Bo Burnham, Inside and the Internet's Identity Crisis
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- Опубліковано 15 чер 2021
- Bo Burnham's Inside explores the identity crisis the internet is undergoing. The comedy special asks who owns the internet, how real is online life, and whether or not the internet is fundamentally bad. Inside holds up a mirror to the selves we make on Twitch, UA-cam, Instagram and the rest of social media. It asks: who is the internet?
SOCIAL MEDIA:
Twitter: / xandrakane
Tiktok: / alexandra.kane
OTHER VIDEOS:
Cruella: The Villainy of Girlboss
• Video
(Film criticism? Why yes, I do that.)
How the Internet Broke Nostalgia
• Video
(It's like this video, kind of, except I was a little more pessimistic about Netflix content a few months ago)
VIDEO SOURCES:
Bo Burnham Examines Social Media (2018)
• Bo Burnham Examines So...
Welcome to UA-cam (2008)
• welcome to youtube.
ARTICLES CITED:
Just 0.4% of UA-cam Channels Get Views, Subscribers - Business Insider (2020)
www.businessinsider.com/0-4-p...
UA-cam’s small creators pay price of policy changes after Logan Paul scandal - The Guardian (2018)
www.theguardian.com/technolog...
TikTok suppressed disabled users’ videos - BBC (2019)
www.bbc.com/news/technology-5...
Pew Research Report on Internet Use (2000-2015)
www.pewresearch.org/internet/...
History and Growth of the Internet from 1995 till Today
www.internetworldstats.com/em...
MUSIC:
Astron - Growing Space
Wolf Mother - Loopop
Music by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio
/ @whitebataudio
Dreamer by Hazy
/ hazy_music
Music provided by www.plugnplaymusic.net - Розваги
Really loved your perspective on this, there was something about Inside that really affected me but I was having trouble articulating it.
I'm glad you had a more hopeful yet bittersweet interpretation because I came away with a notable pessimism afterwards. I think your articulation is much closer to his intentionality though, so props for breaking down such a complex smorgasbord of ideas!
As long as there are takes like this on the internet, maybe we have some hope left for it getting better 🤞
When I first watched it I felt so many things that I didn't even have words. There are so many ways to interpret this beautiful thing.
I definitely felt a sense of pessimism too. I couldn't decide whether I felt hopeful or completely miserable until I saw that "Thank you for watching" line. That's when the feeling of hope won for me, because that said to me that the spirit of the internet I love is still out there fighting to be heard.
Thank you for watching, and thanks for this comment. Means a lot to me to read that my hopeful interpretation was worth hearing!
I saw a lot of interpretations of White Woman's Instagram that were aligned with my own reading, in that there was a brief moment of vulnerability amidst an otherwise vacuous stream of content, and that moment alone provides the song its humanity. Yours is the only interpretation I saw that used that moment of vulnerability to reframe the rest of the song as a very personal statement to lost loved ones. It was profound and has stayed with me. Thank you for sharing.
White Woman's Instagram was a song that shocked me in how much I loved it. The moment of vulnerability - especially the line "still figuring out how to keep living without you" just punched me in the gut because it's such a true distillation of grief.
Anyway that stayed with me. There are, like you said, vacuous parts to the content described in the song. I won't defend attributing a Lord of the Rings quote to Martin Luther King. But I do see her goals as a loving thing, capturing the world for her family that isn't here to see it anymore.
Thanks for listening to my interpretation of it.
And now I’m seeing a thematic connection with the way the song humanizes her without letting her off the hook for the appropriation etc. and the way Bo approaches his own “closet” of shitty jokes in “Problematic” - this video is the gift that keeps on giving!
This was beautifully argued, edited, and produced. This may be one of not only the best video essays I've seen, but best videos.
Thank you for making this.
Thank you so much! I knew very little about video editing last year but there was stuff I wanted to say and video seemed like the way to say it. Making a million beginner mistakes made me want to throw my computer out the window, so getting a comment like this now really made my day. Thanks again.
This was an amazing insight. You have done an incredible job with not only the production of this piece, but an in-depth comprehension of some of the deeper insights offered by the special. Bravo!
Thank you! Making this thing was a joy. Editing this video, as a long-time Burnham fan, felt like getting to sing along with a favorite song. Sometimes when I make video essays I feel like I have to wade through miles of stock footage, but here I just got to watch and re-watch something beautiful to put my commentary together.
this is a *really good* analysis.
Thank you! I've watched/read a lot of discussion about Inside, but not much specifically tackled the relationship to the internet. Also, in my humble opinion, the brilliance and empathy of the song White Woman's Instagram needed to be talked about more.
