Bo Burnham: INSIDE - Problematic (REACTION)
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- Опубліковано 19 сер 2021
- Reacting to Problematic from Bo Burnham's Netflix special INSIDE.
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#boburnham #problematic #reaction
This song and cancel culture as a whole resonates with me because it is something I've seen happen multiple times to people I don't personally know, but also people I do know / have known. I do believe people need to face consequences for their wrongdoings if it's justified, but at the same time, the way that the majority of people bandwagon together and attack others can be pretty sickening.
Reaction starts at 0:15
While some acts should be called out and being politically correct is (or at least should be) just being a decent and considerate human being it's a fact that online indignation seems to be like a hobby for some and people mobbing together, acting like judge and executioner to ”cancel" someone over an inconsequential thing they've said or done ages ago can be ridiculous. It seems like those who should be cancelled can count on keeping some loyal fans while people who might have made a misjudgement when they were young can have their career or image unfairly damaged. 🤔
As an old Catholic myself, I get a "Catholic guilt" vibe out of this. I wonder if in his background he had a Catholic upbringing. It just has that kind of flavor. Among Catholics it's kind of a running joke, how we tend to internalize these things that we perceive as not right. It just has that ring to it. "First I gotta 'fess up." Talks about going to church as a kid, in a suit and tie. The line, "Father please forgive me, for I didn't realize what I did" And the symbolism of the cross,. The question, "Isn't anybody going to hold me accountable." the running plea for forgiveness. Yep, I can relate.
I don't get the cancel culture angle. He is not acting like he is afraid of being judged, being boycotted, being "cancelled" by society. He sounds like in his own conscience he regrets things, and wants forgiveness. It's tongue in cheek to a great degree, but I think that is where this sprang from.
"Catholic guilt is . ... One might feel guilty for having hurt someone, and also ashamed of oneself for having done so"
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_guilt
@@Samdark0 hmm, interesting opinion
4:44 Kinda, Inside is not all auto-biographical, it's observational. "Isn't anybody gonna hold me accountable?" it's about people not begging for forgiveness.. but begging for attention. That people are so desperate to be seen and get views that they'll parade their own offences. Those bad things they've done/said are now just currency they can trade for attention, not something they actually want to attone for.
Well, some celebrities need to be cancelled. Like outright transphobic & homophobic bigots.
So I feel like the idea of "Cancel Culture is silly and bad" is the surface level of this song. He's written a song where he's apologizing for small offenses no one would ever try to cancel him over because it's exaggerating the idea of cancelling people. But ALSO he's portraying a famous person giving a VERY satirical and performative apology that they clearly do not believe in order to make themselves look like a martyr and receive good guy points. The imagery of himself up against a cross made of light while begging for people to talk about him, saying "Bitch I'm trying to listen, shit I've been complicit. If I'm gonna catch up, first I gotta fess up." which is very clearly not genuine.
So personally I think this is both a jab at overreactive people as well as celebrities who make stupid shitty video apologies without doing any work to actually be a better person.
It's easy to read the "he's being crucified" part, but in the context of the song, no one is coming for him. He's putting himself on the cross for attention.
agreed
I feel like it could also be a bit of a portrayal of how celebrities basically have to constantly justify and apologize for their actions and words in order to avoid being cancelled, even if many of those things that they apologize for/explain are relatively trivial and aren't actually bad, just because cancel culture has reached such a toxic level. I mean, the fact that we're at a point where expressing a misguided not fully formed thought, even without any negative intention, can destroy someone's entire career and life means that if you're in the spotlight you have to tiptoe around your words for fear of implying the wrong thing, and as a result one of your only logical choices is to apologize for and explain things that you don't actually believe need explanation or an apology.
Lol, I just commented something similar on someone else's comment, whoops! Should have just sent them to this comment, you said it way more succinctly. I def took it as him playing a celebrity that is "crucifying himself" to play martyr.
@@peterlewis2178 I agree with this too. God this song is so great, look at all the different layers and viewpoints to it!
i was NOT expecting this reaction to start off with the sentence “he’s very wet.”
😂
Bo has mentioned in interviews that he is ashamed of his previous work. He can’t even listen to some of his skits because he’s grown as a person since then and doesn’t even want to defend it, because he recognizes what it is.
This song, in the context of the special, comes after he’s watching one of his old UA-cam clips, with this disappointed look on his face.
Part of this song is sort of making a jab at the idea of socially crucifying someone for past mistakes, while also essentially begging for people to do the same to him. He’s been waiting for it for years, and almost seems exhausted by the anticipation he’s been experiencing from not being also cancelled by his past, but still feels like it’s only fair.
I wonder if you’re right, the “isn’t anybody gonna hold me accountable??” seemed almost like he was waiting for it.
Where?
@@soul_official ua-cam.com/video/fOprClJIIR8/v-deo.html
Nice
@@crycrywolf Or begging for it. Not he's not being crucified.. he's placed himself on the cross. The song starts with "my bed is empty and i'm getting old", it's a content creator who's washed up with little left, begging for attention based on the controversial things they've said a long time ago. Maybe they can get that extra boost of views or try and become relevant again by bringing attention to their offences and of course finding god, which is what everyone has to do when they're sorry.
To me, this song is literally perfect. In interviews, he’s spoken about his regrets over some of his past content so he truly IS sorry for the things he’s done, but when he sings “and i’ve been totally awful, my closet is chock-full of stuff that is vaguely shitty. all of it was perfectly lawful, just not very thoughtful at all and just really shitty” it really drives home that not every mistake a person makes is earth-shatteringly huge and unforgivable. sometimes humans do things that are vaguely shitty and thoughtless, we apologize and show how we’ve changed, and we move on.
