it's full of extremely overt messages, aside from the "deeper" ones, and incidentally, the overt messages happen to be the ones that are more likely to make the world a better place (i.e. a criticism of capitalism and social atomization) while the "hidden" ones would happen to be about his subjective experience within those toxic systems, which it makes all the sense in the world that he wouldn't just outright say because why would or should we even understand?
I was interested in your take on the exploitation of a death of a loved one for attention because I took something totally different from it.
I felt it humanized the character that he was lampooning. So as I was laughing at the stereotype the song threw some judgment back at me. Made me feel guilty for laughing at this hypothetical person.
I know I’m replying to an old comment but it’s 2:30am so why not:
I also had the same initial reaction as you, gone back and forth since, and have decided, like many things in the special, it has dual meaning for me. It is a humanizing moment, a small dose of reality in a feed of food pics and mural poses. And it’s arresting. As someone scrolling through their feed, I come across this dark point in that person’s life, this brief glimpse of substance and pain in an otherwise endless facade of manufactured moments and it makes me pause. To consider the person posting as a person.
But the person posting it knew that is what it would do. They packaged this very personal grief for public consumption. They wanted me to see it, see their pain, and sympathize. And maybe the act of sharing it, talking about it, was a form of healing for them. The act of making it public was a private moment, in a way. But it was still that, a public act, a show, a commoditization of their own experience. So, for me, I’ve wound up in this circular rationalization, where the humanization is the exploitation is the humanization again. Which I think is a larger theme of the special as a whole: our own experience is so irreparably interlaced with the digital world that you can’t pull them apart. And, as Bo says, maybe that’s not good.
@@DingusUsername But Bo literally packages his pain and sells it to us.
I think the bridge of the song about the woman's dead parents exposes the rest of her feed as terror management. It creates an attitude of compassion toward her performance while also critiquing it.
@@Seth9809 The layer of meta over the entire special is thick as molasses. His expression of how wrong it is to commodify human self-expression, itself being commodified, is the frosting on the cake to that theme. What could make the message hit harder than the fact that even the one artfully communicating these issues, and the suffering caused by them, does so on a budget with his insight and pain sold to you on a multi-billion-dollar worldwide streaming platform?
Just watched Inside. Never watched anything by Bo before, and I was blown away at how well he was able to convey nuanced ideas by walking a tightrope of comedy and serious social commentary. Great dive into what it meant and how it relates to past philosophical thinking. Makes me not want to be on the internet anymore...
I knew y’all would be covering this shit. Bo is a fucking madman, love it.
Same
It was even darker than usual, which is saying something. Did you note how the second half of the special had fewer and fewer gags in it, until it was just sheer cosmic depression by the end? That poor guy is genuinely depressed! I liked it very much, but if you watched the second half on its own, you would not be watching, “comedy,” so much as existential, “art.” . . . 🤔 . . . 🤷♂️ . . . Discuss . . . 😉
@@ashroskell I have to be honest, I fell asleep watching it and never finished. I will though.
Nothing that hasn't already been said. Dude is just a good writer and producer
300
Petition to have an entire special breakdown by wisecrack here
I'm really surprised you completely missed the point on both that's how the world works and The workers song scene. The point of the puppet song is that he both is the puppet that's saying all those basic leftist things, therefore his masters (the people that pay him to make specials) can easily silence him, so you shouldn't trust him; and at the same time, being a white american straight male he is the master and the privileged class, so you shouldn't trust him. Kind of like, he is trying to find a way to make you see the special not as completely honest, but as the performance that it is, the whole show is supposed to make you guess if he is being honest or is it just another take (also it feel like its a sort of nod hegelian master slave dialectics).
The second song is basically just this video and the way we consume media. In an endless loop of repetition and digestion. Beside the loops of circular self reflection.
Goddamn you put it in such a great way.
Brilliantly put. You expressed that so well 👍
This is the best edited intro to philosophy final essay I've ever seen. Well done.
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
That resonated so much with me - what a piece of art.
It's just a piece of art... it's piece of art that would make the climate activist that talk bout muh cLiMaTe ChAnGe rEEE...
@@bootywarrior69420 sorry I don't understand what you're trying to say. Can you clarify?
I like the chorus where he goes: "Where going to go where everybody knows, everybody knows everybody". That sounded beautiful.
that bridge with the key change actually fucks so hard. maximum drip
@@bootywarrior69420 Sorry, but the takeaway is not that "shit is fucked, let us finish it". Bo's critique during the entire special is directed to big corps, or even the system that allows them to operate, not to individuals who litter. You can believe in climate change (that you would do if you are not an ignorant) and still have a doomer mood when people tell you to not use straws meanwhile lizardmen are ravaging the world for profit.
