A little thing I’ve noticed about Funny Feeling is that it fades out. Instead of coming to a conclusion like every other song in the special, Funny Feeling continuously sings the outro with the music slowly fading. Never ending, like how the feeling in the end never really ends, just being less apparent and fading from your mind until something bring it back up again.
This could be so far off, but personally I think the “Deadpool’s self awareness” line (when you consider the rest of the lyrics) is more-so about the fact that Deadpool’s self awareness is supposed to come off as rebellious and cool, almost like a middle finger to super hero movies, while simultaneously just being a super hero movie made by an industry giant for more money
Its "pointless" for him to break the 4th wall because his is still a written character. Bob Ivers face = actor who quit and worked for news. Steve Aoki = inherited massive restaurant business, but became famous from different/own means.
Maybe. My impression was more that it's tied to the line "quiet comprehension of the ending of it all" The whole special seems to be a post mortem on society
There's several themes running through the lyrics. One of them, which I think is the main theme in this song, is that we are trapped in a failing society and there's no way out. That's what the funny feeling is - everything about society speaks to this truth, and you feel that it's true, but it's hard to put into words exactly. What you've picked out is related to "in honour of the revolution, it's half off at The Gap". Attempts to break out of the system or change things is absorbed by the system and played back to us, and all meaning is sucked out of it. Even "the revolution" which invokes the idea of a socialist revolution to overthrow capitalism is absorbed by consumer culture - in honour of the revolution, it's half off at the gap! Hanging over all of this is the threat of catastrophic climate change, which is no longer a hypothetical, but inevitable. The world at your fingertips, the ocean at your door. We all know it's coming. We all know the state of society we're in right now is going to come apart under the weight of climate change. But we don't talk about it, but we quietly comprehend the ending of it all is coming. 20,000 years of human civilization, only 7 more to go. This can drive you out of your mind. Total disassociation, fully out your mind. I really like the "female colonel sanders, easy answers, civil war" lyric. This is a reference to progressive critiques of current culture, in particular diversity and representation in media. The problem of "the patriarchy" and male privilege and women's liberation is reduced to, by the capitalist system, a gender swap for colonel sanders. It does nothing to actually effect the problem, it's an easy answer that makes it look like something is being done, and it feeds into the culture war in America, which is slowly building to a second US civil war.
This song was my favorite too. I was impressed by the way Bo uses visual elements throughout the special. He used technology to artifically create an outdoor scene inside his room to play guitar, an analog instrument, for this song about disassociation. For me, it felt beautifully heartbreaking. Bo's special may be the best thing I've watched all year, and I have watched a lot of shit. I don't mean stuff, I mean garbage. So much was just single serve entertainment that I forgot about entirely. It is rare to watch something so thought provoking and emotionally impactful. Great analysis, I would watch a full length commentary if you made it.
Wasn't Bo's react portion placed into the special to show how we have, were going to, and are over analyzing his art. And how he wants it to stop... because its "pointless" - that funny feeling
I don't think he put reactions on blast. He was showcasing the whole internet, the whole of being locked in and only communicating through screens... Whether it's scrolling through other people's Instagrams, facetiming your family, sexting, watching reaction videos, watching twitch streams, or everything else... Anything and everything all of the time. He's not mocking reaction videos, he just appreciates that reaction videos make up part of the tapestry of the internet's content, so uses that format to make his skit.
I think you nailed most of the line by line break downs, my own interpretation is definitely that the overall theme is that the funny feeling is specifically existential dread and that the meaning of that last line before the repeating chorus is comprehending that we're basically on an apocalyptic trajectory. Mainly because I can't really make sense of what is meant by the overdue in the outro in either of the other contexts, in the context of humans going extinct the whole song makes sense to me, it's all a juxtaposition between the not so subtle allusions to the existential threats we face (climate change, wars, pandemics) and the frivolous sorts of Huxleyan distractions that we focus our time and energy on (meditation apps, twitter feuds, Logan Paul) that is building towards that last line. Overdue because not only are we headed towards extinction but given our priorities and general behavior for the 20,000 or so since our species wondered out of Africa, we basically deserve it and it's a long time coming. Also just the word comprehending leads me to lean in that direction, suicide would be an individual choice that you contemplate whereas the reasons for a species going extinct are something that you comprehend.
I like what you took from the lyrics “loving parents harmless fun”. I always read that more as harping back to “welcome to the internet” & parents giving their children their phones or iPads and considering themselves “loving parents” and the technology “harmless fun”. I can relate to it in either subjective, just my take 🙂
I looked at that first line and figured it was additionally ironic because often times when meditating your eyes are closed or wouldn’t be focused on the phone so the fact that the app is in 8k is useless
And yet people would still want an 8k meditation app, despite probably knowing it’s pointless, because they need to have the newest, most impressive version of something
This song is so deep it takes multiple listens to grasp everything, even if you catch most of it first listen there’s so much detail to these lyrics... truly heartbreaking
This of course on top of the fact that 8k is inherently pointless because the human eye literally cannot notice a difference at that scale unless the screen is enormous, 4k was already pushing that limit
I've had this song on repeat for the past few days! Its nice to hear your interpretation of it! Nice analysis :D I also interpreted "gift shop at the gun range, a mass shooting at the mall" as though they're suppose to be completely different environments, however in this instance the gun range is being used commercially for buying gifts and the Mall is horrifyingly, being used as a gun range...