"I've been totally awful,
my closet is chockful of things
that are vaguely shitty..."
Probably the most relatable thing said in this special. No one's perfect lol
When I heard that line the first time I was thinking too literally because of the Aladdin costume bit. I appreciate you pointing this out again. Everyone has skeletons in the closet.
I like that the workouts he’s doing make it look like he is working really hard but he actually isn’t
I have been trying so hard to figure out the imagery and I'm SO MAD it was this easy lmao
I actually read the crucifixion very differently. In the context of the whole show I think the best interpretation is that he’s saying that even in this confession and expression of guilt, he’s setting himself up as a martyr. Like the crucifixion imagery is mocking the song, he’s accusing himself of playing the martyr and thereby trying weasel out of being held accountable for things that he really should be accountable for.
And the workout video vibe is I think kind of an 80’s trope but I think the deeper messaging there is that he’s engaging in a kind of penance. He’s punishing himself in an attempt to make himself better.
But ultimately those kinds of thoughts and gestures are about making himself feel better and don’t help anyone but himself. So the song is taking other people’s pain, potential or actual, and making it about him. What he’s seeking in the song is absolution for himself rather than justice for others. So the song is one layer of feeling guilty and needing to express that, and the imagery is accusing the singer of a kind of narcissism, as he says elsewhere in the special “why must you white people insist on viewing every sociopolitical conflict through the myopic lens of your own self-actualization?”
Very well put!
I think this is one of the more multifaceted songs off of Inside. Like, he's saying that people can say shit that legitimately hurts people, and should be held accountable for it, but there are degrees to it, which he gives the childhood costume as. Like, getting upset over a kid dressing up like that isn't really helping anybody. Had he darkened his skin? Still wouldn't say it'd deserving of having a career ruined or whatever, but it's a significant step up in terms of shittiness.
like I don't think you'd catch bo throwing around the f-word (not fuck, that's barely a cuss) as much today as he used to, which even back then was absolutely hilarious, and never made fun of gay people, but of homophobes, likewise the n-word (which he cleverly used in 'left brain, right brain' and sidestepped any criticism by having had a robot say it), but all of his stuff's still online, and nobody's cancelling him about it because you can tell from the context of his jokes that a) they're not racist or sexist or homophobic and b) neither is he.
And then there's the same interpretive depth when he talks about his apology, and how his saying "Oh I was just a kid (at 17) I didn't know any better)" and the singer is like well , you were 17, by that time you should have known better, and you can still apologize, meaningfully, for actions you took when you were just a stupid kid.
I think the song is less about cancel culture and more about the "being held accountable" usually amounts to a poorly worded apology and people forgetting somebody doing something shitty.
Anyway, best part of the song is "Bitch I'm trying to listen, Shit I've been complicit!"
I totally agree with this! He's so good about adding different layers of meaning to his songs, I love it!
I think another facet to the song is also: celebrities or people who bring up the "vaguely shitty" stuff they've done for no reason so they can make themselves look like they're better people for "knowing they did something wrong but I'm coming clean." Like, I mostly think it's what you said, but with the aspect of him showing himself being "crucified" I kind of took it for a bit of satire like the comments he made in earlier songs (like the joke about how "I'm a white guy and I'm going to solve the world because only I have the indescribable power of MY comedy!" in Comedy, and "why do you rich white's always have to see things through your own myopic lens of your own self actualization" in How the World Works). You know, kind of pointing out how people try to make a martyr of themselves or make themselves look good by saying sorry for something that no one was even really paying attention to or cared about. Cause 1) probably no one even really knew about the Aladdin costume thing (if that was really something he did) or if they did it was a non-issue because he did it when he was 17 so no one really cares and 2) like you said, anytime he used offensive words for the most part we knew he was joking and wasn't actually sexist, homophobic, or racist because of the context of the joke or song.
Like you said, the song to me does feel more about accountability and like holding people accountable for what they've done when oftentimes accountability "usually amounts to a poorly worded apology and people forgetting somebody doing something shitty." But I also think it's a satire on the attention seekers who try to crucify themselves by bringing up "vaguely shitty" stuff that no one cares about.
And yes, that is the best line!
"holding accountable" does not equal "cancelling"
The second verse was him saying "I shouldn't have tried to give excuses for why I did what I did in my apology. My actions are my own I won't explain them away"
yes, he spent most of the song apologizing for things he said IN THIS SONG, making the point that no matter how much apologizing you do, there will always be more.
While I was watching this in the theatre, I was thinking about why he would make the visuals accompanying this song overtly sexual (minus the religious imagery) - with showing his nipple and abs and such. I've seen a lot of people talking about how attractive he looks here and the like and not paying attention to the meaning of it. I had this thought that he probably made it that way because society is more likely to forgive the half-assed apologies from people who are attractive.
To me the sexualization gives me very 'punish me daddy' vibes lol. Like the lyrics 'my bed is empty and I'm getting cold, isn't anyone going to hold me accountable?' implying someone should come 'hold him accountable' and in the process warm his bed
@@vanessaking5787 A play on "hold me". He's seeking the warmth and comfort of being held...accountable.
I'm getting UA-cam makeup community drama vibes. Like Laura Lee's no-makeup makeup and fake crying apology, or J*'s apologies with full face of makeup and hair done (or the one with him lounging surrounded by wealth). They're incredibly vain apologies that attempt to meet the bare minimum of an apology while also being an ad for their makeup channels.