Karl marx been mad quiet since sicko drop
I really related to Burnham when he produced this. Might have to watch it again now
ruclips.net/p/PLDU2ox1UW20H-bmhKThooRFjdkwHLgVYq if your interested in his worldview give these a look
Imagine missing the point of this special so badly that you only engage with the text and not the subtext.
I'm seriously so disturbed after watching this commentary and reading the comments. No one understands an artist. Poor bo.
@@kaylenebrown5528 Honestly not sure if you're agreeing with me or are mad at my comment too.
@@ryankuhn1553 In agreement of your subtext assessment :)
The I'm 30 song devastated me because I was literally at home alone on that day while the pandemic was at the peak. It hit me so goddamn hard. Edit: my 30th bday was during October.
mine was right after the pandemic really got into it, in March last year, but that still hit me the hardest of everything in the special. It wasn't a small thing to remember the person I look up to the most is the same age as me
The 30 song hit me hard too. But the most devastating to me was when Bo talks about his comeback attempt in All Eyes on Me, because it was in January 2020, the very month I turned 30, and it echoed the feelings I had at this exact moment about my life about being hopeful for once and then everything turning to dust. So yeah, I felt that.
Mine was April 2020
Mine was may 2020 and we were in lockdown and the only visitor we got was the police to discuss a murder in the area.
All round grim day.
Me too. Turned 30 last year too. Feels bad, man.
This "special" is a god damn masterpiece. Its not a special its a movie. Maybe it just hit me different. I am 31 living alone, depressed as fuck, working a job I hate. I have watched this special probably 6 times now in the past 4 weeks and listened to the songs probably 30 times. Turning 30 and Feel like shit I connected with too well it was scary. The ending was such a weird mix of emotions.
Spoilers: If you have not seen this whole special go watch it. Its by far the best movie I have seen in years. Hell, maybe ever.
The end of "Turning 30" where he has the monologue about not committing suicide and then the cut to him watching that segment is such a strong turning point That you dont really notice o0n the first watch but its a very sharp turn. Then end of it I was choked up and he nailed it with the "Oh shit you're really joking at a time like this" cut to him naked thats supposed to be funny but makes it even more sad is incredibly well done. the second watch through I got teary eyed. The third time I fucking cried. I dont ever cry but it got me. The 4th time though. I was all of the above but happy? Then motivated. It got me playing music again. I haven't played in 10 years. Its really motivational in an odd way. Telling you to just stop worrying and get out of your own way. this is such a good movie but I fear it wont hold up as well in 5 years but maybe it will.
At this point we can only hope it isnt relevant based on the content, but it's very powerful to finally have better descriptions of what ails the people of this world and keeps them from positive change.
Seems like the point is to simply stop caring, because it is out of your hands. Which is a valid way to think tbh, not for me tho
This film is a time capsule. It perfectly captured that year of our lives.
For what it’s worth I’m glad you’re still here
This special was a genius work of art that will stand the test of time. It’s about so much more than just the pandemic. It’s an incredible critique of the modern world, personal depression and angst, and on art itself. Nobody’s gonna forget Inside. It’ll be discussed retroactively for decades to come.
You should also watch "In And Of Itself". If you had this kind of reaction to Inside, I can guarantee you will be bowled over. It is another masterpiece one-man-show with a strong philosophical bent.
"Because it's better for our advertisers if you walk away happy..."
Oof, after just watching Bo too.
I assume there's going to be a part two? Because there's SO much more to cover! You just scratched the surface of Bo's amazing special/film!
"Now here, our commie hand puppet is referencing Marx's argument that...." How does Michael even take his job seriously
Money
What do you mean? Are you discontent that he ribbed marxism perhaps unfairly or that he even mentioned Marx and/or communism, or something else?
@@jasoncoyne4676 it's just funny how he refers to the sock so seriously
@@niwatori024 how do you tori brown know what spence841 finds uncertain about the Tuber philosopher's willingness to apply philosophy to a part of Bo Burnham's special? I'm still curious b/c Michael said from the get that he was bringing a philosophic response to Inside, and there's nothing weird about philosophy's tact of taking just about anything serious. That's just philosophy. As opposed to, y'know, like reviews or analysis of stylistic choices.
@@jasoncoyne4676 sorry that was just my assumption. I love philosophy and I want a serious take but you have to admit that watching a sock puppet spout Marxist theory is funny and the point of Bo's bit.