This song is proof to me that Bo Burnham has achieved his final form and Jim Carrey levels of cosmic awakening and transcendental awareness, but at 30 instead of 50.
Great interpretation of the lyrics on my favorite song from the special. My input is that the "full agoraphobic... a book on getting better hand delivered by a done" part reflects how many of us with anxiety are aware of it and trying to seek help, but with the automation of everything nowadays it's so easy to do everything online without ever interacting with a person, enabling people to become more anti social.
I also think that the last line was an attempt to end the song on a positive note. Listening to the song the first time it made me feel helpless, hopeless, and really reflected on those feelings of dread and anxiety from this last year, but when he started singing the last line it made me want to cry. It was so comforting. It really inspired a feeling of hope and it was the first time I had seen Bo genuinely smile during his darker portion of the special. That was the biggest reason I interpreted it as positive. Such an amazing song ❤️
I feel like the agoraphobia section has a bit of irony as well. “Full agoraphobic, losing focus, cover blown. A book on getting better, hand delivered by a drone.” Agoraphobia is an anxiety disorder that causes panic in unfamiliar places (according to a little bit of research, so I apologize if this is incorrect.) This fear leads for many to stay in their homes, where they feel safe, so it’s ironic that a person with agoraphobia would want a book on getting better even though they can stay completely in their comfort zone to do it. It’s delivered directly to their home, and they don’t have to worry about human interaction since it’s a drone that is delivering the book. That’s my interpretation of these lyrics in the song. The face that there are so many different layers to a single line is just a testament to Bo Burnham’s talent for writing.
Man you definitely got a more positive take from it. I got it as we are all doomed. We were overdue but it’ll be over soon is the human species is overdue for destruction and it will be over soon meaning life, society etc.
I think this song has a lot to do with self aware irony. You got your stunning 8k meditation app, when really your main focus should be about that meditation, but becoming distracted by how stunning that app is. And the revolution sale going on at the gap. The revolutionary war was supposed to be about freedom for our country. Yet a company who produces their product from children sweatshops are celebrating it.
Altho he does use the word "again" in the chorus, I think he has already hit the irony in song before. Do you think "That funny feeling" is really "pointlessness"?
I like the irony of the 8k meditation app. Because normally you just listen to it, you dont look. So the high resolution is essentially moot but its there anyways
Currently trawling through reactions, breakdowns and analysis on one of my favourite pieces of art ever, and you popped up! Hit the nail on the head with a lot of this, man. I saw the first two lines as unrelated statements: "Stunning 8K resolution" to imply that technology has reached a point where you can be emotionally affected by something more real than reality itself. And then the irony of needing an app for meditation. Apps themselves have filled our heads with so much noise in the first place, but we've become so dependant on our devices that we need another app just to teach our brain how to be quiet. My interpretation of the last verse lyric as "the quiet comprehending..." is that THAT is the funny feeling, the weird nudge in the back of your mind that reality is collapsing in on itself. One of my favourite songs from the special, and a really solid breakdown. Good on you for pushing forward, I know Inside has stoked my creative fires again and I'm looking to create more. Top lad 💪
Oooo I like that reading of the final line too. The whole special is so nuanced that people are gonna find a million different ways to interpret so much of it. Thanks for checking out my vid :)
That was my interpretation of that line too, especially juxtaposed just after "That unapparent summer air in early fall", as the end of summer and beginning of autumn mark the beginning of the end for warm seasons, and it only gets colder and darker from there. You can just start to tell the seasons are changing, often subconsciously before consciously, and I've been ruminating on those lines alone for a while now.
love this so much! when I heard 'that funny feeling' I immediately thought of the feeling of unease. not always being able to put your finger on it, it just lingering there in the little things. the way that so many people can relate to this feeling yet not fully articulate what it is, is really impressive and I think is what is part of the appeal of the song. it is like bringing to the forefront something that has been lingering in the darkness for all us and something we have yet to address. also love the way the feeling of unease or self awareness is increased by the things being said, not only in the song as a whole but in each verse. the structure seems to make the feeling increase in each verse till it reaches the climax and drops again, then repeats that till you get to the final verse and reach the peak of it all. like you said it slowly grows from something not too serious till it gets too real and then the chorus begins - it feels like when people realise something wrong is actually going on and look away. honestly love everything you said, hope you understand some of this! :)
Personally, I think the funny feeling he's talking about is anxiety, as well as existential dread. A lot of the topics he discussed in the song, climate change, mass shootings, war, etc, are things that make me anxious. And I'm sure I'm not the only one. The first verse gives me that whole "You have it good, there's nothing to be anxious about." When in reality, there's so much happening right now that could, and probably will, lead to the extinction of our species. The ending of it all, as I see it, is Bo talking about that an end is coming for humans. Our time on the planet is overdue, we've overstayed our welcome and it'll be over soon because we will inevitably destroy ourselves. That's my take anyways. I really enjoyed your video!
@@thewolfeden4766 Funny Feeling is my favorite But I also really enjoyed the visuals that went along with Turning 30. And Welcome to the Internet is just a good song as well.