I think a big part of this song is the observation that he's doing all of this to himself. The things he did? He did those things, nobody forced him to. The insincere apology? Also all him. The crucifixion? Also him. Nobody's coming for him. Cancel culture isn't real. It's all performative. People who whine about cancel culture or give fake apologies and then get upset when people see through it are just digging their own grave, so to speak. Twitter mobs are real, and sometimes they're right and sometimes they're wrong but they don't control public opinion, and if you've made some mistakes, simply acknowledging how they were harmful, apologizing to those harmed, and committing to real change is pretty much all you need to do, and we've seen that with James Gunn, Dan Harmon, etc.. They got essentially "un-canceled", or their supposed cancelations didn't stick, because it's clear that they understand why what they did was shitty and should not be repeated, and there's been no sign of them repeating the behavior. They didn't make some half-assed fake apology or whine about cancel culture, and they came out with their careers and overall public favor intact.
I don't think this song is about cancel culture, but about the difference between taking accountability to others and playing martyr for attention.
Also I think he's making fun of his own anxiety a bit.
"Cancel culture isn't real"
"Twitter mobs are real"
What's cancel culture then?
@@Turalcar Alright, prepare for a wall of text.
"Cancel culture" is the myth that there is no difference between [any suggestion that a person should be held responsible for their behavior toward others], [cyberbullying] and [all-powerful twitter mobs against which public figures are utterly helpless, and which - regardless of whether accusations are true - irreversibly end careers] (the latter of which is not real...again, twitter mobs are real, but they don't have anywhere near that level of power).
People complain about cancel culture instead of cyberbullying, specifically because they want to paint a picture where accountability as a concept is vilified as part of a systemic problem, instead of dealing with the actual problem which is that some people weaponize rhetoric about accountability and responsibility and apply them in cyberbullying. That's not a non-issue, but it's not to be confused with actually holding people responsible and legitimately calling people out when they have something to apologize for and correct. Those are very different things.
Dan Harmon was "canceled" for legitimate grievances. He apologized sincerely to the person he had treated unfairly, acknowledging what he had done and why it was unfair and asked what he could do. They talked it out. He was forgiven. He's fine, his career is fine.
James Gunn was "canceled" for old bad jokes he had already apologized for. He lost his job because Disney was trying to avoid a shitstorm, but he immediately got a new one and then got his old job back when it turned out the Twitter mob had no influence on public opinion.
Cancel culture isn't real. Accountability is real, but real apologies and commitment to change work. Twitter mobs are real but they're ultimately just people having opinions and expressing them online, and sometimes they're right and sometimes they're wrong and sometimes it's somewhere in-between. That happens. It's not cancel culture.
The problem is cyberbullying, and the difference is that the "solution" to "cancel culture" is getting rid of freedom of speech (because cancel culture is a bogeyman that does nothing except frame freedom of speech as bad), while the solution to cyberbullying is educating people and maybe requesting that social media platforms like Twitter and UA-cam do a better job of banning people for abuse when cyberbullying occurs.
I hope that helps clarify the distinction.
@@Swenglish I'm a mathematician so just stricter with words :).
"Cancel culture" exists - it's all the phenomena you described (which is too broad and deliberately confusing).
So does anti-white racism but you have to be very suspicious of people highlighting either.
@@Turalcar I would disagree. The phenomena I described (as existing) exist, but they don't match the myth that people refer to as cancel culture. It's like...Vlad III Dracula existed but vampires don't. Unidentified flying objects exist but it would be a leap to call them alien spaceships. There are tons of conspiracy theories that have some bits of truth to them, but that doesn't make their conclusions accurate. Some of the attributes of what people may refer to as cancel culture exist, but that doesn't make cancel culture real, at least not in the sense people tend to mean (which is ultimately how words work; their usage defines them).
@@Swenglish I see.
So it's not "phenomena" (some of which exist, and some are good, actually), it's "a system of phenomena" (which doesn't exist because it's not at all systematic).
Love all of the comments. This song seems like it is more than just cancel culture and I appreciate everyone sharing their different perspectives! When are you all going to start your own reaction channels so I can learn more from you!?
Heh, i haven't seen all your reactions yet, but a certain individual says something similar in his special.
😂 cute
Yeah...
Reading 8:50 as a show of support instead of what it is - mockery of self-proclaimed martyrs - I almost facepalmed glasses off my face
I'm surprised jou didn't pin this comment
I really appreciate you 🤗
I got goosebumps during this song too! The crucifixion shot feels like it's poking fun at performative apologies, how overblown and hyperbolic they can be, and that they're more geared towards getting attention than actually being sorry or wanting to be better. It's not just a cross, it's a *spotlight* in the shape of a cross. And he looks ecstatic to be on it, the body language and expression on his face look like rapture to me. That looks like a person self-flagellating for the "evil" they've done, and *enjoying* it, getting high on the attention and adulation of a lot of performers get for this kind of "apology".
Bo saying "Im Really fucking sorry" gives me chills everytime!!
I love the line “everything was perfectly lawful, just not very thoughtful”. All of us will at some point do or say things that might be considered shitty, but a lot of the time it’s not something that is worth cancelling someone for. People are allowed to be offended by things they don’t agree with, but these days it’s so hard for people to accept others who think differently to them. I’ve probably said a bunch of sexist and racist stuff in my life that I have in no way meant as sexist or racist. I feel like intent has so much importance when it comes to those things.
Just the imagery alone of Bo crucifying himself is fantastic 10/10 😂
Bo's work is designed for multiple interpretations, but this is how it affected me: I'm 37 and I had an "edgy" sense of humor when I was younger. I absolutely never had bigoted beliefs but I definitely did say a lot of things that were really insensitive. I had a sheltered childhood and didn't realize my jokes perpetuated toxic ideas. Now that I've been more educated I feel terrible about saying shitty things even though I didn't mean for them to be hurtful. I interpret at least one thread of the song to be about feeling bad about your past ignorance, especially when intellectually you support social justice.
