Transcript: Analysis: Bo Burnham’s ‘Inside’

This is the transcript for the video of the same name.

Good hello to the people who decide to watch this overlong video. It is highly recommended that you watch Bo Burnham’s Inside before watching this because uh… well… this will be a full breakdown. Every spoiler imaginable. To the point that this video is longer than the source material it is analysing. So, this is your last chance to go back and actually watch Inside!

Alright, if you’ve stuck around, it’s either because you’ve seen Burnham’s special or you just don’t care. Either way, who cares?

So, this will be a boring, stuffy analysis that will go through every single section and song in this special. Don’t expect anything flashy!

 

So let’s explain:

Bo Burnham’s Inside came out on 30 May 2021, and I have watched it a number of times and I have listened to the soundtrack over and over to the point where I can sing along without missing a beat. I maybe get a little obsessive with things I like and then repetitively consume them until the point of exhaustion, but then I thought that, you know, why not put that to good use? Why not use my obsessive tendencies to actually analyse the thing?

So that’s what we’re going to do today. Now, for me, I decided that I would upload this video on the one year anniversary of Inside’s release. Now, I guess before we begin, we should actually give a brief mention as to what Bo Burnham’s Inside actually is. I would like to reiterate that this is a full spoiler discussion, and I would highly recommend watching the special before watching this video.

Okay, so with that out the way again, in brief: Bo Burnham is a comedian and musician who primarily conveys his comedy through music. He is a performer, and he has released several specials in the past. And then during the 2020 pandemic, he decided to create Inside, a new special that was to be recorded completely inside a room. Hence the name. We’ll get to the actual discussion of that when we get to it, but for now, that’s pretty much all you need to know. It’s a special that’s got some stand-up, some musical and some non-musical performances and what, I guess could be called, skits? And that’s that. That’s what Bo Burnham’s Inside is. And now let’s get to the analysis, and we’re going to go song by song and section by section. Let’s get started!

Song #1: Content:

It all starts with a slow fade. We find ourselves in a room, and there is a sliver of light through the door. This will be our setting. And this really is just a simple setup. The entire special takes place inside, and so Burnham has to come from somewhere, and he comes from outside. This is a very simple juxtaposition that will only pay off at the very end of the special.

Once Burnham enters through the door, which produces incredibly bright sunlight, we begin. And that sunlight will also be important as time goes on. It represents the outside world. And it’s just the beginning of Burnham’s use of light, which begins with this very first song and continues until the end of the special.

A synth beat begins once the door has been shut behind him. He’s inside and the show has begun.

Once again, a slow fade, but it opens on Burnham’s face and torso. He starts singing. It’s a rather simple song and there isn’t necessarily much to discuss in the lyrics:

If you’d have told me a year ago

That I’d be locked inside of my home (Ah, ah, ah)

I would have told you, a year ago:

“Interesting; now leave me alone”

Sorry that I look like a mess (Ah, ah, ah)

I booked a haircut, but it got rescheduled

Robert’s been a little depressed. No

And so, today, I’m gonna try just

 

Getting up, sitting down, going back to work

Might not help, but still, it couldn’t hurt

I’m sitting down, writing jokes, singing silly songs

I’m sorry I was gone

 

But look, I made you some content

Daddy made you your favourite. Open wide

Here comes the content

It’s a beautiful day to stay inside

 

He muses on how he, and perhaps by extension we, would have responded had we known that we were going to be locked inside for months and months (and so far years), and it’s pretty much how we all would have responded. We wouldn’t have cared. Would we? We’d have just thought that that was a problem for future us.

And then an apology for his appearance and general demeanour. Not having a proper haircut and being kinda depressed. Rather common things in the age of Covid-19. Or at least for those who actually followed guidelines. And this is used to relate this special, and his work on it, to all of us. The regular people who had to, as he says: “Get(…) up, sit(…) down, go(…) back to work.”

His work is different to the majority of people. Writing jokes and singing silly songs is not what we all do, but for him it’s quite common. It’s his nine to five. And, like any good millennial, he apologises for taking so long to produce a new piece of content for us to enjoy.

And I will refrain from calling this special “art” or anything similar. It certainly isn’t a full “comedy special” as it may be labelled on Netflix. It is a performance, but as this song states: “I made you some content,” and so that’s what this is. It’s content. Which is the buzzword of social media: it’s all content. This video I’m doing right now is content. And considering the relation between Burnham and internet culture, “content” is exactly the right word to use.

And of course, because Burnham needs to be at least a little unsettling, he says, right after saying that he made us some content, that “daddy made you your favourite, open wide.” Because of course he says that.

And the song ends with him telling us what is to come: we’re getting content, he hopes we enjoy it and that today is a great day to just stay inside.

Now, that’s just the lyrics. This song, and every song, isn’t all lyrics though; it’s a performance. It’s a light show. And as he tells us that he made us some content, his shadowy face raises up, the device on his head shines a bright light outwards and towards the ceiling, where a hitherto unseen disco ball slowly rotates. Light cascades around the room as if it were a celebration.

But this light also illuminates the general mess of the room he’s in. It’s our first sneak peak at where he has been working. The camera slowly zooms outwards so we can see more and more of the untidy room. This is simply the setup. He is telling us what is soon to come, and he wants us to know that it will be a spectacle. A depressing spectacle, considering his confession that he’s been depressed, but a spectacle nonetheless. So, let’s see where his spectacle takes us.

But before that, one small note on his choreography here. He has set up his instrumentation, as well as a recorded vocalisation of “ah, ah, ah” to fall perfectly within his carefully timed performance. Timing has always been integral to Burnham’s specials in the past, and simply watching his older specials, which were recorded in front of actual audiences, his timing was impeccable. And here, where he could do multiple takes, the timing will only ever be perfect.

So, let’s see what else he has in store for us.   

Section #1: The Setup:

We open on the title. A simple title: Inside. We have already been shown, albeit briefly, that he has recorded this inside this room, and this section continues that trend. It never leaves the room. Burnham came from the outside at the beginning of the special and now… well now he’s inside, isn’t he?

The next shot is telling us that this was written, edited, shot and directed by Burnham. With that simple, red credit, we are told that this was solely a work of his own. He did it all. And we have a simple synth beat throughout this section as we are introduced to Bo Burnham without the pretence of his music.

We are shown, not told, what is to come and how it was produced. We see him testing his camera, testing his mics, testing the various lighting rigs that he has in this room.  We see this as a montage, and time does pass. His beard grows, his hair lengthens, his clothes constantly change. And a slow return to the camera, diving deep into the lens. One solitary glance of what Burnham will look like later.

He changes and alters throughout this section. This is just the second aspect of the setup. He hasn’t explained anything yet, but already it feels tight and claustrophobic. Unreal. Seen through a camera lens, and we are meta-textually informed that this isn’t just a piece of content; this is a piece of content about content. He hasn’t said as much, but he’s shown us that.

We have seen his preparations, and now it’s time for his show to really start.

Song #2: Comedy:

A solitary spotlight shines on Burnham in the centre of the room. Sitting at his keyboard and preparing to sing to us as if it were a regular old performance in a hall. He plays a slow, mournful melody as he starts performing his song. There is nothing special in his performance. Nothing over the top or particularly entertaining. Aside from the sad addition of a recorded laughing track that he uses at the end of two lines that are darkly humorous, but not really.

The world is changing

The planet’s heating up

What the fuck is going on? (Recorded laughter)

Rearranging

It’s like everything happened all at once

Um, what the fuck is going on? (Recorded laughter)

The people rising in the streets

The war, the drought

The more I look, the more I see nothing to joke about

Is comedy over?

Should I leave you alone?

‘Cause, really, who’s gonna go for joking at a time like this?

Should I be joking at a time like this?

 

I wanna help to leave this world better than I found it

And I fear that comedy won’t help, and the fear is not unfounded

Should I stop trying to be funny?

Should I give away my money? No

What do I do?

This opening is a genuine question to us as the audience. A question about motives. Should he even be doing this special? He remarks that the world is changing and slowly dying for us. The world itself is literally rejecting us like a virus. The planet’s heating up, and it feels like everything is going wrong all at once and so: what the fuck is going on?

He alludes to global warming in that second line, but later alludes to social issues, such as the rising protests throughout the pandemic that raged against police brutality in the wake of George Floyd’s murder, as well as the murder of many other African-Americans in the United States. And then he alludes to more universal issues like war and drought.

We get the earnest question that often sees comedians being derisive towards anyone who wants to improve the world. Burnham states that there’s less and less to joke about in the world. Should he even be joking in the first place? He has no illusions about his place as a comedian.

It’s difficult. Much of comedy throughout the ages has been problematic in some sense or another, and this song calls attention to that. Many comedians decide to blame things like cancel culture or something else for killing comedy, but comedy will never die. It will simply adapt. In Shakespeare’s so-called “comedy” Twelfth Night, a few of the characters imprison someone and make him believe he’s gone mad. This is played for laughs. They psychologically tortured a man, sure he was a pompous asshole, but still a human being. And this was… funny.

Now we no longer see it as funny. We look back at the humour of ages before our own and either acknowledge the problems inherent in it or we act as if the world has become too sensitive. It’s the same thing that led to so many people whining about political correctness in my youth while practically every comedy produced in that era was awful towards so many groups.

So, when Burnham asks whether he should be joking around at a time like this, it’s a good question. And it’s a question to us and to himself. He even asks himself if he should give away his money and reflectively responds with a half-screamed no.

It’s hard in this world without money, and giving it away is a lovely idea, but sadly we’ve all got to live within capitalism, even if we disagree with it. That isn’t to say that the rich shouldn’t give money away, because they should, they have too much, but the compulsion to horde your money is one that many can understand.

The statement that “money doesn’t buy happiness” is a phrase uttered by privileged people who have money. Money, to a degree, does buy happiness. I’d be pretty damn happy if I could afford rent, healthy food and preventative medicine, but alas, I don’t have much of that stuff.

This section is the first of seven main sections in this song. The second section lights up Burnham’s “stage” with blinding light as a booming voice tells him to heal the world with comedy. This is played more for laughs.

Healing the world with comedy

The indescribable power of your comedy

The world needs direction

From a white guy like me (Bingo)

Who is healing the world with comedy

That’s it

He asks the voice if the world really needs direction from a white guy like him and the voice responds positively. Here’s where Burnham enters a purer comedic arena. He starts it off, in the third section, by stating non-lyrically: “The world is so fucked up. Systematic oppression, income inequality, the other stuff… And there’s only one thing that I can do about it. While— While being paid and being the centre of attention”

We can see that he has decided to turn this into something funny. He asks a serious question and then jumps straight into the fourth section. A section that is essentially faux-serious.

Healing the world with comedy

Making a literal difference, metaphorically

A Jew walks into a bar, and I’ve saved him a seat

That’s healing the world with comedy

 

A subversion of a classic joke setup and the hyperbolic statement that he will “heal the world with comedy”, and that’s where it leaps into the fifth section. This section is filled with visual gags, such as him writing out 69 and 420 on a calculator or him writing out silly jokes on a white board. It’s just dumb and silly and might just bring a smile to your face. It’s nothing necessarily “special”, but it’s self-referential and self-deprecating. Such as him stating that American white guys like himself have had the floor for at least four hundred years, so maybe he should shut up, he pauses for a time in contemplation, before stating that he’s bored.

I’m a special kind of white guy

I self-reflected, and I want to be an agent of change

So I am gonna use my privilege for the good (Very cool, way to go!)

American white guys

We’ve had the floor for at least 400 years

So maybe I should just shut the fuck up…

I’m bored

I don’t wanna do that

There’s got to be another way (Yes)

For me to help out without standing on the sidelines (Never!)

The wait is over

I’m white, and I’m here to save the day

Lord, help me channel Sandra Bullock in The Blind Side (Sandra Bullock!)

 

Healing the world with comedy

Making a literal difference, metaphorically

And yes, most likely, they’ll pay me, but I’d do it for free

I am healing the world with comedy

This section is just joke after joke. Both in terms of visuals and in terms of the actual content of the lyrics. But it then returns to something more serious in the sixth section. He’s had a conversation with himself and he’s tried to be silly and funny, but the reality of things is much darker. And so, this section starts to call on the audience once again.

 

If you wake up in a house that’s full of smoke

Don’t panic—call me and I’ll tell you a joke

If you see white men dressed in white cloaks

Don’t panic—call me and I’ll tell you a joke

Oh, shit

Should I be joking at a time like this?

If you start to smell burning toast

You’re having a stroke or overcooking your toast

 

Should I be joking at a time like this?

Somebody help me out ’cause I don’t know

 

And I want to help to leave this world better than I found it

And I fear that comedy won’t help, and the fear is not unfounded

Should I stop trying to be funny?

Should I give away my money? No!