I agree with that especially since he starts it with that "I'm not allowed to feel this way" attitude and then later he lists so many things wrong with the world and says something along the lines of "twenty thousand years of this, seven more to go" to kinda sum it up saying "yeah my life as a person wasnt bad but with the state of the world, we havent long left if we dont change which is every reason to be anxious in and of itself regardless of my personal life". I think the song might be somewhat of a stab at ppl saying "you've no right to be anxious/depressed/etc, your life is so good" because even if u did have a good life individually, the world is going to shit anyway so even if u did need a reason it wouldnt matter because we have plenty
I know I'm a little bit late to the party, but for me this song is about a moment of reveletion. The "funny feeling" is that strange laugh you get when you realize how bad things have got. It's the moment when you think "Oh, so this is where we are at now, cool". You no longer feel sad about things, as you find "confort" in helplessnes("you say the oceans' raising, like I give a shit"). There is nothing you can do to help, as we passed the point of no return long ago without knowing it. So you might as well make peace with your mind ("heaven knows you tried") and accept it. Or, as Bo put it, "it will be over soon, just wait".
Such a dark, great and funny song. Absolutely brilliant. I like “the world at your fingertips the ocean at your door”. Such a great line. The Internet/Amazon and man made global warming is what I think of. Thanks for this. Subbed.
I like the irony of the "gift shop at the gun range, mass shooting at the mall", allowance for error. a gun range is obviously somewhere u expect to have that dangerous risky type environment and u know it's not the safest of places, but there is also a gift shop of souvenirs and cute trinkets. then on the flip side a shopping centre where u go with your family for a day out to watch a movie that ends up with people dead. like a flip of what you would expect. you would expect people to be at risk at a place that's supposed to be full of guns and you would expect gift shops and trinkets at a shopping centre.
I love the line the ocean at your door juxtaposed with the whole world at your fingertips, because he intends it to be about climate change, and I can also see it being about we will barely have time to live and explore the world (the ocean being a metaphor for the unexplored, because so much of it is unexplored). It’s sort of like we have so much available on our phones that we don’t have as much of a drive to explore the real world as we should. This is pure ramble but I thought that was such a nice line.
Always interesting to see how art is interpreted differently by each person. Just as an example, I personally took the lines "loving parents, harmless fun" as further examples of things that should give us a funny feeling; parents should be loving, and fun should be harmless...those couplings should be synonymous yet they're not in our society, and that's what should give us that funny feeling in the back of our minds that something isn't quite right.
To add to the discussion “Easy answers” is a derogatory term often used in political discussion to talk about how sometimes powerful people try to find one big simple solution to a lot of different problems, just because it’s more marketable and easier for the public to understand, even if it doesn’t address each individual problem as best as it could. A great example of this is Andrew Yang’s Universal Basic Income where everybody gets a $1000 a month. Like yea, that’s a great idea, sure, and a lot of people can get on board with that. But that doesn’t uniquely address the individual issues. And if we got that passed, a lot of people would act like we’d solved all the problems because of it. When actually that was just the “easy answer” and left a lot of unique problems unaddressed. And then him following that up with civil war is a representation of how politicians trying to find the easy marketable ideas doesn’t really solve anything and just furthers unrest, because all the people who never dealt with those problems in the first place act like they’ve solved the problems.
I love listening to your analysis and reading everyone else’s. I wanted to add my take on a couple lines. “Loving parents, harmless fun” reminded me so much of the excuse used for people like Brock Turner who have so much going for him because of his loving, affluent family that his raping was seen as harmless. The other line that hit me slightly different was the “book on getting better hand-delivered by a drone.” Because of the other parts in his special that point to an addiction to the internet and the connection to mental collapse, especially of younger generations, I took this line to be very purposefully pointing to the irony of tech trying to bring you self-help books when tech was the instigator for even needing the book.
I like to take "Deadpool's self awareness, loving parents, harmless fun" as first saying that Deadpool's edginess is just more commodification, and that the harmless fun bit is sort of the handwaving, "yeah, it's commodifying subversion, but it's alright, it's just for entertainment - just harmless fun." I'm almost 30 years old now, and I have "loving parents" who are incapable of seeing a problem with our culture when I show it to them - no matter how clearly its spelled out. I've experienced that handwaving "harmless fun" enough times for this to hit home.
Great assessment overall! Probably my favorite song from the special. Like you said, I also feel as if it's someone scrolling through their phone trying to distract themselves from all the chaos of the world falling apart, but they're being reminded through ads trying to use that uneasy (funny) feeling to sell them anything they can. Occasionally the person in the song snaps back to the reality they're trying to escape through the lines of the song that are more obvious like "Twenty thousand years of this, seven more to go." Seems to be at least one or two of those lines in every verse.
Something I just realized about that line actually is that this special being written in 2020, the implication that it'll all end by 2027, bringing the whole world in as part of the "27 club", the eerily large group of people committing suicide at age 27 (also worth mentioning that one of the set pieces for "White Woman's Instagram" has what appear to be birthday balloons for a 27th birthday, and also that that song follows a similar format of listing various subjects all falling into a similar aesthetic category). 20 thousand years of this, 7 more and I'll be 27.
I agree with what you said about "Bugles take on race" but would like to point out that it is also a clever pun, because bugles (the instrument) were often used to start races.