I wish more people were like you.
It's not about being "Canceled" It's asking for ACOUNTABILITY acknowledging what you did and that it was wrong and not making excuses then being better is what the song is about.
You were smart to start this channel man you’re really good picking apart bo’s songs
Hot Chris and cute Bo make a great combo! 😉
yes, the fake apologies to keep up appearances and just crucifing themselves to try to keep their audiences. like "apologizing" in the first verse (first apology video),
then apologizing for like... not really meaning the first verse (second apology video, apologizing for not meaning the first apology),
and then the like third verse/breakdown he's like "aw fuck wait, no people caught me, this is serious" and crucifying himself to hopefully win people back (third apology video being like "oops! i've been slipping! and OOPS Y'all Actually Caught Me Slipping! I'm sorry! I'm not gonna slip again, but also i stand by everything i've ever done"),
and then the last lines are like him actually being like "oh wait... okay yeah, no i actually really fucked things up and added to problems by being complicit. i'm gonna try to do better" (the rare fourth apology where the person is like "okay actually fuck past me, i'm gonna actually try to better myself now")
THIS
Bo has talked about disliking some of his own past work, I believe the Anne Frank song being one of them, particularly because it seems hurtful or cruel. My personal interpretation is that this song reflects the culture he grew up in, which was overly white and where he wouldn't hear from people who might be hurt by his insensitivity. And now, as he has matured, he feels guilty about the Family Guy-esque material that he produced early in his career.
There is also some elements of Madonna's "Like a Prayer" where there's some highly sexualized religious imagery.
Is anyone "hurt" by insensitivity? Can't people just like, move on if they hear something they don't like. Like, if hearing someone tell a joke you don't like makes you collapse into a puddle of sobs and depression, perhaps you have other, bigger issues to deal with... Personally, I don't feel it's my job to cater to other people's irrational feelings. I don't go out of my way to upset people, but you're responsible for how you react to things. Offense is always taken, not given.
I think the “workout” song vibe was totally intentional. The lyrics are about him calling himself out, and a lot of folks these day call it “putting in the work”, working on yourself to be a better version. So to me that’s what I saw in the style of this video, I’m sure it’s hard for him to look back on some of his old stuff that he would’ve done differently or not at all, so he’s showing the physical metaphor of him putting in the mental/personal work :)
7:05 where he says I'm going to go home and burn it, or not burn it..Is burning it bad? What should I do with it..... Is he talking about just not being able to win in the public's eye? If he burns it, he admits knowing it was wrong and get criticized for it, but if he doesn't burn it, he gets called out for not being honest .... Seems like you just can't win whatever you do lol - Also I think it is major satire on the fact that people are trying to cancel people for choices they made as young kids ... This song has so many layers. He's being ironic and also honest about his past. My ears smiled at the wonderful autotuned harmonies at 8:53
I was thinking about that afterwards. You really can't please everyone these days. You could craft a sincere apology and take steps to try to change in whatever way you have to, but at the end of the day, there will always be people who won't think it's good enough.
Wow, it's really possible to be this illiterate huh?
I really appreciate the post video reaction and commentary you offer. This is what makes you one of the better reaction channels I’ve come across. Excited to see your channel grow
gotta love the 2nd verse apologizing for the 1st verse's apology not being good enough
lol especially given that it actually happens a lot...
This song does make me think of performative celebrity apologies mostly. But the more 'real' thing it reminded me of is conversations I've had with friends who were extreme 4chan edgelord types in the teens/early twenties. There's often this undercurrent of pain there, that for a while they were just out there making the world a worse place in these low key shitty ways for their own entertainment. And the problem is there's not really any specific apology or penance to be made, and the people around you probably aren't going to punish you for that stuff because they know that you're basically a decent person who just needed a bit of a wakeup call about empathy when they were younger. So you just have to sit with this guilt that you can never entirely shake and which feels really self-centred, to the point that you almost wish someone would cancel you because at least that would give you somewhere to direct the regret.
The Aladdin thing on the other hand feels like such classic performative deflection - the image of someone who has such edgy stuff he could be invoking, instead fixating on dressing up as (assuming we're talking about Disney Aladdin here) a character written, drawn, directed and voiced by a bunch of white dudes and treating it like genuine cultural appropriation (with the whole burning the costume thing).
To me, the song is actually pro "cancel-culture" but Bo wants it applied to everyone equally, including himself. If people are problematic, they should be held accountable.
"My actions are my own I won't explain them away". This line feels to me like he is taking a slight shot at people who have been held accountable (or "cancelled" for lack of a better term) for their actions, who feel hard done to when they put out a basic apology and don't get immediate forgiveness.
I totally agree. I think back on his art is dead song “feel free to correct me”. He’s sad some totally problematic stuff as a kid, and he’s always felt undeserving of the attention, and in the midst of the cancel culture or calling people out for even stuff in the last, he’s mostly been left out and he’s probably frustrated as to why.. I bet he thinks why do I deserve a free pass when everyone’s getting called out? He wants to grow, but he’s having to put the work in himself because apparently no one will push or challenge him, and he’s definitely expressed not wanting to be worshipped like that as an entertainer. He wants feedback and to be corrected. All performers need a critique to be their best, not just endless loving fans no matter what you do.. seems that’s a big part of his stress about being a performer on such a high level
Sorry for the typos
Absolutely. He’s not lampooning cancel culture he’s totally agreeing with it. He’s done shitty stuff, is sorry and is careful to say you can’t hide behind youth as a reason for shitty behaviour.