I know what I gotta do

If you metaphorically smell smoke, as if your home is burning down, then just let him tell you a joke. Maybe it will make you feel a little better. This section has a complete lighting change too. It stops being bright and funny and turns to a much darker setting with Burnham at his desk, surrounded by some of the props he’d used to make jokes. And now he wants us to try and ignore the outside world for a while, to just be inside with him. To laugh at some funny jokes.

Although this promise, to give us something funny, is something of a lie. He breaks his promise. He asks us to call on him to hear something funny while clearly alluding to outside forces like racism that may stop us from enjoying things. He wants us to enjoy things, but he also doesn’t know if he can necessarily make you happy while inside.

He reiterates his questions. Should he be making jokes? Should he give away his money? And he even harkens back to an older song of his called “Sad”. In “Sad”, he makes jokes about a variety of sad things and then asks why the audience is laughing. So, he, jokingly, states that it must be because comedy is the thing that will help everyone.

But immediately subverts that by saying that comedians are insensitive pricks capitalising on the most animalistic impulses of the public. And this song right here, calls attention to that. He states: “And I fear that comedy won’t help, and the fear is not unfounded.” It’s a fear that he won’t really be able to do anything for us. What could he do, after all?

Healing the world with comedy

Making a literal difference, metaphorically

I swore I’d never be back, and now, I’m back on my feet

And I’m healing the world with comedy

The last section encompasses his decision. He doesn’t know if comedy will help anyone, but he’s going to go for it anyway. He’s going to try healing the world with comedy. We’ll have to see. But as he makes this reaffirmation into comedy, the lighting changes once again and becomes a light show. He’s in it now, and he’s going to make this thing.

Section #2: Introductions & Explanations:

This section is relatively simple. Burnham simply fiddles a bit and then sets up in front of a mirror. He’s sitting beside his camera and he’s holding a microphone. He explains himself while the image slowly zooms in. Less and less of the world can be viewed as, eventually, only the mirror can be seen.

He tells us that this special isn’t normal. It won’t be filmed in one night and will instead be filmed over an entire year. There will be no crew or audience. In his words: “It’s just me and my camera. And you and your screen.” And then he jokes that this is the way our lord intended, and that little quip will actually be part of some themes to come.

We are all, unless you’re someone who ignores the advice of medical professionals, trapped inside. We are all, in the midst of the pandemic that is still going on at time of writing, existing primarily within a hyperreality. We can’t go out and see the outside world, but we can experience, in the words of Burnham later on in this special, the much more real world that is the online world. The way our new technological god has intended.

And lastly, Burnham hopes that this special does for us what it did for him. It didn’t help him or anything like that. Instead, it distracted him from the virus-infected “real world” that we’re all hiding from while staying inside. Just a distraction. So, let’s keep going with the distraction.

Song #3: FaceTime with my Mom (Tonight):

The song opens with a simple synth beat against a blue backdrop as Burnham wanders around his room and eventually decides to call his mom. It’s played as something melancholic and depressing. He’s alone and needs his mother. The light of the phone illuminates his face once the blue lighting fades.

A major point of importance in this song, which Burnham explores elsewhere, is a changing of the aspect ratio. The camera shrinks from the sides until all we can see is a vertical strip. It emulates the kind of video you see when using video call software like FaceTime.

A quick aside, I actually don’t know anyone who uses FaceTime, but you get the same effect in video calls on other apps, like WhatsApp. But I guess “Vertical video call app with my mom” doesn’t have the same punch to it as “FaceTime with my Mom”.

Pour me a drink and clear my schedule

I’ma FaceTime with my mom tonight

These 40 minutes are essential

I’ma FaceTime with my mom tonight

 

I call, she answers, and her hair is wet

I say, “Did you just shower?”

She says, “How’d you guess?”

I say, “Your hair is wet”; she says, “Oh, yeah”

 

I tell my boys I need some space

I’ma FaceTime with my mom tonight

She’ll hold her iPhone 5 no further than six inches from her face

I’ma FaceTime with my mom tonight

Anyway, the lyrics start from a more purely comedic perspective. Jokes like how her hair is wet so he asks if she’s had a shower and she’s surprised he knows and so says it’s because her hair is wet. Basic comedic points. Nothing particularly hysterical but rather humorous in an observational sense. Although, there is a note of seriousness to the lines “pour me a drink and clear my schedule” and “I tell my boys I need some space.”

These hint towards something more serious. This entire special needs to be remembered within the context of the 2020 (and onwards) pandemic. People are socially isolated; they can no longer see their mothers. This is the closest you’re going to get. It becomes the hyperreality that will slowly encompass the entire special as the real world becomes far less important to Burnham than the artificial world, the digital world.

She says, “Oh, look who’s here. Say hi to Dad!”

He says, “How ya doing, bud?”

I say, “I’m not so bad”

And that’s the deepest talk we’ve ever had

 

Watching as she looks for her glasses

I’ma FaceTime with my mom tonight

She’ll tell me all about the Season Six finale of The Blacklist

I’ma FaceTime with my mom tonight

 

It then continues into comedic arenas with a short exchange with his dad and his mother recapping the season six finale of The Blacklist to him. Understandable, my mother does that too. Nothing much of note here. However, the lyrics, without the visuals, show missing contextual information. He becomes tired and exasperated with the conversation and then the screen goes black as it repeats these lines:

My mother’s covering her camera with her thumb

I’ll waste my time FaceTiming with my mom

She’s covered the camera with her thumb and so the visuals reflect that. However, this is just a small joke and it’s observational and sweet-natured about older people and their difficulty with technology and with connecting with the younger generation, but it also gives way to the most powerful segment of the song.

The visuals reappear with Burnham getting visibly angry with his mother about covering the camera with her thumb, and it becomes a barrage of silent emotional shouting. We simply hear the repeated refrain of the song, but visually we see Burnham breaking down. The small annoyance triggered a much deeper issue, and then you can see him shouting his apology at her as he breaks down in tears.

It was unnecessary to snap like that, but it happened regardless. When living with mental illness, and when isolated for months on end, anything could set you off. And to show how this pulls everything together, the aspect ratio becomes split into three columns. Before, we could only see the vertical shot, but now, we have three vertical shots as the central column slowly widens as he apologises to his mother and says goodbye.

We see him, once the song has ended, dropping his head into his hands. Another screw up. Another mistake. They tend to come more often when everything is terrible, don’t they?

This song betrays that combination of silly and serious that has come to define much of Burnham’s work, but none more so than this special. It certainly won’t be the last song that merges silly and serious.

Section #3: Inbetween:

This section is very short. A few seconds at most. A darkened room, Burnham approaches and sits at his laptop to do some work and after a while it cuts straight to his next song. The next song’s bright colours serves as a strong juxtaposition against the darkness of this section.

The section is, essentially, somewhat of a representation of a continuous theme: dissociation. The camera, as always, is third person, but Burnham faces away from it. This is the inbetween moments, the moments where the actual work happens. The performance is one thing, but piecing it all together is another.

There is also one small thing of note, and that is the flash frame of Burnham sitting and “playing” this section as if it was a game. However, there’s time for that discussion later. Specially under section 12, as that is when the “gameplay” angle is properly explored. So, let’s wait for that.

Song #4: How the World Works:

We start off far brighter than ever before. The room is painted in orange light, Burnham has a cordless mic on his head, he’s got a little spotlight on him and he’s smiling. We can immediately tell that this is emulating musical kid’s media. It even opens with the line: “Hey, kids. Today we’re gonna learn about the world.”

The song itself doesn’t have any flashy lighting effects and everything remains quite neutral throughout, with the occasional camera angle change. This is more about the shift in performance from one “performer” to another. And it starts off like this:

The world that’s around us is pretty amazing

But how does it work? It must be complicated

The secret is: The world can only work

When everything works together

A bee drinks from a flower and leaves with its pollen

A squirrel in a tree spreads the seeds that have fallen

Everything works together

 

The biggest elephant, the littlest fly

The gophers underground, the birds in the sky

And every single cricket, every fish in the sea

Gives what they can and gets what they need

 

That is how the world works

That is how the world works

From “A” to “zebra” to the worms in the dirt

That’s how it works

The song properly opens with Burnham singing about the natural world. Bees get food from flowers, which in turn coats them with pollen. Squirrels spread seeds on behalf of the trees. Every living creature effectively works together to contribute to the whole. If you have even the most basic of understandings of the natural world and ecosystems, then this shouldn’t be complicated to you. If you can understand some high school biology, then you should be able to understand it.

However, after explaining how the whole world works together, which, remember, is sung as if to children, he says that every creature: “Gives what they can and gets what they need.” Rather simple stuff. Basic. We all know that’s the way it works. Nature may be brutal to its inhabitants, but everything does ultimately work together. When we lose one species, we can lose a lot more. That’s why, for instance, the very real decreased bee population could mean the destruction of plant life.

However, that phrase he uses: “Gives what they can and gets what they need” is quite reminiscent of another phrase. Burnham never states this phrase directly, but the phrase is: “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.” And if you at all familiar with Marxist thought then this phrase may be known to you. Basically, everyone should contribute to society based on what each individual can contribute, and in turn, every individual should receive what they need based on their individual circumstances.

So, no one needs a yacht, so no one gets a yacht. You give what you can, and you get what you need. Essentially, this section compares nature to a more Marxist utopia. Everyone gets what they need and gives what they are capable of getting. Which means that some give more than others, but everyone gets only what they need. A solitary bee does not contribute as much as a solitary squirrel, but the bee also needs a lot less than the squirrel to survive. Pretty simple stuff.

Here’s where things change in the song though. You see, that’s the way nature is. It’s somewhat Marxist. But the human world is not Marxist, and that’s why, once Burnham is done with his little song section, it is time for the next singer: Socko. Socko is a sock puppet that Burnham pulls out. It speaks in a silly voice and at first it has a brief conversation with Burnham about the way the world works.

Burnham – Hey, everyone, look who stopped by to say hello! It’s Socko!

Socko – Hey!

Burnham – Where you been, Socko?

Socko – I’ve been where I always am when you’re not wearing me on your hand: in a frightening, liminal space between states of being! Not quite dead, not quite alive! It’s similar to a constant state of sleep paralysis

Burnham – Socko, we were just talking about the world and how it works

Socko – Boy, that sounds complicated!

Burnham – Do you have anything you’d want to teach us about the world?

Socko – I wouldn’t say anything that you probably haven’t already said yourself

Burnham – I don’t know about that, Socko. How about you give it a try?

Socko – All right!

The conversation is Burnham introducing Socko and then asking if Socko wants to contribute anything to the song. Does he want to teach us anything about the world? There is also a part where Socko states that when he’s not on Burnham’s hand he’s in a state quite like sleep paralysis. But this is quickly glossed over, but it is important to the overall narrative of the song. Ultimately though, Socko decides to teach us a bit about the world, and his section is quite different from Burnham’s.

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

And the FBI killed Martin Luther King

 

Private property’s inherently theft

And neoliberal fascists are destroying the left

And every politician, every cop on the street

Protects the interests of the pedophilic corporate elite

 

That is how the world works

That is how the world works

Genocide the Natives, say you got to it first

That’s how it works

Socko’s section isn’t about the natural world that Burnham made seem so idyllic. Socko instead discusses human society. How history classes teach classist information that is also false, that the world is built with blood, genocide and exploitation, how capitalism serves to keep us all repressed, how the United States government may have had a hand in Martin Luther King Junior’s death (although that is a bit of a conspiracy theory, but plausible; feel free to Google the MLK suicide letter), how the whole notion of “private property” is actually just stealing the land from others, how neoliberals and fascists are destroying the left and how all the cops and politicians are only acting to protect the interests of those on top, those who are also often sex offenders. The human world is messy and filled with horror. It isn’t an idyllic Marxist landscape, but is instead a fascist, capitalistic state.

Basically, Socko tells the truth. The harsh truth. And it’s all sung with that usual chipper attitude. It’s still a children’s song after all. I mean, there hasn’t been any swearing, has there? It’s just explaining the way things are. The way the world works.

Now, before we move on, we should take note of things like the “every history class teaches lies” thing. Yeah, so I’m personally from a previously colonised country and a country that went through a harsh racist regime, and since 1994 it has been led, at least in theory if not in practice, as a more postcolonial state with at least some socialist aspects (although not many). In my country, the history I was taught in school was a little more critical of things like colonialism than maybe some first-world countries. And also, as a history teacher myself, I know that I tend to be a little more uh… left-leaning, progressive, socialist-y, anti-fascist with the way I teach it. But I have a feeling that the old colonial powers like to act as if they weren’t the bad guy when they teach their kids. Some Southern American states apparently act as if slavery really wasn’t as bad as it was made to be. So uh… not great.

In addition, this song is very much American. The rest of the world does exist, but this is an issue you often find with any American media. They speak as if they are talking about the world when they’re actually only speaking about one small part of it. It’s also anthropocentric. There is a strong distinction made between the so-called natural world and the human world, but that’s quite a common thing to see. But anyway, let’s get back to it.