I had considered that the line about the book on getting better being delivered by a drone. I though that the drone could be abother human as it says 'hand delivered' implying the delivery guy is in a very depressed state themself. So that you getting a book for getting better from someone who themself is not okay.
i was so lost before this vid, just got back listening to it with ur perspective in mind and it makes so much more sense now, u were spot on. even for those who disagree with u, u gave them a blueprint to navigate thru the song and get the most out of it. thanks a lot for this!
that is exactly what i took from this special. it helped me relate to my spouse who struggles with mental health at times. and me not ever really struggling with it myself normally has a hard time understanding it.
This is probably my favorite song from the special, and I just loved hearing all of your input on the different lyrics as well as everyone else's in the comments. One thing with the line "backlash to the backlash of the thing that's just begun", I hadn't thought of it in the way with social media but you're absolutely right. I like that interpretation of it, but when I first listened and thought on it, it made me think of things happening in the news with companies (ex: Amazon vs unions) and celebrities (ex: elon musk) and laws (ex: my state of Texas doing some shady stuff with gun control, abortion, and lgbtq+ stuff lately), and dreading the horrible repercussions that they might all lead to 5, 10, 15+ years from now. (or I guess, with only 7 more to go, maybe we don't need to worry so much! lol) Anyway, loved this video! As others have mentioned, would definitely check out more breakdowns from your brain, man.
I loved the special, this song in particular. I have my own take on what the song means but you’ve given me some new interpretations to consider. Thank you for this
I think "that funny feeling" is that unshakable sense of doom that we might be watching the end of human existence play out, in real time, in front of our eyes, with nothing that we can do to stop it
Part of it feels like the other side of the "welcome to the internet" song. It's like the internet user that has been on that evil carnivale ride for all these years, unable to escape. I feel a lot of empathy in this song, and it's a tragedy (and boredom is a crime :D )
I think the funny feeling he refers to is that feeling of something that feels funny but it's actually really dark when you think about. Gallows humor, where you laugh at how absurd and dark something is despite it's awfulness. It makes more sense with the title in my mind and gels with his song about not being able to make jokes about awful things
@@Ro0sterillusion True. But I think that doesn't invalidate my interpretation. Also, if I were him I'd go for the double entendre with the title, as it's both funny and odd at the same time.
He very well could have intended "specifically" gallows humor. My initial comment wasn't ment to invalidate your. If in any way at all, it was only based on the opinion that gallos humor was to specific.
Tbh the first time I heard this I barely listened out for the lyrics. That hook is beautiful. The whole song is awesome to listen to with and without the meaning. It's honestly just a nice song.
I took the "Surgeon General pop up shop" line as like everything is a gimmick. The surgeon general is doing an "exclusive pop up shop! ONE Day only!" But no one is actually getting the basic requirements from the system, just flashy propaganda you can make a tweet about and forget 5 min later. That being said I like your take too.
Living with an agoraphobic person, I think the "losing focus, cover blown" is speaking on what it's like when your mental resources run out when forced to leave your home for something simple for other people like grocery shopping. You lose focus on the task at hand and start spiraling, and your ability to mask as neurotypical quickly wanes, your cover is blown. It's not easy to deal with.
As someone from Gen Z, the way I'd interpret "that funny feeling" is Gen Z humor, I could see myself looking at memes that have a lot of what Bo describes. It could involve something absurd & distorted, completely normal and unhumorous, or something relatively nihilistic or tragic, sometimes involving mental health issues. To me the song feels like a critique of this that when put outside the context of funny social media posts or memes, a lot of the things we'd post about are pretty concerning, although some are obviously funny, the rest of them which evoke this "funny feeling" feels like something that needs to be sat with and understood. Especially how some of these memes or such point towards controversial issues.
Can you expand on the '20.000 years of this, 7 more to go' line? It's the only line in the song where I don't get what he's referencing. You said something about Ice age and net zero, how does that fit in with the lyric? Thank you
Sure! So there is a climate clock which is based on scientific research which suggests that if we do not make a significant impact on our carbon emissions before 2028 the effects will be irreversible and could likely lead to another ice age. I am unsure what the 20,000 is but I think it’s simply to refer to a time when the earth was much colder. Hope that helps :)
@@thewolfeden4766 aha that all makes perfect sense actually! I like that explanation a lot. Thanks again for these replies. For some reason this song really gripped me, 'that funny feeling' is such a relatable feeling, and I'm not sure there's a single word for it yet. It's such a nice song on it's own too. The other tunes are funny and relatable and sometimes poignant too but this one is something else..
I love this special, and Bo Burnham in general, but the juxtaposition of his message(s) against him getting paid by Netflix, UA-cam etc. and selling the album of the songs now..... He still seems very humble, down to earth and not in to being a celebrity. He's also got a great message and shed loads of talent! You have to pay your bills and eat though 🤷🏻♀️
I like the performance and the song itself, but the big downside of it is that it's definitely not international friendly, with those many references. Which makes me love it and hate it at the same time =/
I think this whole song is meant to encompass the strangeness of being on social media. He hits each topic as if you are scrolling and these are the things that you're scrolling past. The funny feeling is the juxtaposition of all these different things you're being exposed to so quickly.
The song is about hypernormalization while we’re watching capitalism destroy the world. “That funny feeling” is the pointlessness of going through the motions of society during/before it’s collapse
A little thing I’ve noticed about Funny Feeling is that it fades out. Instead of coming to a conclusion like every other song in the special, Funny Feeling continuously sings the outro with the music slowly fading. Never ending, like how the feeling in the end never really ends, just being less apparent and fading from your mind until something bring it back up again.
