Inside (2021) is Bo Burnham’s newest comedy special, where he performs songs and skits centered around life during the pandemic and being stuck inside during lockdown. Burnham is known for his unique style of comedy in which he incorporates original songs and music with his jokes, as seen in some of his previous specials like what. (2013) and Bo Burnham: Make Happy (2016). Inside is the first special that is not performed live in front of an audience, and due to the constraints of the pandemic, Burnham did most of the work required to make the film by himself, including but not limited to writing, directing, filming, performing, and editing. Although this film is technically labeled as a comedy special, it is more apt to be considered a documentary. There is, of course, a lot of humor in the film, but the focus is more on portraying the experience and trauma of quarantine authentically while documenting Burnham’s creative process as he attempts to make the film within the film we see.
From the very beginning, the audience sees a distinct contrast between normal life and quarantine. The film opens with a bare and tidy room: there is an electronic piano and chair in the center, a desk on the right, and a closed drawer on the left. Burnham opens a door from the outside and walks in, filling the room with a bright white light and implying it is a sunny day. The scene then abruptly transitions to the first song, “Content” . Burnham’s hair and beard are visibly longer, and his overall appearance is messier compared to his clean-cut look we just saw. The room is also much darker now, and an artificial light in the back replaces the natural light from before. The camera slowly zooms out to reveal the cluttered layout of the room. There are papers, wires, and speakers all over the floor and the desk, the drawer is ajar, and the room certainly feels very lived in, suggesting Burnham has been living inside here for months. The title “Inside” then appears in a large white font and emphatically changes to red. The dreary look and feel of the room and Burnham’s appearance sharply contrasts with the upbeat nature of the song. The juxtaposition between the room and the song, the jarring transition to daytime, and the color change of the title, reveals the bleak reality of quarantine under the guise of a new comedy special. “Content” encapsulates the premise of Inside and acts as the thesis of the show: while quarantine gave people more time to create content and express their creativity, it caused isolation and mental health problems to pervade.
Through some of the ensuing songs, Burnham depicts the increased forms of online communication and interaction prevalent at a time when people were isolated and likely separated from loved ones. For example, in the song “Facetime with My Mom”, which he performs early on in the film, Burnham speaks to the frustration he has conversing with his mom because his mom would often cover the phone’s camera with her thumb. Burnham’s disinterested face throughout the conversation and the buildup of anger with his mom’s technical issues expresses the annoyance and disconnectedness one can feel when not being able to communicate in person. In a particularly provocative piece, titled “Sexting”, Burnham talks about using emojis as sexual innuendos to send explicit messages to his girlfriend – another example of an ineffective mode of communication compared to the intimacy of interpersonal interaction. Burnham examines stereotypical behavior of women on social media in “White Woman’s Instagram” where he lists recurrent trends by depicting frequently appearing objects, poses, and apparel in girls’ Instagram posts. The posts are vain and shallow, showing how social media is not a meaningful way to interact with your friends. Around the 50 minute mark, Burnham impersonates a streamer who is playing a game which mirrors his mundane, everyday routine. He parodies the streaming culture where everything can be used as content for streamers, no matter how unimportant it may seem, and. Burnham’s satirical presentation of virtual activities like video calls, texting, instagram, and streaming demonstrates how pervasive they have become during the pandemic and how they are not necessarily wholly positive.