Once Socko is done with his section, Burnham returns to ask him some questions. Burnham, in this section, acts as a moderate liberal. He asks about how he can help with all of this and how he might be able to learn more about the plight of certain people, and Socko doesn’t much like that and says: “Why do you rich fucking white people insist on seeing every socio-political conflict through the myopic lens of your own self-actualisation? This isn’t about you.”

Burnham – That’s pretty intense

Socko – No shit!

Burnham – 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. It’s incredibly exhausting!

Burnham – I’m sorry, Socko. I was just trying to become a better person

Socko – Why do you rich fucking white people insist on seeing every socio-political conflict through the myopic lens of your own self-actualization? This isn’t about you! So either get with it or get out of the fucking way!

Burnham – Watch your mouth, buddy. Remember who’s on whose hand here

Socko – But that’s what I’ve— Have you not been fucking listening? We are entrenched in—

(Burnham starts to pull Socko off his hand)

Socko – Alright! Alright! I… Wait, wait, wait! No, please! I don’t wanna go back, please! I can’t go— I can’t go back! Please! Please. I’m sorry

Burnham – Are you gonna behave yourself?

Socko – Yes

Burnham – “Yes,” what?

Socko – Yes, sir (shakily)

Burnham – Look at me

Socko – Yes, sir (firmly)

Burnham – That’s better

These are some harsh words that Socko spits at all those moderates, at those Biden supporters, and Burnham, as the moderate, gets defensive and then threatens to pull Socko off his hand, thereby returning him to his sleep paralysis state, and this makes Socko beg. He apologises for, basically, telling the truth, and he’s forced to call Burnham “sir” before Burnham pulls him off his hand anyway.

So, what does that mean? Well, it’s rather simple. Burnham the moderate, who, when discussing nature, was all about how lovely all that Marxism sounds, but as soon as he’s confronted with the way things are for humans, he wants to pretend to help so he can be a better person. But being a better person isn’t what oppressed people need from you, they need material help.

Burnham the moderate, who doesn’t like being confronted with the fact that he doesn’t actually care about the people that Socko represents and speaks for, the oppressed, and he rather wants Socko to be polite, but Socko isn’t polite, so he punishes him anyway. Burnham represents the rich white men who are able to dole out rights to those who actually need them, while holding them back if need be. You don’t want the poors to have too many rights all at once, do you?! They should be grateful that they aren’t slaves anymore, that they don’t have to avoid “whites only” signs and that the police will only occasionally kill them for no valid reason. Aren’t things better than they were under Jim Crow and Apartheid-era laws? So, you should stop there, stop demanding more; it might cut into my rights.

This song is a scathing critique of neoliberal and moderate liberal political belief. They aren’t helping anyone, and the fascists who want to come into power are not going to be as polite as you are. The fascists don’t care about being polite, because they’d kill you if they could get away with it. So, pick a side, moderates, because being a moderate isn’t actually helping anyone and it’s instead just upholding the status quo.

Anyway, let’s get to the next section.

Section #4: Rainbow Capitalism:

Filmed in moody black and white with a motivational backing track, this section satirises the way corporations and brands in general latch on to social movements and use them to frame themselves as allies of progress rather than the purveyors of capitalist industry that really doesn’t care about its consumers, the population at large, the planet or its workers.

Essentially, this section is Burnham standing in as a spokesperson of sorts for corporations in general. He is the social media side of brands. They talk a big game. They claim to be on the side of progressive action, such as the battle against climate change or discrimination. They will latch on board with green energy solutions while continuing to do exactly what they’ve always done and pollute the world. They claim to be against discrimination and will proudly jump on board with things like the Black Lives Matter movement while simultaneously having racially homogenous staff, with all the top executives generally being white, cisgender, heterosexual men.

This entire sketch, because it is a traditional comedy sketch that you might find on any of those kinds of shows, like Saturday Night Live. It’s fun and funny, but nothing particularly strong any which way. It’s a critique of capitalism and social media and how capitalist enterprises like to co-opt so-called “woke” culture so as to pretend to be progressive while continuing to sell you the same shit they’ve sold you every day. But now we’re doing it with a rainbow flag! See, we don’t hate gay people, we just don’t employ them. See!

And what was also rather magnificent about this particular sketch was that this special was released only weeks before Pride Month 2021. And so, it was particularly perfectly timed seeing as all the corporations rolled out their rainbow-coloured logos for a single month and then went back to their regular logos as soon as Pride was over.

So, no, this sketch isn’t particularly prescient in any way, as corporations have been doing this every year for years, but seeing as we’ve all been trapped inside because of the coronavirus pandemic well… we just noticed social media more than ever before. And it was just as awful as it’s always been.

Also, probably the best line, which sums up this whole thing, is when he states that he tells corporations: “Just be honest. Tell your customers that… that JP Morgan is against racism. In theory.’

And now it’s time for this social media trend to continue, because the next song is an extension of this observation.

Song #5: White Woman’s Instagram:

Despite this song perhaps being the best shot in the entire special, it’s also the one that has the least to be analysed. Mostly because the vast majority of it is a single joke, with one brief non-joke interlude. Let’s start with the joke aspect of it that can be found in these lines:

An open window

A novel

A couple holding hands

An avocado

A poem written in the sand

Fresh fallen snow on the ground

A golden retriever in a flower crown

Is this Heaven?

Or is it just a

 

White woman

A white woman’s Instagram

White woman

A white woman’s Instagram (Instagram)

White woman (White woman)

A white woman’s Instagram

White woman

A white woman’s Instagram

 

Latte foam art

Tiny pumpkins

Fuzzy, comfy socks

Coffee table made out of driftwood

A bobblehead of Ruth Bader Ginsburg

A needlepoint of a fox

Some random quote from Lord of the Rings

Incorrectly attributed to Martin Luther King

The entire song is shot in a 1:1 aspect ratio, which is a square for those unfamiliar, and it therefore imitates the standard image resolution on Instagram. The vast majority of pictures on the app are forced into that particular aspect ratio. Although you can actually alter that, to an extent, at present. Anyway, this aspect ratio is simply meant to act, like the vertical camera aspect ratio in “FaceTime with my Mom (Tonight)”, as a way of visually reinforcing what it will be critiquing. Although “critiquing” may be a stretch, as most of it is just making fun of what your standard white woman’s Instagram feed looks like.

The lyrics and the images do not match up in the traditional sense, but rather thematically. For instance, Burnham alludes to pictures of latte foam art, a novel or snow on the ground in his lyrics, all of which are your typical fare on places like Instagram. Essentially, unoriginal and replicated images that these people also wanted to do.

And while the images themselves do not match up to the lyrics, they do emulate various Instagram trends, like shadow puppetry, a flickering candle, that trend where women write insults and compliments on their face. It’s all essentially making fun of the performativity of those kinds of images. They have been replicated so many times by so many people that they no longer really mean anything. For instance, that whole “writing insults on your face” thing was meant to have a deeper meaning, but when it is replicated to the point of parody then it may have lost its initial message.

Which isn’t to say that images like that do not act as a form of solidarity, because they do, and that’s why the one non-joke section of this song stands out so strongly. The aspect ratio starts to change back into your usual widescreen and then it stops being about performative poses and images and instead goes into an Instagram post from the perspective of this white woman.

Her favourite photo of her mom

The caption says:

“I can’t believe it

It’s been a decade since you’ve been gone

Mama, I miss you

I miss sitting with you in the front yard

Still figuring out how to keep living without you

It’s got a little better, but it’s still hard

Mama, I got a job I love and my own apartment

Mama, I got a boyfriend, and I’m crazy about him

Your little girl didn’t do too bad

Mama, I love you, give a hug and kiss to Dad”

The post is about an image of this white woman’s dead mother, and in the post description she asks her mother if she’d be proud of her. She’s done alright for herself and has a man she loves and a job she enjoys. It’s a brief moment of genuine sadness, and it sticks out from the rest of the song like a sore thumb. As soon as the interlude is done, it returns to the old aspect ratio and continues being a joke with a whole load of images that emulate those trends.

At first, I didn’t quite like the serious interlude as I saw it detracting from the joke, but then I saw the purpose of it. It turns this from a simple comedy song, that you might see Weird Al or Stephen Lynch making, and turns it into something a lot more personal, a lot more fraught.

Those performative images that people repetitively use on social media, they’re part of the culture, they need to be performed to be part of that in-group, but even though we may all seem like the same repetitive masses on social media, we do all have complex inner lives. We do all have real difficulties, but we don’t often show them to the world.

We perform these things on social media; exhibiting the best aspects of ourselves. We show ourselves in successful positions, making good food or elaborate poses. We don’t post the failures or the burnt dishes or the camera angle that makes us look ugly. It’s all performative out there on the world wide web, but behind every performative social media post there is a real person.

Section #5: Watching, Waiting, Shutting Up:

There are several shots within this section. It opens with Burnham watching the song we just experienced. In a darkened room with a reflection on the board to his right. This is a constant reinforcement of the meta angle inherent in this special. We are seeing his process, to a degree, along with the finished product.

It then shifts to him sitting alone in his crowded room. Just sitting there. Time clearly ticking away for him as he slowly makes his way through the production of this special, and then we start hearing his voice. He’s doing what approximates stand-up comedy. He’s sitting on a stool, a mic in his hand and a spotlight on him. It’s a very traditional stand-up style.

In this section he asks us a question: do we have to express every single thing we have on our minds at the same time? Obviously, an allusion to social media where everyone’s opinion is now given a platform to spurt onto the public arena. And then he asks the same question in a different way: can everyone just shut the fuck up?

A simple question, and an honest one for anyone sick and tired of social media and having to see every single ill-informed and bad faith opinion out there. It’s a statement no doubt made in frustration. However, it is also an ironic question. A hypocritical one. He asks everyone to shut up while he himself does not shut up. And he has a larger platform to spew his opinions out into the world than the average person on social media.

He does not put a laughing track over this. It isn’t funny. And he does also acknowledge that he isn’t shutting up, he acknowledges the hypocrisy. And he says: “I know you’re thinking, ‘You’re not shutting the fuck up right now,’ and that’s true, but…” And it cuts out there. He knows there’s nothing to say. It’s the usual hypocrisy. Everyone wants their voice to be heard but no one wants to hear every other voice.

It’s a bit of a conundrum, but not one we’re likely to solve any time so- *cut off there*

Song #6: Unpaid Intern:

Who needs a coffee? ‘Cause I’m doing a run

I’m writing down the orders now for everyone

The coffee is free, just like me

I’m an unpaid intern

 

Sorting papers, running around

Sitting in the meeting room, not making a sound

Barely people, somehow legal

Unpaid intern

 

You work all day, go back to your dorm

And since you can’t afford a mortgage, you just torrent a porn

Cause you’re an intern

 

So, this song is actually more of just a prelude to the section that immediately follows it. The song is just shot in moody black and white and is about unpaid interns. There’s really nothing much to it and nothing to analyse. It’s going for that more bebop aesthetic with its backing vocals, groovy percussion and scatting ending.  The next section basically analyses it for us, so uh… we’ll just jump ahead to that, huh.

Section #6: Reaction:

The previous song, Unpaid Intern, is really just there to benefit this particular section. The setup is very simple: he’s emulating YouTube reaction videos. For those somehow unfamiliar with this genre of YouTube video, someone basically records themselves watching and reacting to… something. It’s a very low-effort form of content generation, but people like to watch other people watching things because… I don’t know why. Something perversely entertaining about watching something rather pointless.

Anyway, Burnham sits and watches his own song in this section and comments on it. It’s basically a commentary track. He makes some good points about his own work and why he wrote the song. He wrote it to write something about labour exploitation in the modern era and he did it in a way that emulated the way many of those old songs were written and performed.

It’s just a brief explanation of his whole process and there’s nothing much to it. But then the song loops. He’s now watching himself reacting to his video. So, this is a reaction to his reaction. He starts by feigning surprise and confusion at the situation, and that’s really just there for pure comedic effect. He just continues his reaction, but this time he comments on his own reaction.

The most interesting point he makes here is that he’s being pretentious, and then tells us that this is an instinct he has. He has to pretend that everything he does have some sort of deeper meaning. This is something that many creatives do feel. The need to have our art mean something more than what it would appear, on the surface, to mean. It’s critical self-examination, and we don’t do it as much as we maybe should.

He even says that the song, while he pretended before that it had some deeper meaning, it is just a stupid song. But then the reaction to his reaction ends, but the section continues as his reaction to his reaction to his reaction begins. He reacts to his reaction of the reaction by going a little bit deeper and building on that idea of critical self-examination.

He goes on further to say that when he, and by extension many other creatives, criticise themselves, they are doing it as a way of insulating themselves from external criticism. If you criticise yourself then you don’t need to worry quite as much about criticisms others might have and you may even be able to ignore those other criticisms entirely because you believe you’ve criticised yourself enough.