This could be so far off, but personally I think the “Deadpool’s self awareness” line (when you consider the rest of the lyrics) is more-so about the fact that Deadpool’s self awareness is supposed to come off as rebellious and cool, almost like a middle finger to super hero movies, while simultaneously just being a super hero movie made by an industry giant for more money
I really love that. It’s thinking you’re being subversive but actually you’re just another cog. Thanks for sharing
Its "pointless" for him to break the 4th wall because his is still a written character.
Bob Ivers face = actor who quit and worked for news.
Steve Aoki = inherited massive restaurant business, but became famous from different/own means.
@@Ro0sterillusion it's Robert Iger, the former CEO of Disney.
Maybe. My impression was more that it's tied to the line "quiet comprehension of the ending of it all"
The whole special seems to be a post mortem on society
There's several themes running through the lyrics. One of them, which I think is the main theme in this song, is that we are trapped in a failing society and there's no way out. That's what the funny feeling is - everything about society speaks to this truth, and you feel that it's true, but it's hard to put into words exactly.
What you've picked out is related to "in honour of the revolution, it's half off at The Gap". Attempts to break out of the system or change things is absorbed by the system and played back to us, and all meaning is sucked out of it. Even "the revolution" which invokes the idea of a socialist revolution to overthrow capitalism is absorbed by consumer culture - in honour of the revolution, it's half off at the gap!
Hanging over all of this is the threat of catastrophic climate change, which is no longer a hypothetical, but inevitable. The world at your fingertips, the ocean at your door. We all know it's coming. We all know the state of society we're in right now is going to come apart under the weight of climate change. But we don't talk about it, but we quietly comprehend the ending of it all is coming.
20,000 years of human civilization, only 7 more to go.
This can drive you out of your mind. Total disassociation, fully out your mind.
I really like the "female colonel sanders, easy answers, civil war" lyric. This is a reference to progressive critiques of current culture, in particular diversity and representation in media. The problem of "the patriarchy" and male privilege and women's liberation is reduced to, by the capitalist system, a gender swap for colonel sanders. It does nothing to actually effect the problem, it's an easy answer that makes it look like something is being done, and it feeds into the culture war in America, which is slowly building to a second US civil war.
This song was my favorite too. I was impressed by the way Bo uses visual elements throughout the special. He used technology to artifically create an outdoor scene inside his room to play guitar, an analog instrument, for this song about disassociation. For me, it felt beautifully heartbreaking.
Bo's special may be the best thing I've watched all year, and I have watched a lot of shit. I don't mean stuff, I mean garbage. So much was just single serve entertainment that I forgot about entirely. It is rare to watch something so thought provoking and emotionally impactful.
Great analysis, I would watch a full length commentary if you made it.
I agree 100%…..Appreciate this a lot. Thank you!!! :)
well said
You should make a reaction video about your reaction video! ;)
Hahaha I knew there was absolutely no way I could do a reaction video after the way he put us on blast 😂
Hahahaha the reference from the show. Gold!
Wasn't Bo's react portion placed into the special to show how we have, were going to, and are over analyzing his art. And how he wants it to stop... because its "pointless" - that funny feeling
I don't think he put reactions on blast.
He was showcasing the whole internet, the whole of being locked in and only communicating through screens... Whether it's scrolling through other people's Instagrams, facetiming your family, sexting, watching reaction videos, watching twitch streams, or everything else... Anything and everything all of the time.
He's not mocking reaction videos, he just appreciates that reaction videos make up part of the tapestry of the internet's content, so uses that format to make his skit.
Could it mock the the backlash, to the backlash, to the thing thats just begun?(multi panel).
I think you nailed most of the line by line break downs, my own interpretation is definitely that the overall theme is that the funny feeling is specifically existential dread and that the meaning of that last line before the repeating chorus is comprehending that we're basically on an apocalyptic trajectory.
Mainly because I can't really make sense of what is meant by the overdue in the outro in either of the other contexts, in the context of humans going extinct the whole song makes sense to me, it's all a juxtaposition between the not so subtle allusions to the existential threats we face (climate change, wars, pandemics) and the frivolous sorts of Huxleyan distractions that we focus our time and energy on (meditation apps, twitter feuds, Logan Paul) that is building towards that last line. Overdue because not only are we headed towards extinction but given our priorities and general behavior for the 20,000 or so since our species wondered out of Africa, we basically deserve it and it's a long time coming.
Also just the word comprehending leads me to lean in that direction, suicide would be an individual choice that you contemplate whereas the reasons for a species going extinct are something that you comprehend.