Always glad to see your take on these introspective pieces
this is my favorite Bo song.
I think he’s acknowledging that it’s unfair that he hasn’t been cancelled. He’s saying he should be held accountable and it’s weird that he has t been, not necessarily that he WANTS to be cancelled. Also, way more important than the “Aladdin” thing, the shot right after this in the special is him watching one of his offensive videos from when he was a kid and having this look of total disdain. I think that’s more so what he’s referring to.
When he first busts out that “and I’m really fuckin SORRY!” I get goosebumps too. It kinda comes outta nowhere and really HITS you
when i first saw this song in the special, i interpreted this as him in part saying sorry for the songs hes publicly said he was embarassed about writing as a kid, but he was also making a point on cancel culture and people being cancelling others/ celebs saving face. hes such a beautiful artist.
Bo is one of the very few “celebrities” who apologizes for what he did in the past and actually improves from it. The problem its not “cancel culture” in on itself canceling everybody for racist stuff they said 11 years ago because “times were different” (some racist stuff people have said and done 11, 20 years ago were known to be bad then and they are still bad now so that can’t be always used as an excuse). The problem is when that person said that 11 years ago but you can tell from shit they have said recently that they haven’t changed or even made the attempt to change and when they are confronted with it its cancel culture’s fault. I do agree that getting together to harass and insult that person won’t fix anything. We should educate that person, up to a point because they are grown ass adults, and try to show them how their actions/words were harmful.
I mean, it’s ironic how “pro cancel culture” he has been in the past considering there’s a pretty aggressive “bo is racist” campaign against him right now because of his (obviously satirical but not very sensitive) work as a kid.
I felt like this song was less about cancel culture and more about the experience of growing up in a culture that is itself growing more aware. Realizing some of the things you did as a kid might have been problematic and learning to be better as a young adult, and then years later realizing that even then he had just made excuses. Seemed like this was a reference to growing being a continual process. If you watch some of his songs from 10 years ago, some of it was.. pretty questionable. He seems to be acutely aware of it.
When he looks into his closet full of all his old stuff, it hits home how much he might have grown because he sees how problematic he used to be. I guess this is all about the collective guilt some people might feel as they get through how they were brought up vs who they decided to be later in life.
yeah definitely!
Dude I even looked forward to anf waited for this today! Cant believe I enjoy watching a stranger reacting to stuff. Anyways good job man. Really like your takes on everything.
I think the workout theme is him getting ready for battle.
I always hated the reaction video trend, until Inside came out and my husband didn't care to watch with me lol. Now I'm obsessed with watching others react to it
@@cherielopez4867 It's the kind of thing that at first seems cringey and fake, but once you give it a shot you realize that it's really just a way of sharing in the experience of something you love when you're unable to find anyone (or any more people) in your personal life to share it with. For about a year reactions were a guilty pleasure for me, and I hardcore judged myself for watching them, but I've finally embraced their value now.
I fucking love the ending to Problematic. It's by far my favorite part of the song
Rightly or wrongly a small part of me feels like this song is kinda saying that people will overlook and ingore any faults of someone they like while also looking and even hunting for literally anything on people they don't.
Ur probably one of the best reaction channels ive seen. U listen to ehat is actually being said instead of just laughing
I think the underlying message of the song is that celebrities/influencers should own up to their mistakes unprompted and, failing that, should be held accountable ("Isn't anybody gonna hold me accountable?"). It builds on the themes he brought up in 'Comedy' and 'How the World Works' about privileged people using their influence for good/evil. Even relatively innocuous things, like Halloween costumes contribute to a society that normalises injustice (i.e. racism, sexism, homophobia), like you said, and people in the public eye like Bo can have a disproportionate impact when they promote "offensive shit" because of their audience, even if it's meant as a joke. Hence why excusing shitty behaviour as "jokes" or "banter" and complaining about cancel culture and people being "too sensitive" is unacceptable. "Jokes" can have real, harmful impact and Bo knows it. I think he is satirising fake apologies but he's sincere in his regret. OTOH you could also argue that writing a comedy song about apologising for past behaviour breaks down barriers and encourages other celebrities to sincerely self-reflect and take responsibility for their actions too, which is a good thing.
It’s so fascinating seeing people laugh the whole song and then it fades once they get to the cross part
It’s a great thought piece like all of them but I always lol at the line “ I’ve done a lot of growth since I started singing this song” 😂
In Art Is Dead he talks about how certain people in the spotlight are rewarded for never maturing (especially comedians) and he explicitly says not to look up to him. If you take in the context of some of his other work it makes it clear that he doesn't think he should be above criticism.
He's also literally saying "hold me accountable" that's not the same thing as being cancelled. 🙄 He's literally coming clean on his own volition
I also feel the song is a commantary on people screwing up for maybe minor things but makes it into a big deal about themselves instead. People enjoy being in the center of attention to the extent that being cancelled isn't that bad, its more a gateway to more success. Like even though hes singing how sorry he is he just self-absorbing.
The video aesthetic could be a play on exercise vs exorcise. The demon is exercising as he’s exorcising his demons.
I always interpreted the second verse as an apology for his apology. We it time and time again on the internet where the mob will attack and criticize the apology video almost as if any apology wouldn't have been enough no matter how good it was
The world is so sensitive that i can't make fun of myself without offending somone
i know a lot of people like to interpret this as him apologizing for his past...and in a way it is, but he actually spends more time in the song apologizing for things that he's said in this very song...when he does that whole bit about regretting the previous verse where he didn't take responsibility etc... he's essentially saying that there is no end to apologizing, because there are even things in the apologies that will need to be apologized for. It's a never ending game basically.