And he says: “self-awareness does not absolve anybody of anything.” You can’t get away with only criticising yourself and refusing external criticism. And shortly after this a new reaction begins and he stops the whole thing from continuing and ends the section. So, the little joke has come to an end, and that’s great, but this small section probably says more about the process of creating than most discussions of creativity. Not to mention the way in which the overlapping noise of all the reaction videos on top of each other emulate yet another thing, and that is the way in which overthinking can seem like your brain is screaming at you.

This is probably one of the most memorable sections of the special. A truly creative masterclass in comedy and self-critique.

Song #7: Bezos I:

A very silly song. This is a very silly song. That’s what it is, but you know what: it’s probably one of my personal favourites. The song is essentially just telling us a bit about Jeff Bezos; who he is, when he was born… his name… repeated a few times. But it’s really in the second verse that you get the fun stuff.

CEO, entrepreneur

Born in 1964

Jeffrey, Jeffrey Bezos

(repeated)

 

Come on, Jeffrey, you can do it

Pave the way, put your back into it

Tell us why, show us how

Look at where you came from, look at you now

Zuckerberg and Gates and Buffett

Amateurs can fuckin’ suck it

Fuck their wives, drink their blood

Come on, Jeff, get ’em!

He beckons Bezos to just do it and to pave the way for the rest of us and that the other billionaires (which I accidentally misspelled while I was writing this as villainaires, and I think I’m keeping that one in the flaps between my grey matter), anyway, he says that all the other villainaires are amateurs in comparison to him and that, you know, he can fuck their wives and drink their blood like the vampire he is.

So, I don’t think the subtext here is particularly subtle. Uh… Jeff Bezos, despite momentary blips where some other villainaire overthrows his spot as the number one richest dude in the world, is the richest man on the planet, which also makes him one of the most powerful. And this special should always be seen in the context of the coronavirus pandemic; Bezos got richer than ever before off the back of the pandemic.

Him and people like Zuckerberg profited off people being forced into their homes, scrolling through social media or, you know, ordering everything through Amazon because they’re too afraid to leave their own homes in case a virus kills them. This pandemic, which made everyone else poorer and weaker, made Bezos richer and more powerful. Sure, a bunch of other people got more powerful too, but Bezos is the big boy, isn’t he?

Elon Musk can think he’s better all he likes, but he ultimately just owns a luxury electric car company and sometimes takes on public grants to do things like his loop thing in Las Vegas, but Bezos… oh, Bezos sells to the poor. It’s cheaper to shop on Amazon than going to a physical shop (or at least in some countries). Plus, he buys out and starves the competition to increase his own market share. Amazon is more powerful than something like Tesla can ever hope to be. And I mean the company that Musk Edison’d his way into, not the actual man, Tesla. He’s long dead and died in poverty unlike the people who stole his name for a vanity car company.

Anyway, Bezos, one of the most powerful men alive, while others were dying from a deadly virus, he was profiting. And Burnham will return to the topic of Bezos later. But, of course, it’s important to me that I bring up the scream he does at the end of this song, because it’s marvellous. Just adds to the absurdity of it all. Singing about a villainaire while perched in a silhouetted position. Artsier than you’d expect from something so profoundly fucking stupid. It’s wonderful.

Section #7: I don’t know, guys:

This section is basically just a monologue of sorts. He’s in one position, and the shot never alters, in which he’s lying in his room surrounded by the various pieces of equipment that he’s no doubt used while producing this special. He’s got a pillow and he’s covered in a blanket.

This short, humorous section is a fantastic bridge between this song and the next. The previous song, Bezos I, is all about one of the men that managed to make a massive profit throughout this pandemic. The next song is all about sexting. It’s silly, like the previous one, but it does have something to say about the way our interactions with the world have changed.

The last song was pretty much about how we don’t even do something like shopping the way we used to, and the next song is how we don’t even do sex the way we used to. Although sexting has been around for a rather long time now and was not exactly a pandemic thing, but the amount of sexting probably went up over these long months.

Anyway, the section is him asking whether we think it was a bad idea to let huge conglomerates control our digital lives and profit off it. And not only to profit off it but to actually actively try to exacerbate the issues in our lives. Or as Burnham says: “Maybe that, as a way of life forever, maybe that’s not good.”

It isn’t exactly saying anything profound or anything like that, but it is a genuine question for us. Some of us are so taken in by these things; Burnham himself specifically mentions children, but it’s adults. Adults who, unquestioningly, absorb the lies that sites like Facebook push into their face holes, are not critical of where they have gotten their information or how those companies actively profit off the creation of human misery.

It’s not profound to suggest that all of this is a bad thing, but maybe some of us need to learn to be a little more critical of the world we live in. This is why many people, generally on the conservative side of politics, like to claim that social media is bad because of things like censorship. It’s bad because I can’t say slurs anymore! But really, it’s much deeper. They themselves are terrible, and not because they “silence” conservative voices, but because they amplify everyone’s voice and cause heavier divides between us than ever before. So maybe uh… maybe that isn’t a good thing.

And to end off, he ends the section by saying that he’s horny, and that’s purely to set up the next song.

Song #8: Sexting:

Silly song time! Well, it’s silly but it does say something about our modern world, I suppose. Anyway, there isn’t much to analyse here as it’s all very straightforward. In essence, the song is a narrative about a sexting conversation between himself and his partner. However, the visuals are, in many ways, where it’s at for this one.

The shots alternate between two main types: projector and phone lighting.

The sections in which he uses projector lighting are used to tell a visual story along with his sexual discussions with his partner. At times, the projector shows euphemistic emojis and at other times it shows the text conversation he’s having with his partner. These sexual images are rather obvious. Things like tongues and tacos to lips and aubergines/eggplants.

These emojis then relate to the content of the narrative itself, but we’ll get to that shortly.

First, the other shot type is phone lighting. An emulation of the way most people probably sext; in the dark with only the light of your phone to guide you. It’s also just unique, or at least at present, to see film using phones as a lighting source. Although this is something Burnham has explored elsewhere, such as in his film Eighth Grade.

Anyway, now that we’re done with the visuals themselves, let’s talk about the lyrics. They are silly and fun. There are three main sections to the narrative, and then an outro and the chorus sections. We’ll get to those.

The first section is the opening of the sexting chat and it’s done solely through emojis, or, as Burnham says:

I am in bed; I am ready to go with you

Tonight, I’m thinking of taking it slow:

We’ll use Emojis only;

We don’t need phonetical diction

We’ll talk dirty like we’re ancient Egyptians

You send me a peach, I send a carrot back

You send a Ferris wheel; that’s pretty abstract

I send back a ticket stub, implying that the Ferris wheel’s your body and I’d really love admission to it

Oh, no! What if, now, you think that I’m implying your vagina is as big as a Ferris wheel?

You send back a snowman

Crisis averted

This whole idea, while obviously funny. You know, you send a peach, I’ll send a carrot. And then it veers into more absurdist stuff, but the line where he says: “We don’t need phonetical diction” is rather interesting. Can you imagine a pre-internet age in which simple pictures provide sexual stimulation? Sure, we can look at languages with image-based alphabets, but we’re talking about cartoon images of fruit, veg and miscellaneous goods. We have shifted our use of language, we have adapted this new medium of mobile device communication, to suit our sexual needs.

Once upon a time, we had to go out and have sex with each other or, if you were an old-timey massive deviant, you’d go to a place that sold porn, but the whole nature of sexuality has shifted. We can have sex without touching each other. And we can do it through non-phonetic images. We can do it without phonetical diction.

There are those who believe in what’s called prescriptivist linguistics. These are the people who believe there is a “correct” way to use language. Which is nonsense. We adapt language to our needs, not the other way around. And with a larger overall acceptance of sexuality in general, people are more and more willing to be publicly horny. To not be ashamed of it. And the fact that most people who’ve been on the internet at least a few months would be able to identify the sexualisation of a picture of a peach maybe says something about our shifting language uses.

Anyway, let’s look at the next section:

No more emojis; now, it’s on to words

I ask what you’re wearing; you reply, “A shirt”

You say, “Are you naked?” I say, “Yeah, except for a top hat”

You say, “lmao, but I doubt that”

I’m getting hot at just the thought of what I’d do to you

‘Cause in my head, I’m in your bed and getting through to you

They made the internet for nights like these

I love you, baby; send a picture of your tits, please

This section brings up quite a bit. It brings up the humour inherent in many sexual encounters and it brings up the sexualising power of the imagination. The humour part is easiest to discuss first. If you’re not a virgin or someone immensely traditional and sad, then you’ve probably discovered the humour of sex. Sex can be messy, liquids can get places you didn’t expect, and our bodies can also be unpredictable. A fart during sex is not necessarily unexpected. Or struggling to find the hole. These are funny things, they break the ice, they make you realise that it shouldn’t be taken so seriously. It can just be for fun. Sure, it can be incredibly intimate, but it can also be entertaining. So just don’t take it so seriously!

Anyway, the other part is about the power of the imagination, and it is powerful. The things you can conjure up in your head are way sexier than anything you could ever experience in reality. You can take kinks to extremes that would otherwise be dangerous. The imagination is… interesting.

There’s an essay by Roland Barthes in which he discusses the concept of the strip-tease, and discusses the ironic nature of the action. A stripper is at their most sexual when they are fully dressed. They have more sexual potential that way. You are able to imagine what’s under those clothes, and as the clothes peel away, it becomes reality and no longer fantasy. What’s in your head will always be better than what’s under those clothes.

Some may see this as a problem. Perhaps you should be mindful during sex and allow yourself to have no expectations so you can enjoy it for what it is, but humans aren’t like that. We imagine. We think about all the bad things we can do. We often can’t help it. Thoughts emerge without our consent at times, but it’s about choosing what to do with those thoughts.

The last section of the narrative has less to say:

You send the pic and say it’s now my turn

Jesus fucking Christ, I guess I never learn

My phone’s flash is my only light, and

The flash makes my dick look frightened

I chicken out and send a picture of my face instead

Because my dick looks like the baby from Eraserhead

You say, “I sent my titties, that’s not fair”

So I send it to you, and then my phone dies

Here it moves away from words and into photographs. They are each supposed to send nudes to each other, but he’s afraid of sending his own nude because, as he says: “My phone’s flash makes my dick look frightened.” And if you’ve ever taken nudes of yourself, you will probably understand the issue with finding the right angles. Seemingly 90% of angles are unflattering.

And this section simply looks at those realities of our psychology towards sex. We may be horny and want to do something sexy, but we don’t find ourselves sexy. Decades of attractive models in and out of porn have done a number on us. We want to be sexual, yet we see ourselves as lacking in anything approaching sexy. It’s disappointing but it’s the reality of the situation.

We have become so overloaded with images and ideas because of the internet that we have trouble differentiating ourselves from the deluge of information squirted all over us. And the main line in the chorus goes somewhat towards reinforcing this: “It isn’t sex; it’s the next best thing.” We have become so accustomed to everything being digital that even sex has become digitised. Is that a problem? Well, that’s really up to you, but there have been some negative side effects to it.

And that’s Sexting. A funny song that has quite a lot to say when you think about it for a while. Or maybe I’m just overthinking. Who knows?!

Section #8: High Quality Content:

This is a brief section that emulates YouTube content creators, and he’s mimicking the way in which they will thank their audience for being there to watch it. However, the deliver is unhinged and he has a knife most of the way through which he repeatedly jabs at the camera as chippy, enthusiastic music plays over it.

He promises high-quality content for us as the music fades as he stares at the camera for a little too long in absolute silence. And this is just unhinged stuff that clearly plays into the isolation one would generally feel during this pandemic and trying to keep yourself sane. It doesn’t have much to say other than that though. It’s just unhinged and somewhat deranged. Fun stuff! Anyway, let’s move on.

Song #9: Look Who’s Inside Again:

This is a rather simple and rather short song. However, it is important as it relates to a later song. It also conveys an overall theme for the entire special. The song is an older Burnham talking to a younger Burnham, a kid who was also stuck inside. He found a way to get out of that perpetually inside way of life and escaped, but now, the pandemic has forced him back inside.

The song also brings up the existential anxiety brought on by trying to be funny and doing a stand-up routine when there’s no one present as he sings:

Trying to be funny and stuck in a room

There isn’t much more to say about it

Can one be funny when stuck in a room?

Being in, trying to get something out of it

He asks if you can be funny while stuck in a room. Is it even possible? This whole project, this whole sitting inside for months upon months upon months thing does eventually weigh you down, but what are you supposed to do about it? He offers this sad response:

Well, well

Look who’s inside again

Went out to look for a reason to hide again

Well, well

Buddy, you found it

Now, come out with your hands up

We’ve got you surrounded

And his final verse just reinforces that he’s stuck inside again, but he just used this whole thing as an excuse to hide inside. And those last two lines are especially important: “Now, come out with your hands up/We’ve got you surrounded.” These lines will come up again later as a means of reinforcing the theme of isolation and forcing yourself to go outside again when it’s all done. Eventually, this has to end, and when that end comes, will we find the outside world utterly changed? Will the world be even more hostile to us? We’ll have to wait and see.