This video was so insightful and I appreciated your analysis of Inside since there are so many layers to it. I agree with you - the internet is in a crisis and at the same time there’s also hope, especially if we, as UA-camrs, create more intentionally and, as users of technology, make a conscious and thoughtful choice around what we watch and how we use technology versus letting corporations inform what we do with this super powerful thing. (And, as a result, informing how we spend our time and who we become).
I never questioned what is the internet, but this really gave me some food for thought on where it's going and what's happening within. It's very thought provoking, thank you for this!
this is perfectly articulated, thank you for making this! great video
thank you for watching! Your profile picture is amazing, I wish I could get my cat to wear hats. sadly he tries to eat them.
I really like this take. Thank you for sharing.
Thank you! I wasn't sure if I read the movie right, finding hope in something that depicted so much sadness, but I wanted to share the little spark of cautious internet optimism I found. This movie mattered so much to me so I thought I'd put my thoughts out there.
This is the best analysis of this special I have seen. Also great editing and writing on ur part. This special was intense.
Thank you! That means a lot to me to hear since I've consumed so many other analyses of this special. I loved writing and editing this thing, it felt like a privilege for me as an amateur critic to take a close look at a film like this one.
It's criminal how many subscribers and views you have. Keep up the excellent content!
Haha thank you! Having 300-something subscribers may not be big numbers on UA-cam, but if I imagine that many people in a room having the patience to listen to me talk about movies it's pretty amazing.
I will definitely keep it up. I love making these videos and it really makes my day to hear that they're worth watching.
Wow, this is brilliant! Really love your interpretation of the special and what you chose to focus on. I haven't been able to get "Inside" out of my head for days now and I have so many different warring thoughts about it. At first watch it made me feel really overwhelmed and mostly sad or discouraged but now as I'm listening to the songs again I get those little glimmers of hope. Anyway, I have many thoughts about it but I'm reluctant to watch most analysis videos because they tend to only scratch the surface and focus too much on Burnham himself. Your perspective was a breath of fresh air and I loved the editing and your calm and clear manner of speaking.
Thank you! I shared this both because I couldn't get it out of my head either (Inside is my whole Spotify playlist now) and also because I read so many comments from people who felt overwhelmed by the sadness.
Inside is a special that deals deeply, honestly, and movingly with despair and with dark topics. Even though I as a critic can't see "the truth" of art, I saw this spark of hope despite all that and so I felt like I should release the happy thought back out onto the internet where it belongs.
Oh my God you are amazing. I love your insights especially on White Woman's Instagram. It was beautiful.
Thank you! Part of why I wanted to make this video was because I watched and read so many other reactions to Inside. After I read several takes that didn't (in my humble opinion) address the depth and empathy of that song I felt compelled to share what I thought.
Very original take well told, and I've seen quite a few. Thanks for sharing it!
Thank you! I've also watched quite a few responses and reactions to Inside. Lots of great interpretations out there but no one saw it quite this way, so I wanted to share.
You are underrated. Your voice is absolutely wonderful. Keep it up.
Thank you! I enjoy editing these videos and it's great to hear that they're interesting to watch, so I'll definitely keep making them.
Even if Bo himself asked us "Is it necessary for every single person on this planet, express every single opinion that they have, on every single thing that occurs, all of the same time?". Even if I've watched too many reaction videos on the special, Even if I contribute a Like count that may eventually add to your future success that may or may not deteriorate your mental health... Thank you for creating.
Thank you for watching.
I was hesitant to post this video, honestly. "Who am I to ask people to give 14 minutes of their time on this earth to hear my opinion on this?" But I loved this film so much that I wanted to put the little spark of hope I found in it out there.
Whenever a person posts on the internet they risk being wrong, or too opinionated, or a thousand other unflattering adjectives. I figured if I were going to go and be (probably) wrong on the internet I might as well talk about something that mattered this much to me.
Also hesitant but I'm posting this comment anyway. Maybe us having a conversation is the internet self-reflecting and getting to know itself better. I just saw the internet as a naked dude dancing and singing privately indoors for the world to see. There's a feeling that an idea or a message much larger than the film, needed to be fleshed out. So maybe it's a yes to answer Bo's query. That it IS necessary. The genius of the film is that it isn't finished yet and every single one of us is adding on to it right now commenting. I'm just glad I've gone against the algorithm recommendations and manually searched for a video that better resonate my own opinions. The spark of hope is there and felt. It's like being a witness to birth of an era. So again, Thank you! I continued indulging in your thoughts through your other videos too. Much like the film, I'm analyzing what makes me love your delivery and contribution to the larger message. Wondering if it's your voice quality, camera angle, colors...I can't seem to articulate but here's me taking risks of being wrong.