This song is such a wild blend of serious and sarcastic
Awesome work as always, man!
Liking the channel man.
You’ll go far, you have actual insight and opinions.
Good luck!
There's a scene before the next song that adds some context you wouldn't get otherwise, so I think you should watch it along with the song.
Good to know! I watch the scenes in between each song after I react to them so I have that context. I just may not comment on them because I’m always too focused on the song itself haha
Yo, is this your only channel?? If you do make any other content I would love to see it, you seem like a pretty funny guy HAHA if not you should definitely consider making more stuff after you finish up with Inside , maybe like gameplays if you play videogames, or even just more reactions to stuff. I'd definitely stay tuned in 👍
The SORRY's always give me goose bumps. I could listen to that 30 secs on loop for hours.
There's so much religious imagery and I'm still trying to figure out how it relates with the really sexualised, 80's workout vibe of the rest of the song. With him kneeling with his hands like he's praying and the light above him like God's looking down on him or something, and saying "Father, I'm sorry", and with the crucifixion imagery and even when he sings "Sorry" at the end it kind of sounds like a church choir all saying sorry. Don't really know how to interpret it (I'll leave that to someone smarter than me 😂), I just thought it was pretty cool how he mixed them together.
Btw, great video! Your post-video commentary is always really interesting to watch.
I think it's a work out video because he's working on himself, and he chose a vibe that went with it afterwards
I think that when he talks about things he's done in the past, he's referring to his early music videos. He often said offensive stuff on those
Definitely good to at least watch the songs in order (and the small scenes between are also important). The emotional payoff at the end is worth it.
I’m binging all of these now because it’s sparked my insane love for “Inside.”
This song is really, really interesting. One of his most multi-faceted, satirical, irony-within-irony-meta-type moments. The first verse, he mentions his childhood explaining his comfort zone for jokes which were often at the expense of others. It was accepted by his community which was sheltered as can be, and then he launched to fame with his catalog known to be “provocative.” When one gets famous for something, no one really forgets the initial launch to fame. Bo’s is very obviously problematic.
The constant ask of “isn’t anybody gonna hold me accountable?” and posing as a sexy christ figure is satire. Christ Bo is in a strong position of power as an attractive white guy, the number one celebrity group that gets the most freebies. People in Bo’s position, other famous celebs, often rely on looks and WAIT for the callout. They WAIT for their audience to take notice of their past. When they fess up, they’ll bring up excuses like the first verse with his childhood before apologizing. It’s frustrating because think of when you want someone to say sorry; you don’t care about how they got there and you especially don’t want to hear that first. You want remorse immediately.
The second verse acknowledges this, but it comes off as insincere because he’s… apologizing for an apology. This is when the world is like “good god let’s move on,” but the very loud few who take offense to the initial actions critique the apology. Nothing is ever perfect and no one can take things as they are nowadays. And this is where your point of cancel culture really comes in-the fact Bo has to apologize for his apology feels like beating a dead horse. We can’t forgive and forget anymore, the kind of stuff Bo wrote as a teen/early twenties would be suicide in today’s culture. The internet makes it inescapable. There’s some connections here between “That Funny Feeling” and this general sentiment… The backlash to the backlash / to the thing that’s just begun.
I think the bridge is where Bo himself is most sincere. He can’t let go of the christ visual here because it ruins the flow, but the lyrics sound more like he himself is apologizing. An honest remark of how his actions were thoughtless and just shitty. There isn’t an excuse, he’s calling it what it is. And it’s very Bo-like to use the words “complicit” which makes me personally feel like it’s his moment in the song to truly say sorry. Same with the voluntary mention of his Aladdin costume. He’s trying to display humility while satirizing the people who a) just make an apology to get the PR problem over with (visuals are key with this part, and anytime he’s asking for a 3rd party) b) apologize for the apology because the cycle never ends c) actually say sorry, like he tries to, at the end.
Very long response, my bad, I just think this song is so SO accurate. I hate that we can’t let people change and become better without constantly reminding them of mistakes and refusing chances. We don’t make social progress if the constant shut down keeps continuing. However, fake apologies also suck and they so often come from massive platforms.
Your take is always so interesting
I feel people said lots of words in the past that we have since learned are hurtful.... we try to clean up this kind of thing. This has been touched on in your review.
I only now notice that some lines have the same melody as 'the future' from the outtakes.
You got me! I’m officially a subscriber 😁
That means a lot! Thank you.
8:50 . ME too brother ME TOOOOOOOO
Great reaction. New subscriber.
I would definitely say your habits are exactly what defines you as a person
My understanding is that the song is about redemption through suffering. This is shown initially with Bo beginning the song as a workout video (i.e., playing on the idea of "no pain, no gain") as well as Christian iconography (i.e., Christ redeeming mankind by dying on the cross; kneeling and praying; penance). His self-reflection/self-consciousness is what is leading him to believe he has historically done something wrong. For instance, he notes he wrote offensive shit (e.g., his "my whole family thinks I'm gay" song) as well as dressing up as Aladdin. Yet nobody is holding him accountable (i.e., they're not trying to cancel him) which leaves him unable to be redeemed. It seems actually in favour of what you called "cancel culture" but what I call a morally accountable culture. The song proposes that without accountability, there is no means for redemption. He has not experienced any pain for his past misdeeds. In the absence of cancel culture, wrongdoers can only self-reflect on their transgressions without ever suffering others judgement. Bo has said elsewhere, I can't remember exactly where, that self-consciousness never absolves anyone for anything.