Way to skip around the Neo-liberal part of Socko's song, very smooth.
I mean, the status quo has done them well. So like. Cozy cozy.
Why even put it in the video if they're not going to talk about it.
@@MaxIronsThird I'm guessing the almighty algorithm doesn't care much for anti-capitalist sentiment.
Cuz it's too easy. The entire comments section can break it down for them.
Because the people who like the message before socko says "idk read a book or something" are the very people Bo is talking about when he asks for people to shut the fuck up. The very same people that love to ascribe to the communist lens are the very same who take to social media to discuss social problems, but dont actually do anything about it because they are stuck in this terminally online space. While some of these communities can improve outlook on life in general, Bo seems to say as if there is a segment of people who want to feel morally superior but dont actually do anything about it.
Just stumbled across your video and it's an instant subscribe.
Personally I felt like I had been put through the ringer emotionally when the INSIDE credits rolled . He's perfectly summed up the most unique 18 months modern humans have ever been through and done it with humour , depth , social commentary but mostly, heart .
A wonderful piece of art which I'll go back to for a very long time .
Ancom here: one trifling thing i want to clarify re: private property. The house you own AND live in is not private property. Not is the car you use to go to work out the store. Nor your cellphone. That's personal property.
Private property is property you own in order to keep everyone else out of for the purpose of choosing a select few people and ways to access it, to use it to generate value for you. Things like condos, rent houses, or the store that has the food you need to survive.
Honestly. This analysis was so surface level lib stuff, its frustrating.
I have a conservative friend who actually pulled the "under communism I wouldn't own my toothbrush" and I had to break down to him the difference between personal and private property, and how private ownership of the means of production is inherently exploitative and he still refused to accept it.
Glad to see another ancom in the world tho
WE NEED MORE COVERAGE ON THIS SPECIAL!
Should have ended the video with the "bo, staring at you with his knife".
Really good vid. Please make a part 2!!!
All Eyes On Me, for me, was preformed from the perspective of his anxiety as a performer and his mind struggling to control the anxiety while he is simultaneously performing for us. It is the contradiction between what he wants (to perform) and how it makes him feel (shitty). This is one of the very few songs with heavy voice effect (autotune?). The other examples of Bo using voice effects on this album are voices of other characters, like the voice of God early on. In this song anxiety (with its rock star vibe) is talking to him, demanding his attention (look into my eye) while he is trying to not give in to it. It’s a familiar and almost seductive pull to give into anxieties demand for his attention/mind. At the same time Bo is asking the audience to look at him. The show going well (he has everyone’s attention) this is a “high” that gets him “on his feet” as he asks the same of the audience. The audience gave him their attention, but he also gave in to the anxiety. Soon anxiety and fear have him on his knees (praying?) and he tells the audience to put their hand down and pray for him during this “low” It’s a constant push and pull. He tries to be honest with the audience through his speech in the middle of the song. Ultimately he doesn’t think we really care and really all we want is for him to sing. Eventually the push and pull spin him out to the point that he is angry, yelling at the audience/camera. He becomes delirious, grabbing the camera, turning circles, and eventually dropping the audience/camera. From this point on the album is sad but accepting of certain unchangeable and inevitable truths that he fought against early on on the show. I don’t know where this acceptance will take Bo. As a fan I want Bo to be well, but I also want more “content” from him. It seems that too is a contradiction. This is just my interpretation.
Thats a super interesting interpretation
This entire special hit me really close to home because I lost my dad to cancer the day the lockdowns started and basically grew my hair and beard like Bo has it and radicalized in order to cope
That's tough man. Sorry to hear that. I don't have anything comforting to say. I just want you to know someone saw this and wanted you to feel better.
People who lose people to cancer usually lose their minds completely. Just FYI.
@@KaneK1234 Yup, both parents, and years of hiding madness.
I will never say goat cheese salad the same way again.
I would hire men choir just to follow me to the restaurant and I’d order goat cheese salad.
My favourite moment of inside
The amount of philosophical content you can extract from Inside shows that this special is going to be a generational masterpiece.
yep. Really hard to classify it as comedy when it just feels like the most consequential piece of performance art of the last 100 years.
Bo's ability to understand the world and convey that understanding into something very easily accessible is his most underrated talent!
Never clicked this fast on a Wisecrack video before!
Me too! Been waiting for this for weeks
@@benmcdonald21 Despite what he thinks, Bo seriously is making a literal difference, literally.
tbh same! like this is the fastest i've come to a video. and i was LITERALLY WAITING FOR THIS IM SO HAPPY
Y'all really gonna skip Welcome to the Internet and That Funny Feeling? Whack! Great video though, loved the special and how much it reminded me of Marx's and Kierkegaard's works
This was so good!! Part 2 please!