The microphone that point towards outside the frame is not it (cuz it could be removed with overlaying an empty shot of the scene), nor the shape of your silhoutte merged with the couch when i squint my eyes (because it removes her natural shape). The head room space could use a bit of reduction, and I could care less about the youtuber book shelf too. Maybe if I close my eyes and just listen I picture the messenger to be in the middle with eye-level camera. She has her voice and educated opinions and that is all she needs everything else is just distraction.
@@artifindr This, I think, is one of the good things about the internet. People can keep the conversation of a film going, having a discussion instead of just clapping at the end. And someone like me, who downloaded a free trial of a video editing program in 2020, gets to talk about camera setup! As if I were a real film-maker! I never thought I'd see the day.
The frame of the videos, if you'll forgive me over-explaining, is meant to seem comfortable. In the first youtube video I ever made I sat right in the center of the frame in front of a blank wall. In films that type of shot is usually used to convey isolation: it emphasizes that the person in the frame is alone and it can feel somewhat uncomfortable. So sitting slightly off-center in the frame here, with both the bookshelf and the microphone visible, is me trying to be honest in the content I share. I'm making something to publish (microphone) but at the end of the day I'm just a person sitting in an apartment (bookshelf).
@@maevemonroe that's it. It's the honesty! The untainted sort that first time youtubers have. That's what makes me love your videos.
Pls forgive my taste in framing and composition. It must have been homogenized through editing close to a thousand youtube videos at work for American clients. I too started editing professionally in 2020. But we in the third world are like a massive factories of things for western consumption including youtube videos. After a while they became to look the same. Bo's film broke a filter for me and i'm only beginning to see more of the honesty again. I like your channel more than the film because you're not yet done making it.
@@artifindr If you're editing videos for clients then that's a lot of editing knowledge I don't have! I look back on every single thing I've posted so far and make a list of all the things I should try to do better next time.
And really my taste in framing and composition is very much a work in progress. I looked back at the video I did before this one and thought "wow, now that I look at it again there IS too much room over my head."
Hopefully soon the clients you have (American and everybody else) will develop less homogenous taste. Or, at least, behave better as clients. I don't have much experience myself working with clients outside of my country but I can easily imagine that my fellow Americans often treat people working on projects for them like human factories. I remember being treated like a web design printing machine by several clients, and they could see me physically in the same room with them.
This video is amazing, are you sure you've only got 47 subs? I think UA-cam's leaving off a K or something..
Well, one more now. Your voice is so nice too, wow.
Thank you! Maybe one day the UA-cam algorithm will bless me with internet points but I think it's crazy and cool to have an audience of 47 entire people. That's 46 more than I expected so it's all a win in my book.
Love your analysis!! ❤️🎶
Thank you! 🎵I love talking about this special and these songs. White Woman's Instagram is now the top entry on my "On Repeat" playlist, and it's probably going to stay there for a very long time.
Another great, thought provoking video. I had literally never heard of Bo Burnham until "Welcome to the Internet" popped up in my feed a while back and has been pretty much playing in my brain on a loop ever since, and now he seems to be everywhere I look.
Thank you! "Welcome to the Internet" has also been stuck in my brain.
Judging from the dataset of your videos I think Burnham's humor would be your style. And yes, he is all over UA-cam right now. I think there are legions of people like me who saw him back in the day and then were just so overcome with fandom emotion when they saw the new special that they had to make something about it.
Great stuff. Narration was *chef's kiss.
The secret sauce to my narration is blanket forts. Seriously. I watched a series of videos for aspiring voice actors that said "if you can't soundproof the place you record, just speak into the microphone while draped under a heavy piece of cloth." And so all of my narration (when I wasn't actually in front the camera) was recorded in a state-of-the-art blanket fort. :)
This is beautiful analysis. Thank you for sharing your insight.
Thank you for watching! I'm still getting the hang of this video editing thing so reading that it's an analysis worth checking out really makes my day. :)
I've watched a bunch of Inside commentaries, but this is the only one that got me to sub a channel. Well done.