I like what you took from the lyrics “loving parents harmless fun”. I always read that more as harping back to “welcome to the internet” & parents giving their children their phones or iPads and considering themselves “loving parents” and the technology “harmless fun”. I can relate to it in either subjective, just my take 🙂
That’s quite an interesting take too! I think it works on both levels dependent on personal experience
woah, I haven't even thought of that. That's an outstandingly spot-on horrifying observation
My input of "That Funny Feeling" is: Self Awareness Dissociation which ironically acronyms into S.A.D
I looked at that first line and figured it was additionally ironic because often times when meditating your eyes are closed or wouldn’t be focused on the phone so the fact that the app is in 8k is useless
And yet people would still want an 8k meditation app, despite probably knowing it’s pointless, because they need to have the newest, most impressive version of something
"Pointless"
This song is so deep it takes multiple listens to grasp everything, even if you catch most of it first listen there’s so much detail to these lyrics... truly heartbreaking
This of course on top of the fact that 8k is inherently pointless because the human eye literally cannot notice a difference at that scale unless the screen is enormous, 4k was already pushing that limit
I've had this song on repeat for the past few days! Its nice to hear your interpretation of it! Nice analysis :D I also interpreted "gift shop at the gun range, a mass shooting at the mall" as though they're suppose to be completely different environments, however in this instance the gun range is being used commercially for buying gifts and the Mall is horrifyingly, being used as a gun range...
Love that reading! Definitely makes a lot of sense….such a gut punch line
Gun free zones are "pointless" because most mass shootings happen there.
This song is proof to me that Bo Burnham has achieved his final form and Jim Carrey levels of cosmic awakening and transcendental awareness, but at 30 instead of 50.
Great interpretation of the lyrics on my favorite song from the special. My input is that the "full agoraphobic... a book on getting better hand delivered by a done" part reflects how many of us with anxiety are aware of it and trying to seek help, but with the automation of everything nowadays it's so easy to do everything online without ever interacting with a person, enabling people to become more anti social.
With the “Bugles take on race” line it was a bit of a double entendre because at the start of a horse race you’d hear a bugle
That’s some great knowledge!!
I also think that the last line was an attempt to end the song on a positive note. Listening to the song the first time it made me feel helpless, hopeless, and really reflected on those feelings of dread and anxiety from this last year, but when he started singing the last line it made me want to cry. It was so comforting. It really inspired a feeling of hope and it was the first time I had seen Bo genuinely smile during his darker portion of the special. That was the biggest reason I interpreted it as positive. Such an amazing song ❤️
I feel like the agoraphobia section has a bit of irony as well.
“Full agoraphobic, losing focus, cover blown.
A book on getting better, hand delivered by a drone.”
Agoraphobia is an anxiety disorder that causes panic in unfamiliar places (according to a little bit of research, so I apologize if this is incorrect.) This fear leads for many to stay in their homes, where they feel safe, so it’s ironic that a person with agoraphobia would want a book on getting better even though they can stay completely in their comfort zone to do it. It’s delivered directly to their home, and they don’t have to worry about human interaction since it’s a drone that is delivering the book. That’s my interpretation of these lyrics in the song. The face that there are so many different layers to a single line is just a testament to Bo Burnham’s talent for writing.
Man you definitely got a more positive take from it. I got it as we are all doomed. We were overdue but it’ll be over soon is the human species is overdue for destruction and it will be over soon meaning life, society etc.
I think this song has a lot to do with self aware irony. You got your stunning 8k meditation app, when really your main focus should be about that meditation, but becoming distracted by how stunning that app is. And the revolution sale going on at the gap. The revolutionary war was supposed to be about freedom for our country. Yet a company who produces their product from children sweatshops are celebrating it.
Altho he does use the word "again" in the chorus, I think he has already hit the irony in song before. Do you think "That funny feeling" is really "pointlessness"?
@@Ro0sterillusion hmm mmmm mmmmj mmmm m m
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I like the irony of the 8k meditation app. Because normally you just listen to it, you dont look. So the high resolution is essentially moot but its there anyways
Currently trawling through reactions, breakdowns and analysis on one of my favourite pieces of art ever, and you popped up!
Hit the nail on the head with a lot of this, man. I saw the first two lines as unrelated statements: "Stunning 8K resolution" to imply that technology has reached a point where you can be emotionally affected by something more real than reality itself.
And then the irony of needing an app for meditation. Apps themselves have filled our heads with so much noise in the first place, but we've become so dependant on our devices that we need another app just to teach our brain how to be quiet.
My interpretation of the last verse lyric as "the quiet comprehending..." is that THAT is the funny feeling, the weird nudge in the back of your mind that reality is collapsing in on itself.
One of my favourite songs from the special, and a really solid breakdown. Good on you for pushing forward, I know Inside has stoked my creative fires again and I'm looking to create more.
Top lad 💪
Oooo I like that reading of the final line too. The whole special is so nuanced that people are gonna find a million different ways to interpret so much of it. Thanks for checking out my vid :)
That was my interpretation of that line too, especially juxtaposed just after "That unapparent summer air in early fall", as the end of summer and beginning of autumn mark the beginning of the end for warm seasons, and it only gets colder and darker from there. You can just start to tell the seasons are changing, often subconsciously before consciously, and I've been ruminating on those lines alone for a while now.
@@TwentySeventhLetter I saw the summer air in fall line as a reference to climate change, which lends understanding to the "ending of it all" line
love this so much! when I heard 'that funny feeling' I immediately thought of the feeling of unease. not always being able to put your finger on it, it just lingering there in the little things. the way that so many people can relate to this feeling yet not fully articulate what it is, is really impressive and I think is what is part of the appeal of the song. it is like bringing to the forefront something that has been lingering in the darkness for all us and something we have yet to address. also love the way the feeling of unease or self awareness is increased by the things being said, not only in the song as a whole but in each verse. the structure seems to make the feeling increase in each verse till it reaches the climax and drops again, then repeats that till you get to the final verse and reach the peak of it all. like you said it slowly grows from something not too serious till it gets too real and then the chorus begins - it feels like when people realise something wrong is actually going on and look away. honestly love everything you said, hope you understand some of this! :)
You’re definitely right!! Thanks so much for watching
Personally, I think the funny feeling he's talking about is anxiety, as well as existential dread. A lot of the topics he discussed in the song, climate change, mass shootings, war, etc, are things that make me anxious. And I'm sure I'm not the only one.