I love your reactions because you understand that sometimes what Bo sings IS funny and other times, it’s not.
From statements outside of his specials, Bo seems to be left leaning, but doesn't appear to be an ideologue or anything extreme. In the song, he is both making fun of, and being serious (as usual) about how cancel culture makes him feel, and how ridiculous it's getting. Aladdin is a cartoon character from his youth, of course he shouldn't feel bad for dressing up like a disney character for Halloween.
Then it gets more absurd, because stops apologizing for things he did 20 years ago, and starts apologizing for things he said 20 seconds ago. This hints at the impossibility to stay ahead of cancel culture.
Then the imagery could simply be a metaphor like, "he's working really hard on being a better person" and of course the 80's lets-get-physical music tends fits it perfectly.
I don't think Bo 'wants' to be held accountable. He just aware of how pervasive that culture is, and he has hundreds of videos joking about and saying all of the things that are highly taboo these days, regardless of context.
I feel like the general mood of the whole special was that the internet was a huge mistake. I couldn't agree more.
A song for those who liked the "I'm really f*cking sorry" part 8:45. The same vibes:
ua-cam.com/video/ftJ50snuJSQ/v-deo.html
The great thing about this song imo is that it cuts both ways. Cancelling as a system has elements that are false and hypocritical on both sides. There’s a definite sense that celebrities use apologies in a ingenuous, performative self-indulgent way. A self improvement is masturbation element that is a theme of the special, but at the same time it seems clear to me that the way people act and interact on social media is mob like blind, blunt and masturbatory as well. I think the main idea of the song is the dysfunction of social media to platform meaningful and genuine interactions.
I do believe that it's a good thing that we're starting not to tolerate anything that's hateful but cancel culture is far too dramatic. People will obviously make mistakes - whether it's out of ignorance or a product of their environment. And with social media, these periods of our lives are recorded. So when it gets dug up later, we're painted as though we're still that person, which is ridiculous because obviously people change. We learn from our mistakes and the mistakes of others but we NEED that chance to progress and be introspective about our behaviour and beliefs.
Cancel culture doesn't allow that, once the masses find you to be a target, any chance of growth or reconciliation is gone. It's the wrong way to go about holding people accountable. If they truly are hateful or bigoted or double down on their stances, fair enough, maybe they deserve to be put in the hot seat - but trial by social media creates far too much collateral damage to be effective in shaping people's views.
Check your priviledge. -Alucard.
I feel like the song is being misunderstood, it's not about anxiety over cancel culture, it's just about guilt, since now that he's more politically conscious he realises that a lot of what he did in the past is wrong and he's just consumed by it to the point where the existential angst is making him want to be punished, which is where cancel culture comes in, he is begging to be cancelled to pay for his perceived sins and he's either afraid of true punishment and therefore ends up talking about minor stuff like the Aladdin costume thing or so consumed by the guilt that he ends up paying too much attention to even minor actions.
Given how Bo's old humour used to be I'm inclining more towards the first one, but considering that the whole special is about existential angst and there's a lot of political commentary this seems to make more sense than him being anxious over cancel culture, because if people wanted to cancel Bo they'd already done it, all his old material is out there easily accessible with genuinely problematic views rather than the Aladdin costume thing he talks about.
But anyways that's my opinion.
Dude at one point of his specials he says “if your offended by this than I’m sorry immediately, right away”. You can’t cancel someone who has more to say than something to lose.👍🇨🇦
First of all …. This song is a bo burnham thirst trap and we all know it 😂
12:26 preach
I think it's hilarious that you took this very sarcastic song super literally, then accidentally stumbled upon the point when giving your opinion lol
Bigotry never was ok to voice; we just have a wider swath of human beings with a platform to educate and criticize now. So yes we all learn better and then do better. But it’s not up to me to say how much it hurts when I step on your foot…
You're post is offensive to many marginalized people. It's deeply upsetting and it's not up to you to tell others how much it should hurt. Educate yourself and do better.
This was great! Will "That Funny Feeling" be next???
I’m doing them in order so I think it’s still a bit before I get to that one.
I can't wait for that one
Next is 30, which should be interesting as well
@@ChrisReactsToThings Okie Doki!
I do feel like you missed the point. I took it as tongue and cheek on the critisism that he is only saying he is sorry to make him self a Martyr
I can't fully figure this song out. Bo's definitely discussed not liking some of his past work and not standing by it etc., and supporting some degree of people being called out, but in this song he/the protagonist is himself asking to be held accountable and offering up ridiculous examples--I don't think a teenage costume from over a decade ago is all that important in the grand scheme of things lol--for people to hold him accountable for. And at the end, on the cross, he looks like he's getting off haha. So is it a commentary on people (possibly rich possibly white people like those criticized earlier in How the World Works?) yet again making other peoples' struggles about them? Like "look at me putting myself up on this cross apologizing for all my wrongs, I'm so woke and look at what a good person I am now" kind of thing? While not really understanding the actual issues or causes of offence, just looking to score points and gain attention with the apology, if that makes sense?
Either way, def one of my favourite songs from Inside!
I feel like it’s both, he regrets some of his previous work so there’s a level of sincerity but on the other hand it’s a very tongue in cheek joke about those putting themselves on a pedestal to make themselves seem better by placing their “sins” on the table for everyone to see… but those problems are so immature and irrelevant
Great songs.
great!
The one critique. He said when he dressed up as Aladdin he was 17, not a little kid. Still not really what I would consider a cancellable offense though
I love bo burnham and I would never never want him to be canceled but he has written songs that SOME who didn’t understand his humor or introspection a might take offense to like “ kill yourself” or “whore”
also instead of blurring, you could put text over the video and try that
Might give it a try!
