For extra variety “All Eyes On Me” doesn’t count*

*unless you have an INCREDIBLY good reason.

One of the comments says “so unsettling to hear the crowd laughing during this”.

“Imagine playing one of the most painful songs you wrote about how fame eats you inside and exploits the poor, and the exploiters are laughing with no self awareness”, another comment reads. This one amassed almost 6000 likes.

Isn’t laughing at him the point? In the song he literally describes himself as a selfish bastard who doesn’t deserve respect. About how performing for a living is absurd and silly so don’t take him too seriously. “Please don’t revere me, please don’t respect me” and all that.

Why are people in the comments revering and respecting him? Would they prefer he perform this song to an awestruck silence from a crowd? That seems like an even more perverse reaction to me, given the lyrical content of the song. He describes himself as an adult throwing a tantrum like a child. His scowling, his self seriousness, the way he smashes the keys - isn’t it all supposed to come across as funny in that context?

I’m really curious what everyone here thinks. I feel like by laughing the audience is engaging with the work exactly as intended. Am I missing something?

All I ever see anybody talk about is inside, which I think is a great special and album but it’s really all I see anybody talk about. So are most people here new fans who got into bo via inside or is it just all he’s known for now? And if you do love inside have you ever listened to any of his other stuff?

I’m a relatively new to Bo ,I only started listening to him after Inside and ive listened to What ,Words Words Words Bo Burnham and now Make Happy after coming across Kanyes Rant .It’s a really great song yet doesn’t seem up there in popularity like Welcome to the internet and All eyes on me and I’m wondering why. Context:I’m the only person i know irl that listens to Bo a lot

What do you think Bo's 2020 - 2021 tour would have been called?

hey!

just wondering if there's people from outside the US in here, so we can comiserate over: eighth grade/inside never hitting our theaters / not being able to show Inside to most friends and family because they wouldn't get a lot of the references / knowing you would have to make an international trip and get a (sometimes very hard to obtain) visa to the US if you were ever to see Bo live and etc etc etc. lol

​

i am brazilian! where are you guys from?

Hello, My name is Jesse David Fox. I am a comedy journalist, who has written extensively about Bo for Vulture and in my book, 2023's COMEDY BOOK. I interviewed Bo once in 2018: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOABIabgRCg

With the 5-year anniversary coming up, I've been thinking a lot about Inside. And partly I'm thinking about how people responded to the piece. So, I decided not to assume anything and come directly to you all and ask.

How real did you think/do you think Inside was? How accurate is what we see to his pandemic experience, be it literally or emotionally? From a scale of 1 (complete fantasy) to 10 (unedited security camera footage). Related questions: Is Inside more of an earnest or ironic piece? Why hasn't he commented on the special or really appeared in public at all since (directing and being masked for Jerrod, aside)?

There are no right or wrong answers. I am genuinely just curious. Please share any other thoughts you may have.

This would be for an upcoming episode of my podcast, Good One, in which I plan on discussing how I think about the special 5 years later.

Thank you for your time.

-Jesse

UPDATED QUESTION: Skimming the responses 24 hours into this post, I feel the need to ammend my question. It seems like most responses are in line with what I wrote in my book (EXCERPT: https://www.vulture.com/article/comedy-book-excerpt-truth-is-what-a-comedian-makes-of-it.html), which is great. However, it shouldn't be a surprise, y'all are Bo scholars. But it raises a new question about Bo normies (Bormies): Why did it seem to me SOOOOOOOOOOOOO many people seem to see the special to be 100% earnest, 100% autobiographically true? Is it: 1. These people didn't get it 2. They were pretending to not get it, to play into the piece, but secretly they got it?