Patiently waiting for a part 2 ;)
There is a line in the Funny Feeling -- 20 thousand years of this -- 7 more to go. That is a reference to the climate clock, and there is a bit under 7 years left to fix it, and well based on other elements of the special, that's not happening.
I believe that Bo references to 'civilisation' and it's not just about climate. Although civilisations probably started a bit later, it is still up for debate and close enough. So it is even more sinister, because civilisations aren't capable to solve their very own problems they constantly create. Well, at least not for the eternity. With 5000 years of Debt by Graeber and 'patriachy' starting with civilisations and the first humans to settle down, in which humans for the very first time 'owned' other humans. Keep in mind that it wasn't the hunter and gatheres, but the 'good' sheperds. They started to 'own' animals and got the idea, what this sex thing is all about. From owning animals to owning other humans, it isn't a long road... So Bo just predicts 'the ending of it all'. The last big collaps of the last civilisation. One world, one planet, one earth, one civilisation with the citizens of the world. Yeah, and well, remember. Every civilisation of the past crashed at some point.... we're are living in the first global civilisation and well, it's fucked up, because our inner systems aren't helping us and we cannot cope, or can we? And furthermore we externalise our impact on nature; so you're right, but I believe it is even more darker. It's not just the climate. There are so many other fields, where radical change is needed immedietly and well, we all have to change the way we think about thinks and time is running up, so, this in mind all hope is lost! Long live all hope!
I swear I think he was trying to scare Jeff.
Part 2 please! There’s so much more in that special.
part 2 please!! id love to hear a detailed analysis of all the songs and skits in the special! :D
This was a bit of a let down after waiting so long to respond to inside... I was expecting a huge video not a rushed base level reaction
Indeed 🙁
Same
His White Girl Instagram song must’ve taken absolutely forever
I hope he had fun with the silliness. I dread the thought of poor Bo disgusted by his posing for the song.
This was really inciteful, and 100% changed the rest of my week. Thanks for making this video.
This is the only video I’ve seen so I’m gonna have to watch some more, but you’re the kind of person I like to calmly and cooly debate on certain topics. As long I didn’t misconstrued your points. Either way I love the fact that you break things down and that’s why I’m here.
Inside is a work of genius even if it romanticises mental health issues at times! It's borderline madness packed in philosophical bite sized musical pieces all performed inside a room and lit perfectly in a display of editing masterclass!
where did you get "romanticizing mental illness" out of it? genuinely asking because all i saw regarding that topic was bo saying how he's scared he wont have a purpose to keep living after he finishes his special.
I didnt see any romanticism(or whatever the noun form is) of mental health. Although I defo feel like the effort and thought he put into it can clash with his openness to talk about his struggles could definitely lead to people romanticizing.
@@andresguerra2274 im very confused by this comment, you're saying because bo was open about his mental health, and he put alot of effort into the special, people are going to romanticizes mental health? what do any of those have to do with each other? people are going to romanticize mental health no matter what, but bo himself did not. he was being open about why he "feels like shit", he wasnt trying to get 12 year olds to pretend they have depression.
Fung Berto i think you’re right here, but i don’t think it’s right to speak derisively about kids like that. people romanticize mental illness across all ages and walks of life, and i think painting kids who think they have depression as the problem is unfair. let’s talk about the people on tiktok who fake DID for clout and have gotten a whole lot more people to believe they also have it, the people on twitter who glorify stories about people being toxic, or people here on youtube who gaslight gatekeep girlboss all day and then blame it on their mental illness to avoid taking any responsibility for it.
talking about mental health ≠ romanticizing mental illness
All good stuff. As noted by others, we want MORE. I want to hear thoughts on the actual ending, starting in my mind with him clawing to get back inside and then the smile at the very end.
"we want MORE" bruh that irony. Not judging you, it's just insane how the modern world teaches us neverbyo be satisfied with great content
Ok. My mom explained that when he went outside, he got back to "the real world" or "reality". But he didn't like it. He wanted to go back to his little fantasy safe world even though it caused him to have social isolation, severe depression, and agoraphobia.
@@spannycat2 Dang so it’s almost like. Either way you lose. If you stay in the real world it’d mess you up from everything we’re going through. All hope seems bleak, but if we go inside and stay in our own small little world, we’re more safe and not shown to all of the dark things happening in our world. But end up with social isolation, etc. I feel just like that tbh. although my only difference is I love it. I love being inside and staying in my small little world. People say I’m depressed and all these other things but I’m genuinely happy not caring about things that I can’t control.