Layered behind the seemingly irreverent concepts in each song, the signs of Burnham's deteriorating mental health as the documentary progresses. One of the first moments we see this transition is right after “Sexting”. Burnham speaks directly to the camera and imitates typical Youtubers and Twitch streamers by thanking the audience for watching his content. The scene takes a dark twist when Burnham grabs a knife and gestures with it while talking as lighthearted music plays in the background. After he finishes talking, the music fades out, but the camera lingers on Burnham’s face. Burnham smiles creepily into the camera and seems somewhat distressed-- something is clearly not right. After a quick intermission around the halfway mark, the signs of his problems become more obvious. The music abruptly cuts to a much more upbeat song, ironically titled “Shit”. Similar to the contrast in the intro sequence, Burnham uses a contradictory tune while singing about feeling like shit. Immediately after this song, a restless Burnham sitting down on a stool shaking one leg addresses the audience directly again and says he’s at an all time low. Burnham informs us he intended to finish this project before he turned 30 a few months back. His goal took an unexpected turn when he was not able to finish in time and dragged the project on for much longer. At 1:01:28, Burnham tells us he’s freaking out now that he’s finally close to finishing but he wants to keep working forever, “if I finish this special, that means that I have to, um, not work on it anymore. And that means I have to just live my life”, a thought he dreaded since the beginning of his journey on this project, as he had mentioned how this was the one ambition keeping him going in quarantine. His obsession and unhealthy attachment to this film illustrates the detriments of being locked inside to his mental wellbeing. These moments build up to a climax at 1:10:00 when Burnham gives a very distressed speech. He frequently pauses and cannot express his words smoothly, which just adds to how tired and frustrated he already looks in the shot. After numerous angry outbursts, he gives up on his talk. It’s obvious Burnham’s mental state has severely deteriorated over the course of the pandemic, which is characteristic of the experience of many other people.
As we watch Burnham’s mental crisis unfold, the film draws attention to the act of reflection during the pandemic. When we’re given all the time in the world to spend with little to do in our houses, people tend to drift off and contemplate things around them. In a scene at around 37:45, Burnham sits in complete darkness illuminated only by the light from a projector screen. He’s watching, with a solemn expression, his much younger self playing the piano in probably one of his first recorded songs. In his final song, “Goodbye”, his intent in this film is summed up succinctly, “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.” Burnham even underscores the passage of time and his personal growth by including shots of himself at the beginning of this project and his initial takes at the songs, showing a comparison between his much more spirited self and his despondent appearance now.
Throughout the documentary, the outside world is not explicitly shown; instead, we are given shots of windows obstructed by curtains, sounds of birds chirping, and glowing doorways. This leaves much of the outside to the audience’s imagination. What Burnham did hint at here is how pleasant and exuberant the outside is compared to inside. At the end of the film, we see the same shot of Burnham’s room as the beginning, except this time the room is completely clean, has no electronic piano in the center, and is completely dark without sunlight or artificial light except for the same bright beams of light from the gaps of the door. Burnham steps out into what seems to be a bright sunny day. But in a dramatic reveal, it turns out it is actually nighttime. There was just a spotlight shining on his door and the sounds we heard were not real. Burnham stands by the doorstep and a disembodied sound of the audience clapping is heard. The reality is much bleaker than what Burnham leads the audience to believe about the outside with his previous imagery and soundscape, which could’ve very well just been conjured up in his head. Burnham even hallucinates the presence of an “imaginary” live audience in his fixation with reconnecting to his normal life, which further shows just how distorted Burnham’s mind is. His subtle portrayal of mental delusion aligns with the very real psychological problems we deal with stuck inside.
When he turns around to open the door, he discovers it is locked. As he struggles to open it, the audience starts to laugh. When the audience laughs at Burnham’s misfortune, it symbolizes how entertaining the show is to all of us stuck at home even though Burnham underwent quite a bit of mental torment. The entire scene cuts to a projector screen showing the same scene, and Burnham is watching the ending simultaneously as we see it, suggesting he had watched through the entire film. Burnham smiles and the screen cuts to black, marking the end of “Inside”. Burnham’s final reaction is a bit unexpected as he had grown more depressed, hopeless, and frustrated as time went on. However, his reaction to the finished product shows he is content about what he had accomplished. The small expression of joy as the final shot acts as a hopeful message about the pandemic. Quarantine was a difficult time for many people, including Burnham, but he has shown there is still some good that came out of it. The flip side to not being able to go outside for him was the opportunity for his creativity to flourish in the form of a masterful and ingenious documentary