The first verse gives me that whole "You have it good, there's nothing to be anxious about." When in reality, there's so much happening right now that could, and probably will, lead to the extinction of our species.
The ending of it all, as I see it, is Bo talking about that an end is coming for humans. Our time on the planet is overdue, we've overstayed our welcome and it'll be over soon because we will inevitably destroy ourselves.
That's my take anyways. I really enjoyed your video!
Definitely agree with your points! What was your favourite song from the special??
@@thewolfeden4766 Funny Feeling is my favorite
But I also really enjoyed the visuals that went along with Turning 30.
And Welcome to the Internet is just a good song as well.
He had some amazing use of lighting in Turning 30!
I agree with that especially since he starts it with that "I'm not allowed to feel this way" attitude and then later he lists so many things wrong with the world and says something along the lines of "twenty thousand years of this, seven more to go" to kinda sum it up saying "yeah my life as a person wasnt bad but with the state of the world, we havent long left if we dont change which is every reason to be anxious in and of itself regardless of my personal life". I think the song might be somewhat of a stab at ppl saying "you've no right to be anxious/depressed/etc, your life is so good" because even if u did have a good life individually, the world is going to shit anyway so even if u did need a reason it wouldnt matter because we have plenty
I know I'm a little bit late to the party, but for me this song is about a moment of reveletion. The "funny feeling" is that strange laugh you get when you realize how bad things have got. It's the moment when you think "Oh, so this is where we are at now, cool". You no longer feel sad about things, as you find "confort" in helplessnes("you say the oceans' raising, like I give a shit"). There is nothing you can do to help, as we passed the point of no return long ago without knowing it. So you might as well make peace with your mind ("heaven knows you tried") and accept it. Or, as Bo put it, "it will be over soon, just wait".
Such a dark, great and funny song. Absolutely brilliant. I like “the world at your fingertips the ocean at your door”. Such a great line. The Internet/Amazon and man made global warming is what I think of. Thanks for this. Subbed.
I like the irony of the "gift shop at the gun range, mass shooting at the mall", allowance for error. a gun range is obviously somewhere u expect to have that dangerous risky type environment and u know it's not the safest of places, but there is also a gift shop of souvenirs and cute trinkets. then on the flip side a shopping centre where u go with your family for a day out to watch a movie that ends up with people dead. like a flip of what you would expect. you would expect people to be at risk at a place that's supposed to be full of guns and you would expect gift shops and trinkets at a shopping centre.
Weirdly it’s my favourite lyric pretty much for the reasons u said
I love the line the ocean at your door juxtaposed with the whole world at your fingertips, because he intends it to be about climate change, and I can also see it being about we will barely have time to live and explore the world (the ocean being a metaphor for the unexplored, because so much of it is unexplored). It’s sort of like we have so much available on our phones that we don’t have as much of a drive to explore the real world as we should. This is pure ramble but I thought that was such a nice line.
Always interesting to see how art is interpreted differently by each person. Just as an example, I personally took the lines "loving parents, harmless fun" as further examples of things that should give us a funny feeling; parents should be loving, and fun should be harmless...those couplings should be synonymous yet they're not in our society, and that's what should give us that funny feeling in the back of our minds that something isn't quite right.
To add to the discussion “Easy answers” is a derogatory term often used in political discussion to talk about how sometimes powerful people try to find one big simple solution to a lot of different problems, just because it’s more marketable and easier for the public to understand, even if it doesn’t address each individual problem as best as it could. A great example of this is Andrew Yang’s Universal Basic Income where everybody gets a $1000 a month. Like yea, that’s a great idea, sure, and a lot of people can get on board with that. But that doesn’t uniquely address the individual issues. And if we got that passed, a lot of people would act like we’d solved all the problems because of it. When actually that was just the “easy answer” and left a lot of unique problems unaddressed. And then him following that up with civil war is a representation of how politicians trying to find the easy marketable ideas doesn’t really solve anything and just furthers unrest, because all the people who never dealt with those problems in the first place act like they’ve solved the problems.
I love listening to your analysis and reading everyone else’s. I wanted to add my take on a couple lines. “Loving parents, harmless fun” reminded me so much of the excuse used for people like Brock Turner who have so much going for him because of his loving, affluent family that his raping was seen as harmless.
The other line that hit me slightly different was the “book on getting better hand-delivered by a drone.” Because of the other parts in his special that point to an addiction to the internet and the connection to mental collapse, especially of younger generations, I took this line to be very purposefully pointing to the irony of tech trying to bring you self-help books when tech was the instigator for even needing the book.
I like to take "Deadpool's self awareness, loving parents, harmless fun" as first saying that Deadpool's edginess is just more commodification, and that the harmless fun bit is sort of the handwaving, "yeah, it's commodifying subversion, but it's alright, it's just for entertainment - just harmless fun."