Thank you! I loved Inside so much that I was almost compulsively consuming commentaries on it. I didn't find any interpretations of it that seemed quite like what I saw in it, so I felt like I had to make this.
wow great video! you have a very unique take on the film. did you studied sociology of some kind? or maybe psychology or anthropology? because i studied sociology, and your explanation sounds like what i would say if i have to examine the film lol. you deserved more subscribers!
psychology was in fact my major! sociology has always been fascinating but I only ever managed to take one class in it while I was in school. I've tried to keep reading as much as I can so hopefully there is some of a sociological lens to what I post. Thank you!
wonderful break down
Thank you! This was my favorite video editing project I've tried so far, so this is very encouraging to read :)
Thanks for sharing your thoughts
This was very thought provoking (as are your other videos). I think I'll watch "Inside", now that I have a better understanding of what it's about. I'm sort of like a living fossil. I was in my late 20's by the time the Internet became a thing, it means that I grew up through the "dark ages" well before the Internet (as we know it) appeared, then it appeared, and soon after the dot com crash happened, and I watched it slowly grow (and accelerate) into how it has become today. We know the Internet still has a long way to go, the effects from the pandemic showed how little the Internet was actually being used. The next thing underway is 5G and IoT that will turn a lot of formerly dumb things into connected smart devices, what + and - effects that will have on society is anyone's guess. BTW we cannot overlook the irony of using youtube to talk about the Internet (and youtube) in such a way, without it, you would be unable to get your thoughts out to hardly anyone.
Thank you! And yes, there's a layer of irony to talking about the internet and putting my opinion up on youtube. I was partially inspired to make this by reading reviews by respected film critics. They gave Inside great scores but didn't seem to see anything worth saving about the internet. Things are bad online right now, but I'm determined to hold on to hope about the internet getting better.
@@maevemonroe Do not lose hope! Everything is being amplified, the algorithms select for the most 'clicks' which makes it seem the situation is worse than it actually is. Your channel is one example of many bright lights shining that I visit each day, each click is worth a million elsewhere. I lived through a good part of the pre-Internet years, I call those times the dark ages because access to information was very limited, we knew next to nothing compared to now. Each new level towards greater access to information caused fears, the printing press, followed by radio, followed by TV, and now arrives the Internet but this time we have given people a voice unlike ever before in history, it will take time to learn how to use our voices better. I do agree that there's too much control over the Internet by a few companies, that's not a good situation, and far too little is being done about breaking up these monopolies, but I'm confident we'll find a way to make it better eventually.
@@geekinasuit8333 Wow, thank you so much.
I'm also confident and optimistic that we'll figure out a way to make the internet better. It will take time but worthwhile journeys are often long. There's a lot of hope inherent to a media where any person can have a voice. Does that mean that hatred and humanity's worst impulses get airtime? Yes. But it also means that more people than ever before can share ideas, learn from each other, and figure out how to build ourselves a better everything.
There will be good and evil in the internet as long as both of those extremes are human. But there's hope, and there's goodness, and as long as those are there the conversation can keep going.
I really appreciate your take on this and your optimism. Do you have a guess as to the long term impacts of this willingness for corporate self-acknowledgment? E.g. comedy specials that poke fun at billionaires but that also drive traffic to their companies? Also just fantastic video and production. This should have 100,000 views.
Thank you! I have so many thoughts on where corporate self-acknowledgement goes. I'll try to keep this (reasonably) short and semi-coherent.
I think that art and comedy have always had a complex relationship to money and power. Poets were aristocrats, composers had patrons in the nobility. I love Voltaire, for example, but it's not lost on me that his comedies and the rest of his work largely survived because he was popular with powerful folks in 1700s France.
I see the anti-billionaire message in Inside as a kind of Trojan horse that can start wider conversations. Netflix gets another month of my subscription money but I talked to a friend who isn't usually interested in anti-trust law about regulating tech companies. Jeffrey Bezos almost certainly does not care that there's now a catchy electronic song with a line about him drinking blood. But because that song exists, I'm typing a long UA-cam comment about the relationship of art and money.
Anything that drives the conversation about how to build a better world, I think, is a slow move in the right direction.
@@maevemonroe Thank you for the thoughtful response. I hope you’re right and that better days are on the horizon.
Remember, we are in a Fourth Turning. Si vis pacem parabellum.
The special got to me. Like really got to me.
Same. I made this little video essay because I couldn't -not- talk about it. (I originally typed "stalk" instead of "talk" which is kind of a funny spelling error under the circumstances.) 7 songs made it onto my most played playlist on Spotify.
Superr!!😊
Thank you! I loved this special so much I had to share my thoughts with the internet.
@@maevemonroe Okk
Plz show some support 😊😊
Tiny little monster
Vast and mighty monster
Lost and lonely monster
Breathe and sing with me and drink your tea
This is a great vid and all, but i think you're ignoring the bigger question: Is the room small, or is the dude big?
If I had revealed the truth about the room/dude conspiracy the video would have been taken down for revealing too much about the secrets of the universe. And then Jeffrey Bezos would have kidnapped my cat to teach me a lesson.