Section #9: Nostalgia:

An ominous synth note plays throughout this section as Burnham watches a projector. He watches with a frown on his face, and we then see that what he’s watching is himself. He’s watching his very first YouTube video. A video that, by today’s standards, is rather… problematic. And that’s why this is a simple lead-in to his next song, which is all about problematic past material.

In addition, this particular image: Burnham watching himself with a frown on his face, will be repeated later in the special in a cyclical fashion. But, we’ll get to that when we get to it. So, on to the next song, which is:

Song #10: Problematic:

There’s a problem that many of the early internet people have: when they were younger, they said and did some pretty bad shit. Either they just found it oh so funny to use racial or homophobic slurs or they made a load of jokes about minorities or they did pranks on homeless people or something. You never know with these early, and current (and also mostly white) content creators. And while there was always an undercurrent of something deeper to Burnham’s work, he definitely did fall into that in many ways. In a word, you could call much of his earlier material problematic.

And that is what this song is about. It follows from the previous section, which was just him gazing at the projected image of his first YouTube video, a video which, as I elaborated on earlier, is rather problematic. He was a dumb kid at the time, and was then encouraged to continue making quite a few problematic things until he stepped away from creating for a while, saw the shifting of society and maybe realised some of his issues. And this song addresses them. However, he does do so in the form of a song that takes some humorous jabs at his earlier work and actions, such as:

I grew up as your usual suburbanite

A tiny town in Massachusetts, overwhelmingly white

I went to church on Sundays in a suit and a tie

Then spent my free time watching Family Guy

I started doing comedy when I was just a sheltered kid

I wrote offensive shit, and I said it

Father, please forgive me, for I did not realize what I did

Or that I’d live to regret it

He discusses his early life, such as being raised in a sheltered Christian household, in a suburb and he got his comedic training from Family Guy. So, you can maybe see where some of that offensive stuff came from. He made comedy and he often did so without considering how hurtful some of the things he said could be. For instance, he has an entire song that recommends suicide if you like to listen to so-called motivational music. It does end by saying that if you’re actually depressed you should go to therapy and not pay attention to motivational music, but the joke of the song is definitely about killing yourself. Probably not the best look. He also references Jesus in those last two lines: “Forgive me, for I did not realise what I did”, which is an inversion of the original quote. Moving on for now:

Times are changing, and I’m getting old

Are you gonna hold me accountable?

My bed is empty, and I’m getting cold

Isn’t anybody gonna hold me accountable?

He acknowledges, however, that times are changing and that he isn’t a young man anymore, but then asks a very good question: Isn’t anybody gonna hold me accountable? A very good question as more and more people are supposedly cancelled for the terrible things they do. I say “supposedly” because when these sex offenders give their little apologies and leave YouTube for a while, they all inevitably return and act as if nothing has happened. Anyway, as more and more people are “cancelled” for the things they do, why isn’t Burnham being held accountable?

He’s said some awful shit, yet he gets a free pass? Probably because he’d been quiet for a while so everyone had kind of forgotten about him and then he came out with this new special and all of a sudden, he had some big things to say. Who knows the reason, but nevertheless, he has never really faced any kind of widespread backlash. Is it because his crimes have been offensive jokes and not sexually assaulting people? Common consensus tends to be that when someone just says terrible things it’s not as much of a problem as doing terrible things? Who knows, but anyway, the rest of this song reinforces this idea.

There is a recurring joke in this song about him dressing up as Aladdin when he was 17 years old, but also says that he didn’t do brownface and so he just kind of feels weird about it. It’s not as bad as going full on blackface or doing a minstrel show or something, but it’s understandable why you may feel weird but also… just dressing up is one thing but going blackface is quite another.

But that’s just a side joke here and not the main point he’s making. In that first verse he spoke about his upbringing, but he soon goes back on that as he says:

I want to show you how I’m growing as a person, but first

I feel I must address the lyrics from the previous verse

I tried to hide behind my childhood, and that’s not okay

My actions are my own; I won’t explain them away

I’ve done a lot of self-reflecting since I started singing this song

I was totally wrong when I said it

Father, please forgive me, for I did not realize what I did

Or that I’d live to regret it

He says that we shouldn’t hide behind our childhoods. Face the terrible things you did. Don’t be a coward. You did bad things, you now realise the things you did were bad and offensive, and you will be better in the future. You can’t take the past back and by saying this, Burnham, as one of those offensive internet white boys, is calling bullshit to all the people who love to use this expression: it was a different time.

Just because H.P. Lovecraft lived back when you could get away with being a massive racist without backlash doesn’t mean that it was right. He was a prick. He was an awful person. And it’s better to just acknowledge that rather than saying “oh… it was a different time, back then, the non-whites couldn’t vote, so how could you expect him to treat them with common human decency. That’s just how it was back then.”

An utterly bullshit belief that’s simply trying to cover for toxic and abusive behaviour by claiming that like, it’s actually all, like, fine. Who cares if you hurt people with the things you say.

Now, there are a few other lines, but there’s really only one that matters. Well, one other than him saying the actual words: “I’m sorry”. Because actually apologising is the first step. But he says a very interesting line: “Shit, I’ve been complicit.”

That line is a heavy one to deal with if you are in any way similar. If you, in your younger, more edgy years, thought it was funny to do and say terrible things because it’s like just a joke, man. Then you are complicit. By making or laughing at racist jokes, you let racists know that the things they believe are okay. If you use homophobic slurs, then it gives homophobes permission to use those slurs too. Only difference is: they definitely mean them. As the saying goes: if you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem.

You are giving bigots permission. You are giving them a safe space. When raging transphobes feel like they won’t be challenged or reprimanded for things they say, then it’ll just get worse. And when you give them permission to be that way, then that may encourage those who are willing to use more than words. Every piece of hand-waved discrimination gives the dangerous people who will do something with their hatred permission to do something. Would people feel quite as comfortable doing hate crimes if they knew there would always be repercussions for those actions?  

So, rather than being complicit, try to actually be a good person. And not only with your words, but also with your actions.

However, we cannot leave this song until we talk about the visuals… because they are a blend of sport-oriented motivational stuff with Christ imagery. And it’s something I would definitely criticise as it does send quite the mixed message. He’s serious, but is he really? Now, he does actually kind of address this after the next song, but… it’s not great. Don’t do a Jesus pose in a song where you’re the one asking for forgiveness. Come on, man.

Section #10: A Mistake and a Birthday:

This section opens with Burnham doing some setup. He’s preparing lights and cameras and finding the correct placement for everything. We can’t know whether or not he just had the camera running or whether this was set up, but it comes together perfectly as a blooper. Because as he’s preparing everything, he pulls on a light to readjust its position and it proceeds to drag the camera with it. He catches it just in time before the feed cuts out and we move to a new section of this… section.

Was this real or staged? We can’t know that, but it does bring some questions to mind. How much of this special is real and how much of it has been staged? The lines between meta-commentary and reality become blurred. However, Burnham, if past specials and performances are anything to go by, is an extremely precise performer. He likes to have everything set up to be perfect, and his timing has to be impeccable for that to work. In a live performance that means intense rehearsal, but in an edited capacity like this, there would be no fear of mistakes being shown, unless the desired result was us seeing that it’s all an orchestrated performance and that things can go wrong.

Maybe reading too much into this mistake, as it could have just been a funny mistake that was made and so Burnham wanted to include it, but it does go along with the theme of things not going right. So, who knows. Mistake, staged; who cares?

Anyway, there is a second section to this section which is essentially a setup for the next song. And it’s Burnham explaining how long he’s been working on the special and that he’d wanted to be finished by now, but that he’s about to turn 30 and he now knows it won’t be finished before that moment.

In this bit, he’s sitting next to a digital clock that’s about to hit 12am, and at 12am, it’s his birthday and he’s turning 30. His thoughts on turning 30 are probably best shown in the song that follows, so we’re not going to look at it here. But the melancholic tone of the opening radiates into the song. So, let’s get to that song.

Song #11: 30:

A song all people, unless they’ve become immensely out of touch, can relate to. A song about turning 30. It probably doesn’t need to be said that 30 is a special kind of age. It’s special because we award it a special place in our minds. Depending on the country you’re from, your most significant birthday is likely the one where you legally come of age, which is typically 18 or 21. However, that’s a signifier of the beginnings of adulthood. 30 is a signifier of age. You’re starting to get old at 30. You may not feel old and, in the grand human scheme of things, it’s really not that old at all (even if you only make it to 60, you’re still only halfway through life at 30, and are you really “halfway through” or do those first 18 or so years really count? Were you even a person in those first two decades!?).

Anyway, 30 is the year you start getting old. It’s the time you become out-of-touch. You’re not a kid and you’re not a young adult. You probably have a job, maybe a significant other, maybe even a kid or two (or more, whatever). This is the time you get old, and Burnham speaks about that in this song. And uh, as someone who is only a few year younger than Burnham, and my thirtieth is rapidly approaching, I can definitely understand this feeling.

Now, before we get to the lyrics, there isn’t really anything particularly interesting going on with the lighting and performance here. He puts on a fantastic lightshow and it’s great to watch him manually operate the lights as he does his performance, but it’s the song itself that shines here. The lyrics:

 

I used to run for miles, I used to ride my bike

I used to wake up with a smile

And go to bed at night with a dream, ah

But now I’m turning 30

No!

I used to be the young one, got used to meeting people

Who weren’t used to meeting someone who was born in 1990

No way! Yeah, I was born in 1990

Now I’m turning thirty

God damn it!

The song starts with reminiscence about past thoughts, physicality and philosophy. He used to run around, ride his bike, imagine the future as something optimistic and fall asleep with a smile. Basically, he was happy. He got used to being a young person, and this especially applies to when you’re a young adult. People are always shocked that the twenty-odd year olds were born in the nineties, but that will of course go away. If someone were to, for whatever reason, watch this video in thirty years, those born in the 1990s would be old people! It is all relative.

This section is about the fear of missing what you once had. You haven’t had that thing in a long time, I mean, if you’re turning 30, then you haven’t been a truly “young adult” since you were like 23, but that number, that big scary number. 30. It just makes it worse. It’s a round number. Much like how 40 signifies middle age and 50 signifies old age. After that they become less noteworthy unless you manage to hit 100. That’s a pretty big one.

Anyway, the next section isn’t about what you lose by turning 30, but rather hostility towards those who are older, who had a more significant 20s, and those who are younger, who no doubt see you as an old person by now. To a teenager, 30 is ancient. He says:

When he was 27, my granddad fought in Vietnam

When I was 27, I built a birdhouse with my mom

Oh, fuck, how am I 30?

I used to make fun of the boomers; in retrospect, a bit too much

Now all these fucking zoomers are telling me that I’m out of touch?

Oh yeah? Well, your fucking phones are poisoning your minds. Okay? So when you develop a dissociative mental disorder in your late twenties, don’t come crawling back to m-

This first line, and also, yes, we did skip the chorus because it’s just Burnham repeating “I’m turning 30” over and over again. Not much to analyse there, I’m afraid. Anyway, this first line shows the achievements, or what we perceive as achievements, of older generations. His grandfather fought in Vietnam at the age of 27, and he then states that when he was 27, he built a birdhouse with his mom. This stark juxtaposition shows how the younger generations perceives older ones. They fought in grand or, in the case of Vietnam, not so grand wars. They suffered through intense struggles and yet they made it out.

It reminds me of a line from Fight Club, which kind of perfectly encapsulates this idea: “We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our great war is a spiritual one. Our great depression is our lives.” Somewhat melodramatic and melancholic perhaps, but certainly a way Gen X saw their 30s, and young millennials like Burnham, may see it the same way. We have no great wars, no great conflicts, no massive movements to join that grant us our identities. The new problems are often less obvious, more easily obfuscated.

Anyway, the next line of note is about how he used to make fun of Boomers and maybe shouldn’t have. This is just old age talking. The generations before us were the generations that gave us our current problems. And this isn’t a specific dig at Baby Boomers on my part. It’s literally a central Christian concept: original sin. The sins of our fathers and our forefathers. What they did, we suffer for. So, millennials are right to have problems with the Boomers. It makes sense. No generation has done damage to the earth in quite the same way the Boomers have. So, I’d say that Burnham, and anyone else who’s ageing and now regrets their criticisms of older people, should remember what those older generations have done.

