Bo Burnham's "Inside" is a masterpiece

Robert McGrath

plibige wrote: »

I think there must be something wrong with me because I tried watching it last night and didn't get into it at all. For something described as comedy I didn't laugh once in the 40 minutes I watched. I'm looking online to see if anyone thought the same as me but it seems like everyone loved it it but me!

I think the problem is approaching it as a comedy. It’s more of a one man musical than a comedy special

plibige

plibige wrote: »

I think there must be something wrong with me because I tried watching it last night and didn't get into it at all. For something described as comedy I didn't laugh once in the 40 minutes I watched. I'm looking online to see if anyone thought the same as me but it seems like everyone loved it it but me!

I think it's more the kind of thing that people who don't like it don't talk about it, those that do just keep going on.
I've tried to watch some of his stuff but I just can't. Watched/listened to a couple of songs and they just sound like Weird Al album songs to me. After that it's mostly just "artsy" moaning and whinging about stuff.
But hey, maybe it's just not for me.

plibige

Robert McGrath wrote: »

I think the problem is approaching it as a comedy. It’s more of a one man musical than a comedy special

Ye you could be right, maybe I went in with the wrong mindset. I might try it again but to be honest after being in isolation for so long I just don't think a musical about isolation is something I want to see!

Penn

His previous shows were more tilted towards comedy songs and standup, but with undertones of performance art and mental health underneath. Inside is more weighted in the opposite direction, there are bits of comedy throughout, but it reaches performance art levels far more quickly and his mental health struggles and how isolation has compounded that are very much at the forefront of the show throughout.

Most of the praise for Inside isn't that it's hilarious or funny, just that it's brilliant.

ShineOn7

plibige wrote: »

I think there must be something wrong with me because I tried watching it last night and didn't get into it at all. For something described as comedy I didn't laugh once in the 40 minutes I watched. I'm looking online to see if anyone thought the same as me but it seems like everyone loved it it but me!

Not sure anyone is describing this as Comedy

It's an amazing piece of one man art

plibige

ShineOn7 wrote: »

Not sure anyone is describing this as Comedy

It's an amazing piece of one man art

Netflix is calling it a "musical comedy".

Maybe I'm looking at it wrong but it came across as pretentious and self aggrandizing to me.

Definitely not "an amazing piece of art". More in the vein of "look how clever i am".

But obviously just my opinion, and I accept people are getting something out of it I'm not

S.M.B.

Penn wrote: »

His previous shows were more tilted towards comedy songs and standup, but with undertones of performance art and mental health underneath. Inside is more weighted in the opposite direction, there are bits of comedy throughout, but it reaches performance art levels far more quickly and his mental health struggles and how isolation has compounded that are very much at the forefront of the show throughout.

^ this

I finally got around to watching it last night and am glad I didn't go in without the above context.

Like Make Happy I thought there were some very high highs but there were moments that I wasn't overly fond of either.

mwv

Jeffrey Bezoooos now pops into my head multiple times a day.

You did it!

While I thought the first half was funny, and very clever, the second half was uncomfortable to watch.
It wasn't simply uncomfortable because here was someone enduring a breakdown, but because the viewer is asked to watch someone performing a breakdown for the camera, purely in an autobiographical context, with no real artistic merit to it.

I think Burnham's point is that all human interaction is a performance, but that's not exactly profound or enlightening. It's a shallow, glib statement.

This seems like it was a real slog for Burnham, and it shows. Sometimes a one-man challenge like that is just too much to pull-off.

Robert McGrath

Regardless of whether you think it’s a musical or performance art or comedy or a pandemic time capsule or a commentary on mental health, one thing I think is undeniable - there are some absolutely cracking songs in there. Earworm after earworm for me

ShineOn7

Bo Burnham's Inside is one of the great works of art to come out of the pandemic

One of? Surely it's the only truly great piece of art since last March?

https://www.irishexaminer.com/lifestyle/artsandculture/arid-40318583.html

JP Liz V1

3 Emmy wins

Basq

It's been a year since release so we got an hour of outtakes, behind-the-scenes, demos etc.

https://youtu.be/5XWEVoI40sE

Penn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119141429#Comment_119141429

I watched it earlier. It's really good. Obviously it's not it's own show so it's kinda disjointed, but it does feature a lot of alternate takes and visuals of songs, some new comedy bits and a few new songs.