What i find hilarious about this excellent study of Bo's content is that it is simultaneously exsisting to communicate and entertain while the aim of this review video is doing the same its like Spider-Man pointing at Spider-Man.
I think it is Bo Burnham's best work an absolute masterpiece. Thank you for adding a new light to his work
I heard that Bo watches Hasan, but even then Socko took me off guard...
True
Hasan abi? I hope not because despite being in the same political camp as him, i think he is a lying asshole. But i really like Bo.
@@vege4920 how so ? How does he lie?
@@vege4920 Hasan is a weaselly little liar, dude. Jk, they're pretty close politically. Rich LA leftists. And Bo is a fan, is confirmed.
@@Trowa71 Better they be rich leftists than rich right wingers
I think the specific look at the philosophy of this, while removing the aspect of mental illness that is so clearly a part of Bo's overarching message, while an interesting exercise, does miss out on some of the more nuanced takes. That being said I really liked the video and would love to see a second part.
I love that "Maybe we're not totally screwed" counts as ending on a high note. This friggin' timeline, man...
Great analysis, thanks 4 the video :)
Probably deserved a two parter or more, since there are so many songs, which are amazing and could use a wisecrack cracking.
Patiently waiting for Part 2, have to hear your take on Welcome to the Internet.
The entire thing felt like an hour long suicide note.
I was thinking the same thing.
I have been waiting for wisecrack to make a video about inside ever since I watched it ten times
Kinda disappointed that you chose Rousseau and Marx/Engels to cover the "Property is Theft" joke when Proudhon made the famous quote
Paulo Freire ❤️🇧🇷
big ups for tying the themes on display to philosophical concepts for basics like me
"Pedophilic elite"
This guy: I see it, it was sung, now I'm moving on and that's as far as I'm going to acknowledge it because i don't want to be murdered by child rapists."
Or he doesn't believe it at all? Lol, hard to doubt it man.
You can interpret was Socko says in a Q lense but I also think of Jeffery Epstein and how it came out that a lot of wealthy, powerful men were his clientele…
That's what I thought when listening to the song as well. I think powerful people weaseling out of any kind of punishment for their crimes is a much more reasonable reading. When compared to a movement of military personnel choosing Donald Trump to lead their destruction of a baby eating cabal composed of politicians and especially Hilary Clinton. The former idea just seems to fit a little better
I thought as well of black lives matter. Proves police are to maintain status quo for an elite.
@@stefgreen5237 You can be Elite and be of any racial descent. ergo, it has nothing to do with BLM
the first person to say the "property is theft" line was proudhon, although he is way less relevent. U should at least give him sum credit.
this is probably, one of the best videos i've ever seen in yt
Great video, and I love inside, it’s certainly the best comedy special I’ve seen, and I can’t wait to see what else he’s got up his sleeves.
This may be the most ironic video I've ever seen. The best part is they're not trying to be ironic
The reaction clearly avoids difficult to tackle issues presented by Bo (like the end of Socko's Song.) Making his commentary feel hollow on the piece as a whole. :/
I could discuss this movie for days. He did what he could in fifteen minutes here.
I’m Brazilian and at the moment I saw you quote Paulo Freire I had to subscribe, congratulations my man, superb work!
Very insightful video! Always knew I was not the only one who interpreted the special this way :)
That was the thing that really got me about this special. Normally comedic songs are pretty generic, whether the lyrics are funny or not. Bo was able to make some pretty good music, comedy aside.
MAKE A PART 2 OR YOULL END UP IN A FRIGHTENING LIMINAL SPACE BETWEEN STATES OF BEING!! NOT QUITE DEAD NOT QUITE ALIVE.
yayyyyy i love this version wayyy betterrr. more more episodes on bo burnham
more please, would love to see you touch on these songs in more depth as well as exploring the ones you didn’t cover
Also, Bo seems have a really wonderful relationship with his mother 🤗
Socialism is key to everyone getting to expirence all the freedom enlightenment thinkers imagined
The way you ended gave me that funny feeling.
Just subscribed and hoping that you make a part 2 of this!!!!
"Jeffrey Bezos... Jeffrey Bezos"
Born in 1964
@@koalasquare2145 JEFFERY. JEFFERY BEZOS!
All eyes on me is a masterpiece
More. Must consume.
Seriously do a second part with more of the show.
Standing ovation, thank you, this must be watched and thought about in concord with Bo Burnham's opus.