However, he then turns hostile towards the young. And that is more of an issue. He may not actually hold these beliefs, but he criticises the Gen Z generation because they’re young and therefore easy to mock, but they haven’t done anything wrong yet. They’re still working things out. They’re still learning their identities in a rapidly changing world. But it’s understandable why someone older would want to criticise the young. We all do it. It’s something instinctual. We often see a world changing around us, and it’s easier to blame the young than to simply understand that human civilisation has been in perpetual flux for its entire existence.

But whatever, people are gonna people.

Now, the last main verse is essentially one line repeated with some variation:

And now my stupid friends are having stupid children

To anyone who doesn’t want to have kids, once you hit your late 20s, early 30s, that’s the age typically reserved for having kids. And those that don’t have kids, are either planning to have kids at a more opportune time, or who don’t want kids should be able to understand this sentiment. And of course, there are those who can’t have kids but do want them, although they are generally a smaller population.

However, from the perspective of someone like Burnham or myself, someone who doesn’t want kids (probably ever), this 30-something’s baby boom is… kinda overbearing. It’s also indicative of age. When you decide you want kids there’s something about that which just makes you an adult. Parents are basically just kids raising kids, but it doesn’t instinctively feel that way. I’m sure if I’d known my mother when she had me, and she was very young when she did, I’d probably have thought her more mature than I am now. Even though I know for a fact that that isn’t true. Knowing someone your own age who’s kinda stupid and immature about their kids does somewhat break the spell though. But not everyone gets to have that illusion broken by a friend or acquaintance.

So, for the last bit of the song, the outro, Burnham turns back to a depressive note:

It’s 2020, and I’m 30, I’ll do another ten

2030, I’ll be 40 and kill myself then

It’s rather depressing to say you’re going to kill yourself when you turn thirty, but this little joke does add rhyme and rhythm to the song’s conclusion even if it is making fun of something very serious. However, it is a sentiment that some of us do maybe share. Although, as the next section shows, he doesn’t actually mean it.

Section #11: Don’t Kill Yourself & Window Cleaning:

This section is entirely in response to the last section and, perhaps, to another song of his.  But we’ll get to that. This section responds to that final part of 30. Where he says he’ll kill himself, and here, we find Burnham simply sitting and telling us that he isn’t going to kill himself. It then changes. The image of him telling us about suicide is imposed over the shirt of another Burnham as he sits on his phone and then starts listening.

Burnham tells people to get help if they want to kill themselves. That they mustn’t kill themselves. He first does the usual thing. He says that there are people who love you, but then he stops that lie. Because that is a lie. Not everyone has someone who loves them. Not everyone has friends and/or family. Not everyone has something to live for. And so he switches it. He appeals to a future possibility. Maybe you will one day have those things. Maybe. There’s a possibility that someone will one day love you. Don’t give up.

Now, that, on its own, can ring hollow to someone suffering. And if you’ve never suffered through depression or suicidal ideation then it probably doesn’t make sense. But platitudes like this don’t help.

He switches again, but now with a personal anecdote. He says that he’s known people who’ve taken their lives, and it’s a trauma that isn’t too great to go through. There’s always the future. There’s always a possibility.

The reason for this whole discussion about suicide might be linked to that aforementioned song of his. Burnham made a song called “Kill Yourself”, and the joke is that you shouldn’t pay attention to songs about empowerment. If you’re depressed, seek help. Don’t go with motivational nonsense to deal with mental health issues. Get actual help from someone. And the rest of the song is a list of humorous ways to kill yourself. It’s also probably one of the songs that may have influenced his “Problematic” song in this special. The song is funny, but it’s dark and kinda wrong. Suicide isn’t something funny. And when you’ve experienced thoughts like that yourself, you probably won’t find much humour in it. And uh… well, if you don’t want to write music that could psychologically harm those who have gone through intense trauma, then maybe don’t write jokey songs about suicide.

Anyway, it then moves to an intermission in which Burnham cleans a window in front of the camera. It’s just something, isn’t it? Something between this and the next song.

Song #12: Don’t Wanna Know:

The song opens with Burnham approaching the mic and then it essentially rattles off a list of questions, but these questions are depressive and self-esteem crushing. These are the kinds of questions that any real artist probably experiences. That gnawing feeling that no one cares or wants to hear what you have to say.

There isn’t much to say because the song is basically a list of insecurities, and I’ll just list a few of them from the song:

Do you like the show?

Are you tired of it?

Never mind, I don’t wanna know

Are you finding it boring?

Too fast? Too slow?

Am I on in the background?

Are you on your phone?

Is there anyone out there?

Or am I all alone?

It wouldn’t make a difference

Still, I don’t wanna know

And Burnham repeats the sentiment of “I don’t wanna know” throughout the song. It takes a lot of effort to make something, and it often doesn’t work out. But when it does work out, you suddenly have a whole load of people checking out your work. Some will enjoy it but say nothing, some will dislike it but say nothing, some will praise it and some will criticise it, and furthermore, some will hardly pay attention.

When you pour your heart and soul into something that’s criticised or ignored, that can bite, but that’s the nature of artistic creation. There also isn’t much else to say here. These insecurities that make complete sense for anyone who creates art of any kind. It’s scary putting yourself out there, and what if people don’t even care?

Section #12: Inside & Sleep:

Ah, the game that Burnham “streams”. This short section, which actually drags on longer than I’d probably have recommended, has Burnham set up as if he’s a streamer and then he “controls” himself doing various tasks around the room. And these tend to involve him crying or standing around or being unhappy. And the whole thing is pretty dissociative.

This calls back to section 3 where we just see Burnham setting everything up and we get a brief flash of his streamer persona sitting there. This persona is the one controlling him the entire time. This is what it can feel like when you experience dissociative episodes. You feel as if you are out of your own body, not fully conscious of yourself. It’s, you know, not a great thing to experience.

One small additional thing is that this “game”, which is titled as “Inside”, is presented by “SSRI Interactive”. A screen that is obviously meant to emulate how games open with title cards. However, for those unfamiliar with psychiatric medication: an SSRI is a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor. It’s a type of anti-depressant, probably the most common kind. And the most famous one being Prozac.

The section then shifts into Burnham getting ready for bed. There’s a spotlight on him. He’s the centre of this story. And we can see how tired he is of this whole thing, this special, this project, and possibly this life. It is rather tiring, after all.

Song #13: Shit:

Alright so this song doesn’t have much to it. It starts out a lot more upbeat than the previous section as a strong juxtaposition, but while the music and the light show is rather upbeat and optimistic, the lyrics are all about how much he feels like shit. That’s what this song is. It’s how shit this whole thing is. How shit this pandemic and the hiding indoors and doing nothing. We’re all feeling like shit.

And there really isn’t much to say, so I’ll stop here.

Song/Section #14: All Time Low

This is an interesting one as it’s both a song and a section in one. It opens with Burnham speaking to the camera. He’s talking about how bad his mental health has gotten and that everything is just terrible. You know, because of the pandemic and just how awful life is in general. It’s a darker moment, and he’s simply explaining how he’s feeling, and that’s when it jumps into song for a few seconds.

He’s saying how he feels when he gets up, and it’s described like this:

Feeling in my body, way down deep inside me

I try not to fight it (Describe it!) Alright

A few things start to happen, my vision starts to flatten

My heart, it gets to tappin’, and I think I’m gonna die

And then it cuts out of that to just say he’s not doing great and then the next song starts. Now, for those unfamiliar with this. He’s essentially describing a panic attack. The feeling starts, your vision goes strange, your heart beats fast and you think you’re gonna die. It’s not an exciting feeling for everyone. Many people also experience intense shortness of breath; almost a feeling of choking. Unable to catch your breath.

That brief aside, that jump into musicality to describe a panic attack, shows how suddenly it can come on. You’ll be depressed and/or anxious, and then you suddenly get this intense physiological response. Your body is rebelling against you and actively harming you. It’s not exactly something you want to experience.

The next song isn’t about any of these feelings and is probably one of the best known songs from the entire special. It’s pretty great, so let’s give it some love!

Song #15: Welcome to the Internet:

We now get to the song that is probably most famous out of this special, and I’d probably say that’s for a good reason. It has a great structure, great overall setup and it’s tightly written. But before we get to the actual lyrics, the entire song is essentially structured as if Burnham is a Disney villain. He puts on a bad guy voice and it’s all set around a carnival-style score. Burnham here plays the role of the personification of the internet. He’s kinda sleazy looking and he’s welcoming you to the internet.

The majority of the song is essentially a list of all the things you can do on the internet. From the good to the bad to the horrifying. It goes like this:

Would you like to see the news or any famous women’s feet?

Would you like to fight for civil rights or tweet a racial slur?

Be happy! Be horny! Be bursting with rage!

Here’s a tip for straining pasta; here’s a nine-year-old who died

We’ve got movies and doctors and fantasy sports

See a man beheaded, get offended, see a shrink

Show us pictures of your children, tell us every thought you think

Here’s a healthy breakfast option, you should kill your mom

Here’s why women never fuck you; here’s how you can build a bomb

Which Power Ranger are you? Take this quirky quiz

Obama sent the immigrants to vaccinate your kids

There’s the creepy fetishism of those who don’t want to be fetishized, rampant racism as well as social justice, horniness, anger, how-to tutorials, tragedy, movies, sports, beheadings, oversharing, breakfast options, dark suggestions, incel and pick up artist nonsense, bomb instructions, silly quizzes and conspiracy theories. The internet has a whole lot of good but also, you know, a whole lot of not good, but regardless of all that, it does all come down to one line: “We’ve got a million different ways to engage.”

Because that is what it all comes down to. It all comes down to engagement for the companies that dominate the internet, but before that rant, two sections of this song should be highlighted for how perfect they are. One is just an assonance-fuelled piece of glorious writing, and the other is a fantastically executed little piece of internet uh… “fun” that mostly affects women. The first is:

Start a rumor, buy a broom or send a death threat to a boomer

Or DM a girl and groom her; do a zoom find a tumor in your—

And the second one is:

Welcome to the internet! Hold on to your socks

‘Cause a random guy just kindly sent you photos of his cock

They are grainy and off-putting; he just sent you more

Don’t act surprised—you know you like it, you whore

These two sections are simply fantastic because of how effortlessly they reference problems on the internet, and they also do so in a funny way. The second one is also rather condescending, but that is the internet talking.

Now, this beginning section is essentially a good ole list of things that can happen on the internet. It’s purely for fun. It’s highlighting the dark and the light-hearted stuff. The flip sides of the internet: the good and the bad. However, the chorus tells us more of the story:

Could I interest you in everything all of the time?

A little bit of everything all of the time

Apathy’s a tragedy, and boredom is a crime

Anything and everything all of the time

Could I interest you in everything all of the time?

A little bit of everything all of the time

Apathy’s a tragedy, and boredom is a crime

Anything and everything all of the time

This chorus emphasises our current means of consumption. It’s all about how we overconsume. We have been trained to only want more and more and to want it now. The internet has provided us with some amazing things, but it’s also reduced our attention spans a little. And that’s also why this song isn’t really for my generation. It’s a message to the following generation, to the zoomer generation.

My generation, or at least my generation in my country, had technology, but it wasn’t constantly on-hand like it is today. It wasn’t quite as interconnected. The first proper smartphone I got was in my first year out of high school, and now I see children, who haven’t gotten to high school, who have these devices. They have all the knowledge of the world at their fingertips, but that is an overwhelming thing to have. Why do you think so many of them have depressive, anxiety and attention disorders? The world sucks and there’s too much information running through us at all times. We know the news of the whole world every day, and we know it instantly.

But my generation was the last to have some kind of a buffer. Some of us have more self-control with this technology because we can remember before it existed. I mean, I remember the pre-streaming service days. The days of scheduled television and terrible movies on the handful of public networks in South Africa. I never want to go back to that! Never! So, I never take these things for granted, but if they’ve always been around, you would take them for granted. That’s just the way it would be.

And that’s why Burnham switches his tone here. He’s no longer talking about the internet itself, he’s talking about those who have become intrinsically connected to it. He’s talking about Gen Z, or as he says:

Not very long ago, just before your time

Right before the towers fell, circa ’99

This was catalogs, travel blogs, a chatroom or two

We set our sights and spent our nights waiting for you!

You, insatiable you

Mommy let you use her iPad; you were barely two

And it did all the things we designed it to do

Now, look at you! Oh, look at you!

You, you! Unstoppable, watchable

Your time is now, your inside’s out, honey, how you grew

And if we stick together, who knows what we’ll do?

It was always the plan to put the world in your hands

He talks about how the internet was before the birth of Gen Z. Back in the late 90s and early 2000s. The internet was mostly chatrooms and catalogues and some blogs, but it was waiting for those who would truly be born with the internet in their hand. And Burnham’s personification of the internet is very kind and loving here. He loves Gen Z, he wants what’s best for them, because they are unstoppable and, of course, infinitely watchable as their entire lives, and all their data, is on the cloud. Their insides are out. The internet knows everything about them. Everything.