I personally don´t support cancel culture,attack a person because he or she wrote a tweet 8 years ago it´s something dumb,people change,we are changing all the time in small actions indeed,you can´t judge someone because of that,i think is unfair.Now,that being said,you are right when you say that some people deserve being punished socially,some actions are really bad and awful,some words and thoughts are dangerous and extremely nocive and cruel,and those people still think and act in the same horrendous ways through the years,they don´t changea,and there are levels in this topic,i think some people is completely lost and they deserve the criticism from the society
I thought it was more about digging at how people seek praise and virtue through confessing their modern cancel culture sins.
I think there's also an idea here that talks about people who use being cancelled as a way to get more attention to themselves for more pr, and tying that to the idea of Christian guilt in general (that you have to sin, to be forgiven, and people get attached to the pride of having "improved"). Lots of Bo's work talks about his own problems with wanting attention, and I think that's a part of this. That's why he says he feels alone and wants to be held accountable. It's not about being canceled and ended. Its about being seen as being contrite. That's mentioned in the sock puppet bit as well, white people using being better as way to get people to pay attention to them. The second part isn't just him explaining the first part. IT's him calling the first part of the song just as problematic as the thing he did in the past. He's double layering the joke, since all the stuff he says he did is really tame.
I don't feel like he "wants to be cancelled", but more wants people to not give him (or any other celebrity) a pass for past shittiness, regardless of how shitty, just because they're not like that now.
Sure, he doesn't deserve to be cancelled for dressing as Aladin, or his Helen Keller song. But he probably doesn't get many people even saying "Hey man that was kinda shitty" now, because he's grown so much. Sounds like he carries a lot of guilt over it, and is having cognitive dissonance with half of him saying "but I'm not like that anymore, I'm better than that!" And the other half going "but you still did it. If you hit someone and then say sorry, you still hit them" kind of thing.
Edit: Also, the video being like a workout video is probably a metaphor for "working on himself". The video being working on his body, the song being working on bettering himself as a person.
"it feels like he wants to get cancelled"
He's doing what he accused himself of earlier in the unpaid intern reaction bit. In that, first he calls himself pretentious but then when he's reacting to his reaction he says "here I'm calling myself pretentious, it's a defense mechanism, I'm so worried that that criticism will be levied against me that I levy it against myself, and I think 'oh if I'm self-aware about being a douchebag it somehow makes me less of a douchebag', but it doesn't, self-awareness doesn't absolve anyone of anything."
Like Bo, there's layers and shades of gray with everything he does. I think, on some level, he thinks cancel culture is pretty silly. Which is why the things he's "cancelling himself" for are amusing anecdotes (Aladdin costume). But at the same time I think he truly is insecure and has some guilt about things like the lack of diversity in his upbringing and how ignorant/insensitive the younger version of himself was.
Only thing to add is I personally view Bo putting himself on a cross to showcase the types of things he’s still comfortable making fun of. Maybe he won’t say the f-word anymore or make race jokes, but he’s fine making fun of religion and large institutions! I do feel like the apology at the end is genuine, but most of the song is very satirical. It’s one of my favorites!
He says he's "really fucking sorry" right in this song haha.
@@KALEIGHdoscope not that f-word…
There was an interview where Bo says "I will take the clunky social over correction of college kids over bigotry, any day of the week if that's the answer. Are 19 and 20 year old kids when they're reaching for their own values gonna know how to articulate themselves perfectly? or slightly overreach sometimes? sure. But against the entire weight of history that they're pushing against... I probably sympathise with the former, right?"
So it's interesting to see the topic of cancel culture/political correctness, which IS often created due to people being too enthusiastic about trying to sort out what is right. I agree that it can definitely go too far - I don't believe that if one person does one thing bad then they should immediately be cancelled and given no chance to learn from their mistakes (literally no one is perfect - everyone has many thing things they wish they hadn't done) but I also agree that I'd prefer the clunky over correction of people more than people who use PC or Cancel Culture as slurs/insults.
Interestingly, When Inside came out, I saw a person trying to call Bo anti-semetic and one of their arguments was that in Bezos I he tells Bezos to "drink their blood" which is a reference to jewish people being vampires, and even though Bezos isn't Jewish, the fact that he's rich and therefore people might assume he's jewish is enough that it's an anti-semetic line. Like. Some people reach so far.
I didn't know that. I just heard that Vampires were a metaphor for rich people.
Bo definitely feels bad about his early years songs but it's also a song that points out how crazy cancel culture is. I would love to know how he truly feels about it.
The thing is. Bo Burnham never claimed he was being cancelled or used the phrase cancel culture or complained about wokeness before. I get that he purposefully leaves what he's making fun of ambiguous so everyone can enjoy it but it's not one of those "the wokes are oppressing me" songs
There are several interviews where he addresses his problematic early material. Bo is very clear that he does want to be held accountable and given the chance to learn from his mistakes. What we need is accountability culture. Responses should be proportional to the offense. E.g. JK Rowling's original problematic tweet got called put with what was almost a death threat. It goes to two wrongs don't make a right. We want everyone to learn from their mistakes and commit to changing their behavior. But when we go to the Me Too movement and are talking about actual crimes committed by adults, especially against children, justice should include the lives of the guilty being fundamentally changed as a consequence. The lives of their victims definitely were. Cough. Bill Cosby. Cough.
I think this song as about the public self flagellation of white liberal guilt as a means to be perceived as “one of the good ones”
Do we agree that holding people accountable isn‘t canceling them?