My new theory on the special and its response is rooted in my recent fascination with professional wrestling and the idea of kayfabe. Essentially kayfabe means the act of treating what happens in ring/oncamera as authentic. Upholding kayfabe used to be dogma for those in wrestling, as if the fans didn't know it was preplanned. However, it seems more likely true fans did know it was fake, but they themselves were committed to upholding the kayfabe as well, because frankly it is more fun. I am not going to get into the nuances of post-modern, neokayfabe, but since the 1990s the new mode is to blur the fake and the real, where you know everything happening on camera is a "work" in one way or another but something true can be slipped in. I think Inside similar operates in that paradox, especially since Bo has yet to do a kayfabe-busting interview about it. I trust most of you get this in one way or another, but do the Bormies? In wrestling parlance, this reddit is clearly for the Bo "smarks," but are Bormies marks or are they just playing along for fun or, more cynically, are they exploiting the viral popularity of the songs and playing up their own emotional response for social media clicks?

Anyone brings up anything pop culture-related that I don't like? "It's the end of culture!"

Someone ends the sentence with the word "list". I have to bite my knuckles to keep from launching into the list of all the sluts I've missed. Every time I go shopping with someone that comes up a lot...

What are yours?

I’m curious if there are still songs I don’t know about after all these years lol

Hey guys, this is a really weird one but does anyone know the origin of this Bo Burnham photo? I’ve looked around various old YouTube uploads and also Eighth Grade behind the scenes footage and can’t find it anywhere.

I suspect it’s from early YouTube because of the hair, but that’s not a definite as there was a pool at his old place. I’m not convinced by Eighth Grade either because his hair was too long.

If this sends us all down a rabbit hole, my apologies in advance! I will be very pleased if it is found :)

Accepted names: Bowl Burnham/bowl boy

I mean, it obviously isn't an actual tour, since we were in quarentine during that time and the places where the tour would take place are just zones of the house. I'm asking if the image itself is official, if it was uploaded by Bo back then. Is it?

So I recently discovered Bo and I literally just watched 2 minutes of inside and I love him completely, but one question, should I watch Inside first or should I watch the other specials first (What./Make Happy)?

Personally, on re-watch not a fan of the reaction bit, the only thing in the special I tend to skip, you've seen it once and that's enough.

Favorite part is Goodbye, great song, great closer

I've done as much searching as I can to find information on this. It's printed on metal and looks professionally done. Anyone have any ideas?

Of course I bought it.

Question randomly came to my head has anyone met him how was he

for me its Art is Dead

hey everyone look who stopped by to say hello (it's me)
i started making a bunch of art/music myself in the past few years and i keep on going back to inside as something i look up to for inspiration. i love the way bo uses spotlights to film especially in comedy, goodbye, how the world works and welcome to the internet. like i love in comedy and goodbye how the spotlight adds to the feeling. in comedy he has a spotlight on him and then has a super bright light overwhelm him. in in goodbye combined with him being naked it really summarizes the vulnerability in this special. i wanted to ask if anyone knows a thing or two about spotlights/lighting because i am overwhelmed by choice. this light looks pretty good, but I have also seen some pinspot lights on amazon germany that claim to have higher watt and that come with a remote for 30 quids. i dont have much experience filming things so maybe someone here knows a cool spotlight! i also have another bigger light to fill out the scenes!
thank you

Every Wednesday me and a group of friends gather round to watch a new musical we haven't seen. Whether it be stage play, movie adaptation, even Disney. The only rule in our group is music has to be a prevalent part of the art.

I'm choosing inside this week since music is a prevalent part but it's not something I ever considered a musical. Afterall, Netflix and bo himself never labeled it a musical. But recently we watched tick tick boom (stage play) and it got me thinking you could classify inside as a musical since they're both similar in that its a one man monologue style piece. Wikipedia simply defines a musical as a piece with music being the primary driver for story and development, which I think fits.

Either way we're watching it, we aren't stingy with who gets to pick what, it's variety hour.

for me it’s pretty much all of Comedy but more specifically “sandra bullock!”

My boyfriend is trying to tell me TFF is country but it’s not 😭 it’s just folk but he says it’s country and I don’t know how to explain how he’s wrong 😭