It seems to end on a happier note, but then the personification starts to laugh. The laughter becomes maniacal. All of that happiness fades away. And then the chorus comes into play again, but the intonation, the tone, has changed. It’s no longer happy or whimsical, it’s opportunistic and callous. It wants you to be apathetic and bored and so turn to it every day. It wants to be your sole means of mentally sustaining yourself. It relishes in the problems it causes you. Always online, never alone, never in true privacy. It wants that. It wants you to be perpetually dependent on it.

This song starts off as a villain song, and while most Disney villain songs have a kind of over-the-top flair to them, this is much more nefarious, much more malevolent. It isn’t over-the-top; it’s grounded, it’s real. The internet and those who dominate it want you to be under its control. And the younger generations are more than happy to give it to them.

Section #15: Keep Going:

After that nice and dark ending, we have a fun section! Okay, not really, this is sort of just Burnham having a bit of a meltdown and saying he’ll never stop working on the special because if he can’t work on the special then what the fuck is he going to do? An understandable thing for those who must keep working forever or else we discover that our life has no meaning. It’s a… fun realisation. Also, that’s about all there is to that. The next song is silly again. Yay!

Song #16: Bezos II:

We open to Burnham at his keyboard, wearing what appears to be a ghillie suit while a star-ish light projection plays behind him. This is a sequel of sorts to song #7. However, he here basically just repeats Jeff Bezos’s name over and over again and then says “You did it!” and later “Congratulations!” before the song suddenly cuts off.

Well… uh… as I said for that first Bezos song. Bezos was one of those who stood to benefit the most from the pandemic. His business is pretty much focused on delivering groceries and other packages to people, and when people couldn’t leave their homes… who did they call on to bring them the necessities of life? The billionaire who thought of the genius idea of “shop but online”.

Anyway, let’s move on.

Section #16: The Real World

Here’s more sadness! It opens with Burnham’s sad face changing into a contorted happy one and then it switches to him doing a standup routine. And the standup routine is essentially a parody of standup. It doesn’t have an audience, obviously, it has an inserted laughing track, and he just sits there, shirtless, as he says depressing things about being locked inside. However, he does happen upon something very interesting here.

He talks about how so-called “real” human interaction will kill you. You know, the pandemic and all, and that we should rather allow ourselves to exist and interact within the safe and much more real interior digital space. He says that we should engage with the “real” world as a job. He puts it like this: “One should only engage with the outside world as one engages with a coal mine. Suit up, gather what is needed, and return to the surface.”

Here he is saying that the real world is merely a place to produce content that can then be placed on the hyperreal online world. A hyperreality is basically the idea that we can exist in something that is more real than real life. And the internet is exactly that. The human interaction is much more intense, the arguments more anger-inducing, the highs higher and the lows lower. You are, when online, alone, and when you are alone and you have your anonymity, you can be more of the person you really are. The you, you want to be.

Anyway, he then goes on a non-sequitur about pirate maps because why not? The internet is random after all. A random, hyperreal hellscape that we all have to interact with now because everything is connected to it and without the internet many of us wouldn’t have jobs. It’s a great forced reality that surely won’t cause any massive issues for humanity. Anyway, onto the next song!

Song #17: That Funny Feeling:

Okay so… this song could probably do with a rather lengthy analysis as it is written in a style reminiscent of something like Bob Dylan. Metaphorical rather than straightforward. On first listen, it may sound like a string of words, people and phrases, but when taken together it forms a rather apocalyptic picture of the current state of the world and human civilisation. It is not a happy story in the slightest.

In addition, it does not have much in the way of lighting changes. It’s set to Burnham playing a guitar with a static forest image behind him. It evokes a feeling of a camp-side song. And that never changes. So, let’s get to the analysis, and this analysis will be thorough:

Stunning 8K resolution meditation app

This is simply a setup for the way things are now. We have these gorgeous, 8K capabilities and we will use it for something like meditation. Meditation, in the oldest forms in religions like Buddhism, Jainism and Hinduism, is a spiritual practice. For instance, meditation is central to Buddhist thought, where it is grounded in mindfulness. However, rather than meditating as one would have done in religious tradition, it has now become commodified.

How many people buy tacky Buddhist statuettes for their houses when they don’t know fundamental tenets of Buddhism? People who smoke weed, believe in crystals and think they’re just like so like connected to like the world because they like meditate and stuff. It has become fetishized and detached from its original purpose. It has become trendy to meditate.

Sure, it has the capacity to help people; if that wasn’t the case, it probably wouldn’t be a central concept in various religions, but we are now told that we need a special app to help us meditate. When Siddhartha Gautama sat in the Deer Park and taught, do you think he needed a special meditation app? Or did he simply meditate?

This line shows the beginnings of a pessimistic view continued in the rest of the song:

In honor of the revolution, it’s half-off at the Gap

This is a further indictment of those who would commodify meditation, but this time it’s about the revolution. Real revolution requires action, perseverance and strong ideological conviction, but many modern people who supposedly want the revolution, who want things to be better than they are, are unwilling to do anything. We think that buying a revolutionary shirt is the equivalent of actual action. We think that doing nothing is the same as doing something.

So, in honour of our feelings towards the revolution, we can get some nice revolutionary items, maybe a shirt with Che Guevara’s face on it, at a nice discount. Wearing the face of a socialist revolutionary who was executed is definitely the same as being a revolutionary!

Deadpool’s self-awareness, loving parents, harmless fun

 

This is the beginning of a series of statements with regards to current ideology. Media now has to be self-aware; it can’t just be a story. We now have the idea that our parents actually love us and didn’t have us purely so that we’d take over the farm after their death, and everything we do is just some harmless fun. These few lines do somewhat focus on things that are bitter-sweet.

The fact that parenting is better and that things like sexual frivolity are more accepted than ever, these are good things. They can come with downsides though, either that or they simply aren’t as advantageous as we might have otherwise thought. But this line isn’t quite as depressing as some of the rest, but the next is an interesting point on current political, social and economic discourse:

The backlash to the backlash to the thing that’s just begun

 

Backlash has always existed. It’s been there forever. People who disagree with this or that policy or opinion. That will never change, but the discourse cycle is now instantaneous. Once upon a time, it was perfectly reasonable for a certain opinion to be stated and then for the discussion around that to last months or years.

Now, as soon as news of any sort appears, there will be those who support it, those who reject those who support it and those who reject those who reject those who support it. Almost anything, on either side of the political spectrum, can be protested or counter-protested. Are abortion rights being threatened? There will be those who protest against removing those rights, and then there will be those who protest against those who protest.

People can’t take a position on an issue anymore. It isn’t that you agree or disagree with a position, it’s that you either agree or disagree with those who agree or disagree. It becomes an ad hominem attack. You can’t just support or not support something, you have pick a side in the nonsense culture war debate.

Now, you could have different opinions on which side you can choose, and I have personally very much chosen a side (for those curious, I have chosen the more progressive, leftist side), because if you don’t choose a side then you will be perceived as a coward. Centrism is for those who want to pretend that you can have it either way. And that isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but definitely a thing worth contemplating.

And we now reach the chorus:

There it is again

That funny feeling

That funny feeling

There it is again

That funny feeling

That funny feeling

So, everything that has come before this, every one of those disparate thoughts, is part of this funny feeling. Now, the word “funny” here probably doesn’t mean ha ha funny, it means wrong. It’s a bad feeling, a strange feeling. Something is off. Something is off in the world. We can’t exactly place what it is, but those few things that were mentioned before were part of it, and the things that will be mentioned from now on are also part of it.

And speaking of those things, I’ve combined a few here because they continue a theme:

 

The surgeon general’s pop-up shop, Robert Iger’s face

Discount Etsy agitprop, Bugles’ take on race

Female Colonel Sanders, easy answers, civil war

The livе-action Lion King, the Pepsi Halftime Show

Carpool Karaoke, Steve Aoki, Logan Paul

Here we are treated to a list. We have everything from Disney’s overbearing presence on the entertainment industry (Robert Iger, for those unfamiliar, is the CEO at Disney), we have agitprop (aka propaganda) on discount on Etsy, we have musicians giving their opinions on socio-political issues, we have corporate facades of equality, a near civil war in the United States, a lack of originality in our media, corporate consolidation of culture, reality television and people like Logan Paul as role models for our children.

Something is wrong, and it can give you a funny feeling. Everything becomes more divided, more partisan, more of a pastiche of itself, but that’s just culture, because two of the other lines in this section are:

The whole world at your fingеrtips, the ocean at your door

Twenty-thousand years of this, seven more to go

We have the whole world at our fingertips. The internet has given us all the information we could possibly want at any time, but while we have that, we also have rising sea levels, we have global warming at the door. It’s coming for us. Regardless of what we do as a culture, the existential crisis of our species is right there.

And the next line can be kind of confusing, but “twenty thousand years of this” could correspond to the fact that humans have been in the Americas for about twenty thousand years, and in about seven years we hit our deadline for global warming. Although, that may already be too late. It’s already happening and there’s little we can do to stop it. We could offset it and limit its effects, but we’ve been too slow, too unwilling to act, too scared to halt the capitalist machine for the purpose of saving the world for our habitation.

Because if global warming does happen and the human race eventually gets wiped out, the earth itself will be fine and new life will eventually form anew. But humans will be done, and so this is not an existential threat to the planet, but it is to everything currently alive on it. Which is maybe why the rhetoric around “save the planet” is wrong. The planet will be fine, but most of the non-human animals, human animals and plant life will not survive. Which is probably a reason to try and do something about it. Next line:

 

A gift shop at the gun range, a mass shooting at the mall

This is a very American thing, but getting some fun stuffs at the gun range and then shooting up a mall? Oh, that is very American, but this was written by an American, so that makes sense. However, this line should be rather obvious to understand. There’s a bit of a gun problem in America. Just a wee bit of a gun problem, and that should maybe be rectified at some point! Anyway:

Reading Pornhub’s terms of service, going for a drive

And obeying all the traffic laws in Grand Theft Auto V

Okay, so this one is probably aimed squarely at the pandemic. When the special was released, and when this video was released, the coronavirus pandemic was very much happening, and do you know what happens when you get stuck inside all day? You get bored.

And what do you do when you’re immensely bored? Find random things to occupy your time. Like reading Pornhub’s terms of service or driving somewhere or playing GTA V and actually obeying traffic laws rather than having fun. Although… I think anyone who’s played GTA does, at some point, try and follow the rules of the road for a while before they get bored, drive on the pavement and shoot some people.

On to the next:

Full agoraphobic, losing focus, cover blown

A book on getting better hand-delivered by a drone

Still on the pandemic. Stuck inside all day and becoming afraid of leaving. Slowly losing your touch on reality and then wanting help, but a human doesn’t deliver the self-help book, a fucking drone does! Social isolation is not good for many people’s minds. I mean, to be honest, it was great for mine, but some people require socialisation. And being locked inside all the time can also lead to the next section:

Total disassociation, fully out your mind

Googling “derealization,” hating what you find

 

Now, we have actually discussed dissociation in this video already, and this is a re-emphasis on that. When you already have mental health issues and you then become immensely isolated, it can start causing some damage. And for those unfamiliar with “derealization”, let’s google it as the song recommends against. And this definition is the very first thing that showed up when I googled the term, and it’s from WebMD. Here goes: “Derealization is a mental state where you feel detached from your surroundings. People and objects around you may seem unreal. Even so, you’re aware that this altered state isn’t normal. More than half of all people may have this disconnection from reality once in their lifetime.”

So… you dissociate, but kind of realise it and you know everything is very wrong. It’s uh… not very happy.

But that’s mental stuff, we now get to go back to material existential threats:

That unapparent summer air in early fall

The quiet comprehending of the ending of it all

Summer air… in early fall. Hotter when it’s supposed to be colder, the changing of seasons, the very noticeable reality that our climate is changing. We can literally feel it in the air. It’s hotter than it used to be. It’s hotter than when we were kids. And that second line is very depressing.

We know the end is coming, but we quietly comprehend it. It’s coming slowly, and it reminds me of that oft overused line from T.S Eliot’s The Hollow Men:

This is the way the world ends

Not with a bang but a whimper

The world will end slowly and sadly, it will not be an abrupt apocalypse. It will creep up on us.

The rest is pretty much a repetition of this:

 

Hey, what can you say?

We were overdue

But it’ll be over soon

You wait

Hey, what can you say?

We were overdue

But it’ll be over soon

Just wait

Okay… so this just parallels what has come before. Everything is going to end, and it was time for everything to end. We were overdue. Our world, basically, has to die.

So… this was uh… apocalyptic. Hopefully the next section isn’t so depressing!

Section #17: Enough:

This section maintains the more recent theme of burnout. This special is taking a long time to put together. It’s taken a year at this point in the narrative, and it’s wearing him out. He has positioned his camera behind a lot of his equipment so you can see it all. You can see the production from a meta-textual perspective. Never forget that this is, at least partially, a work of fiction. You cannot be sure how much of this is actually real and how much of it is performative exaggeration.

