Bo Burnham's 'Inside' comedy special on Netflix a must-watch

Inside: Adverb. Situated with the boundaries or confines of. This simple word, also the title of one millennial comedian’s recent Netflix special, perfectly describes what that special actually is. Bo Burnham shot and performed his comedy special over the span of a year, all alone in a single room detached from his primary residence. The special is called Inside, which debuted on Netflix on May 30 of this year, and it is put together more like a musical than a traditional stand-up special. Despite some criticism, this comedy special is by far the most entertaining and relatable special I have ever watched, and it also clearly shows how Burnham incomparably puts his comedic and musical talents to use.

The impressiveness with which Burnham pretty much made the entire special himself is the first reason the special shines. Being the editor, Burnham has full control over this film and in the beginning he starts to say that there will be weird jump cuts then it cuts. This continues to happen throughout the film and it's one of the little things that make it funnier. At one point in the film, during the song “All Time Low'', he was going on about his mental health and it just cut to him singing with an upbeat tune about him feeling crappy. The suddenness of this song caught me off guard, though I did find it a little funny because of the timing. It’s a catchy song too. In other words, not only does Burnham create the special himself, he is honest about his struggles along the way but not without doing so in ways that provide comedic relief.

Along with his comedic relief he does bring up some serious problems in today's world and how they aren’t okay, as well as stating his own problematic behaviors in the past. A prime example is during “How The World Works”, he sings about all the problems in the world or terrible things that have happened in the past:

The simple narrative taught in every history class

Is demonstrably false and pedagogically classist

Don't you know the world is built with blood?

And genocide and exploitation

The global network of capital essentially functions

To separate the worker from the means of production

Here, Burnham is referencing classism, system racism, genocide, exploitation, and capitalism as problems in society. This isn’t the only song he mentions current real world problems but it is the song with the most mentions. In short, the show is so great because it addresses important social issues as well as the comedian’s personal issues. He does not try to cover up that people and the world itself have problems.

There’s a sense of relatability in almost all of his songs as well. While watching it I’ve thought “Hey, I do that” or “that’s so true!.” We also see him go through various emotions during this production, so it's not just his performances, we get to see him stress or get frustrated. I'm sure we can all relate to feeling like that. It makes him seem more human rather than a character we are watching on screen. His song “White Woman’s Instagram” might just be the most relatable song because the song mentions a lot of what you’d picture when thinking about a white woman’s Instagram. Also a lot of people with older parents could relate to “FaceTime with my Mom (Tonight).” Most of their parents don’t really know how to work with newer technology or what the song is primarily about, FaceTime. It's a struggle trying to teach them how to work it while on the phone with them. Burnham’s content is especially appealing to millennials and Gen Z.

Some people might say that Burnham’s special is not well put together and is just a bunch of gibberish or that it's not funny at all because he focuses so much on his own struggles during the pandemic, including his struggles to actually finish making the special, which could come across as too self-deprecating Those people don’t realize that all the randomness and gibberish is a part of Burnham’s humor. I would say those people don’t have the same humor as Burnham or they can’t see the deeper meaning of the special. Burnham did a wonderful job putting this special together, making it entertaining. It provides comedic relief and relatability, with some problems we need to address thrown in.

Inside, cooped up in a room for a year, producing and editing a special all on his own, he did it. Don’t we all wish we could be that productive inside.