So, this short section entails Burnham struggling to come to grips with the fact that he’s been working on this special for a year already, and he eventually storms off after struggling to articulate his thoughts on this. 

It then jumps to him talking to the camera, and simply saying that he is not well and then he cries. And as he cries, applause starts as it leads into the next song. The camera slowly switches to a view of the camera itself. Thanking his audience. The whole façade coming together into one of the final songs. An audience participatory song with no audience.

Song #18: All Eyes On Me:

The song opens to a blue tinted close-up of Burnham’s face. The camera never changes much as it focuses entirely on him. His eyes large and staring into the distance as he sings, eventually shifting to stare directly at the audience for a time as he tells the audience to get their fucking hands up. The lyrics are comparatively minimal and somewhat repetitive. Get your hands up, keep your eyes on him, lower your head and pray for him, get your fucking hands up, please.

The visuals start to overlap various versions of the shot over one another. His own image projected behind him as he sings to his audience. The façade projected over the façade.

A combination of a cry for help, wanting others to pray for him because there’s nothing else anyone can actually do, or at least in his audience. No one who watches this special can actually help him. At all. And there’s also a request to actually watch, to actually take note.

One verse of significance is:

Are you feeling nervous? Are you having fun?

It’s almost over, it’s just begun

Don’t overthink this, look in my eye

Don’t be scared, don’t be shy

Come on in, the water’s fine

 

He’s scared, in a way reminiscent of the song “Don’t Wanna Know”, in which Burnham hopes people are enjoying the show but also doesn’t want to know if that isn’t the case. That inevitable insecurity. However, he then stops the song. The music still plays in the background, but this is now spoken word. He tells a personal story.

Burnham, before this special released, kind of disappeared. He vanished for about five years and stopped performing. He did a movie, but nothing comedy focused. Nothing like this. No music. And he talks about how he started to have panic attacks on stage and so he took a break. He started to get better and he wanted to start performing again… and then the pandemic started and he’s been locked inside since, and it hasn’t exactly been good.

It then switches back to the song, and it resumes the repetitious aspects of the song, before having one important verse:

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

This resumes the apocalyptic vibes of the previous song. The world’s ending, and there’s nothing you can do. So just get inside. It’s… unhappy and deeply pessimistic, but it’s definitely an understandable doomer attitude. And why wouldn’t you feel nihilistic about the world? Have you seen it? The people in charge fuck up the world, the planet is burning and apparently Nazism is okay again.

But anyway… the next section has an interesting visual and tonal change. It becomes incredibly uncomfortable as Burnham tells us to get up, to get the fuck up, and he rushes at the camera, picks it up and swirls it around with him. It’s a jarring and disturbing change, as it suddenly cuts away.

Section #18: I think I’m done

Burnham wakes up. Gentle music plays. He’s getting ready for the day, finding things he needs, testing some music here and there. And it finally switches to him addressing the camera. And he just says: “I think I’m done.” It’s time for the final true song of the special.

Song #19: Goodbye:

The final song. The culmination of the entire special. And this song deserves special attention as it is the amalgamation of various concepts throughout the special. It expertly uses existing lyrics, and either changes them or leaves them entirely as is, and by doing so, a new meaning is produced. In addition, this song makes phenomenal use of visuals.

The song begins with Burnham, a younger Burnham, opening this song as a possible ending song. He lacks his beard here and it’s likely been shot before any of this happened, before the events of this special occurred. This is the more innocent Burnham. And he starts the song off, and it begins with lyrics that say goodbye, and once that happens, the image starts to merge with a new image. The older Burnham, sitting in profile, as the original image fades into the darkness within his head. And this is where the sadness properly starts:

 

So long, goodbye

Do I really have to finish?

Do returns always diminish?

Did I say that right?

 

Does anybody want to joke

When no one’s laughing in the background?

This special has been a coping mechanism. For those somehow unfamiliar with very basic mental health stuffs: a coping mechanism is something that you do that allows you to cope with reality. Maybe you compulsively overwork yourself or self-isolate (for non-pandemic reasons, of course). And this special, working on it and tweaking it, has been something to do. Something to keep him occupied. But art is meant to be shared. He couldn’t hoard it forever.

The sadness persists in that second verse, where he asks if anyone actually wants to tell a joke when no one’s laughing in the background. Now, this calls some attention to the song “Comedy” that was at the beginning of this special. In which he wonders whether he should even be telling jokes, and it also calls to attention to the various sections and songs that he uses which make use of canned laughter. He added in a laughing track to some sections because… well because who wants to tell jokes when there’s no one there to laugh at them? What’s the point?

And with the next verse, the visuals change once again. We now see an overlaid image of Burnham with the moon projected behind him. A call back of sorts to songs like “That Funny Feeling”. Projections of the outside world being brought into the inside. To try and create a synthesis of outside inside. He says:

So this is how it ends

I promise to never go outside again

 

This section is a direct call back to “Don’t Wanna Know”. He didn’t want to give the ending back then, but now, we know that this is how it ends. Furthermore, the second line is in reference to “Look Who’s Inside Again”. He has brought us to the end, and he now knows that he doesn’t actually want to go outside. He wants to stay inside. He wants to stay in this hyperreal hellish landscape. It’s become comfortable. Understandable.

With the next set of verses. We get a big visual change. It departs from his face and goes to various behind the scenes pieces of footage. Where he was setting up the camera and preparing everything. Those moments of film that always exist but we always edit them out. The parts where you get in character, where you prepare, where you make mistakes or test the camera. These two verses are also filled with meta-commentary and intertextuality:

 

So long

Bye

I’m slowly losing power

Has it only been an hour?

No, that can’t be right

 

So long, goodbye

Hey, here’s a fun idea

How about I sit on the couch

And I watch you next time?

 

First off, and this is probably hardly noticeable if you just watch it, but he pronounces “bye” the same way he pronounces “hi” back in section one. An intentional call back to the literal introductory segment of the special. Then there are the meta-commentary sections that remark on the length of the special; this is a specific reference to this literally being a piece of content that has been, effectively, sold for consumption. It is aware that it is about itself.

And there is shock in that realisation. That all this work. This whole year of work has led to 90 minutes of audio-visual entertainment. And so… goodbye. And then we get a repetition of that same idea of telling jokes. How about next time, you do the hard work, and I’ll just sit there and watch.

From here, it jumps back into the old visuals. It has abandoned the meta-commentary. There is, however, repetition of that same idea, but with a slight variation:

I wanna hear you tell a joke

When no one’s laughing in the background

The next section is just a repetition of the chorus. We now get a change in overall tone. The visuals focus on a distant shot of Burnham as he plays. This becomes a section of self-doubt:

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

Doubts about his own mental health, about whether he even has a grip on his own mental health anymore, or if he’s even progressed as a person. Which is, of course, a reference to “Problematic”. Has he become a better person over the course of all these years? Are things better? Is he better? And he’s afraid of the ending. It then all culminates in taking a chorus wholesale from another song and placing it here. The lyrics do not change at all… and yet the meaning changes completely:

I swear to God that all I’ve ever wanted was

 

A little bit of everything all of the time

A bit of everything all of the time

Apathy’s a tragedy, and boredom is a crime

 

I’m finished playin’, and I’m stayin’ inside

This is from “Welcome to the Internet”. He is one of those internet generation children. He wants it all, and he can’t handle being bored or apathetic. He must have something to do, something to be angry about, to engage with. And it ends with yet another little reference to “Look Who’s Inside Again”. He doesn’t want to leave. He’s become accustomed to this. This has been life for over a year. He needs to leave but he also needs to stay. He needs to get out but where would he go? Outside? That’s the worst place you could go.

And that panic builds over into the next verse:

If I wake up in a house that’s full of smoke

I’ll panic, so call me up and tell me a joke

When I’m fully irrelevant and totally broken, damn it

Call me up and tell me a joke

Oh, shit

You’re really joking at a time like this?

This is a direct reference to “Comedy”. In that song, he reassured us, the audience, that if the house is on fire, that we can call him, and he’ll tell us a joke. The house is this world, crumbling around us, and a bit of comedy can help us get out of it. But the tables have turned. He is now the one who needs the reassurance, the help.

He’s about to leave his comfort zone for the first time in so long and he’s afraid. He’s been gone from the outside world for so long. Maybe he’s irrelevant now. Maybe he’s broken. Please! Just tell me a joke! Just tell me! Fuck, please! And then… then he asks why we’re telling a joke? This is no time for jokes. The world is burning around us. Why would you be making jokes?

And then… then a passionately singing Burnham is hit with a bright spotlight as the voice distorts. We see Burnham at his piano, entirely naked, he is unprotected. The special is done. It’s time to leave, but those final lines are incredibly dire:

 

Well, well, look who’s inside again

Went out to look for a reason to hide again

Well, well, buddy, you found it

Now come out with your hands up

We’ve got you surrounded

I don’t think that needs any analysis.

Section #19: Outside:

The music is dead. It’s all over. We hear a new note as light comes through the door and into the room. The outside world is beckoning. This is the same light from the beginning, and it falls over his face. He has to leave now. There’s nowhere else to go and nothing to do. He has to release this special into the world.

He exits his room and steps outside. There’s a spotlight on him as applause begins. It scares him and he tries to retreat back inside, but he can’t. He struggles to escape the outside, the spotlight, as people laugh at his misery. He’s trapped outside.

The colour changes and we zoom out of a projector. Burnham is watching his own special. The same image was conjured in the intro to the “Problematic” song (although the camera was on the other cheek then). He’s watching himself. Critiquing himself. He watches the misery, and for a second, a smile stretches over his face. A single second of content smiling. In seeing what you have created and being happy with it.

He was unhappy when looking at the work he produced as a teenager. It was mean-spirited and offensive. This is something much stronger, much deeper. And that smile says it all. It was a smile that genuinely made me cry when I first watched this special. I’ve been a writer for years, and the first time I looked at a book I’d written and thought “this is actually good”, well… it was a good feeling to have.

It’s good to feel pride in what you do. It’s the best feeling imaginable.

And then it ends.

Song #20: Any Day Now:

This song is actually just one line repeated over and over again as the credits roll. And that one line is:

It’ll stop any day now (Any day now, any day now)

And it has stopped… it’s all over. The special is done.

Rewatching Inside and Concluding Remarks

The special is now done, and so, after spending so much time with it, after watching these damn songs and sections over and over again… I decided that it was time to simply rewatch the whole thing in full. To see how it fares as a whole rather than a collection of disparate pieces with shared themes. And what did I take away from that experience? Well… the overarching narrative stuck out more than before.

I had watched the special several times before starting this analysis, but once I got underway, and this has been months in the making, I kind of… didn’t watch it. I would watch the section pertinent to me now or what would come next or maybe to check on things that had happened before, but I never actually sat and just rewatched the whole thing from start to finish. And I’m glad I did.

I don’t know if I’ll be watching this again anytime soon, as I have spent literal months making this thing and it’s probably worn out its welcome a good bit, but… but I’m glad for the rewatch. It allowed me to see the narrative strands more than before.

This is a special filled with small things you may otherwise miss. For instance, I completely missed that Burnham goes to bed after “Shit” and wakes up right before “Goodbye”. He says, in one of the sections, that if he could kill himself for a year and then wake up, he’d do it. And right after that his character goes to sleep and just… wakes up at the end. So, was that, narratively, him during those other songs? Was it him? Or was it an alter ego of some kind?

These are small things, but things you only notice on repeat viewings. So, I hope that whoever watches this video has actually first watched Inside, but even if you have watched it, I would recommend watching it again. Pay attention to all the things that may have been pointed out in this video. See what all I missed, because I definitely missed things.

When Roland Barthes wrote a book called S/Z, he decided to analyse a short story so in-depth that you’d think he got everything out of it. But he didn’t. He knew there were things he missed. And I’m nowhere near as good as Barthes, so uh… yeah, I definitely missed things, but oh well!

So, I now recommend that you too go and rewatch it and see what you missed the first time (or first times), see what I missed, see what you can criticise, what you can praise. What is your interpretation? Because my interpretation is just one of many! I might be wrong, or my opinions may be incomplete. Yours could also be wrong, and yours are also definitely incomplete. Everyone’s opinion on a piece of art is incomplete. No one person can ever hold every necessary angle in mind.

But isn’t that the beauty of it? Maybe you enjoyed this special, maybe you didn’t. Maybe you enjoyed my video on this special, maybe you didn’t. Neither is correct or incorrect, but when you dig in deeper, when you put in the time, you can really discover what you think about the things you consume. Pay close attention and you’ll learn more about yourself every time you consume anything.

Now, I know you may have disliked the video, but I’m glad you watched it anyway. Provided you didn’t just skip to the end for some reason. But either way: thanks.