I'm almost 30 years old now, and I have "loving parents" who are incapable of seeing a problem with our culture when I show it to them - no matter how clearly its spelled out. I've experienced that handwaving "harmless fun" enough times for this to hit home.
Great assessment overall! Probably my favorite song from the special. Like you said, I also feel as if it's someone scrolling through their phone trying to distract themselves from all the chaos of the world falling apart, but they're being reminded through ads trying to use that uneasy (funny) feeling to sell them anything they can. Occasionally the person in the song snaps back to the reality they're trying to escape through the lines of the song that are more obvious like "Twenty thousand years of this, seven more to go." Seems to be at least one or two of those lines in every verse.
Something I just realized about that line actually is that this special being written in 2020, the implication that it'll all end by 2027, bringing the whole world in as part of the "27 club", the eerily large group of people committing suicide at age 27 (also worth mentioning that one of the set pieces for "White Woman's Instagram" has what appear to be birthday balloons for a 27th birthday, and also that that song follows a similar format of listing various subjects all falling into a similar aesthetic category).
20 thousand years of this, 7 more and I'll be 27.
This was by far my favorite song of the special. The whole thing was pretty intense and heart felt but this song has been stuck in my head ever since
I agree with what you said about "Bugles take on race" but would like to point out that it is also a clever pun, because bugles (the instrument) were often used to start races.
I had considered that the line about the book on getting better being delivered by a drone.
I though that the drone could be abother human as it says 'hand delivered' implying the delivery guy is in a very depressed state themself.
So that you getting a book for getting better from someone who themself is not okay.
Thank you for posting this, I have been looking for somebody else's opinion and I'm glad that I was able to find yours
Love that you broke this down line by line!! It def is one of my favorite songs in the special! Bo is truly a genius
I feel like Bo Burnham’s inside is the best representation of what Lockdown really is.
i was so lost before this vid, just got back listening to it with ur perspective in mind and it makes so much more sense now, u were spot on. even for those who disagree with u, u gave them a blueprint to navigate thru the song and get the most out of it. thanks a lot for this!
Appreciate this a lot! Thank you :)
I’ve never really had issues with mental health yet so this kinda helped me understand it more thank you.
that is exactly what i took from this special. it helped me relate to my spouse who struggles with mental health at times. and me not ever really struggling with it myself normally has a hard time understanding it.
This is probably my favorite song from the special, and I just loved hearing all of your input on the different lyrics as well as everyone else's in the comments. One thing with the line "backlash to the backlash of the thing that's just begun", I hadn't thought of it in the way with social media but you're absolutely right. I like that interpretation of it, but when I first listened and thought on it, it made me think of things happening in the news with companies (ex: Amazon vs unions) and celebrities (ex: elon musk) and laws (ex: my state of Texas doing some shady stuff with gun control, abortion, and lgbtq+ stuff lately), and dreading the horrible repercussions that they might all lead to 5, 10, 15+ years from now. (or I guess, with only 7 more to go, maybe we don't need to worry so much! lol) Anyway, loved this video! As others have mentioned, would definitely check out more breakdowns from your brain, man.
I loved the special, this song in particular. I have my own take on what the song means but you’ve given me some new interpretations to consider. Thank you for this
To me the funny feeling is like uneasyness , like the spinning/wobbling of the gyroscope at the end of the movie Inception
I think "that funny feeling" is that unshakable sense of doom that we might be watching the end of human existence play out, in real time, in front of our eyes, with nothing that we can do to stop it
Part of it feels like the other side of the "welcome to the internet" song. It's like the internet user that has been on that evil carnivale ride for all these years, unable to escape. I feel a lot of empathy in this song, and it's a tragedy (and boredom is a crime :D )
Loved your breakdown!
Thanks so much! Was a little apprehensive with doing one but the song just hit me so hard I felt I wanted to explain why
I needed this exact video. Thanks 🙏
I think the funny feeling he refers to is that feeling of something that feels funny but it's actually really dark when you think about. Gallows humor, where you laugh at how absurd and dark something is despite it's awfulness. It makes more sense with the title in my mind and gels with his song about not being able to make jokes about awful things
You made me second guess my interpretation. I just think there are more references to "Pointlessness"
@@Ro0sterillusion True. But I think that doesn't invalidate my interpretation. Also, if I were him I'd go for the double entendre with the title, as it's both funny and odd at the same time.
@@zhongwenren i actually think both our comments enforce each other. Gallos humor is in inherently pointless because... you're already dead.
@@Ro0sterillusion Agree, that's why I didn't think you're interpretation invalidated mine
He very well could have intended "specifically" gallows humor.
My initial comment wasn't ment to invalidate your. If in any way at all, it was only based on the opinion that gallos humor was to specific.
Tbh the first time I heard this I barely listened out for the lyrics. That hook is beautiful. The whole song is awesome to listen to with and without the meaning. It's honestly just a nice song.
Just watched the special and I gotta agree, had no idea most people thought the end of the song was about the end of humanity
Shhhhh, it’ll all be over soon, no more pain...
I took the "Surgeon General pop up shop" line as like everything is a gimmick. The surgeon general is doing an "exclusive pop up shop! ONE Day only!" But no one is actually getting the basic requirements from the system, just flashy propaganda you can make a tweet about and forget 5 min later. That being said I like your take too.
The opening line melody over chords in this song reminds me of Last Week Tonight's opening theme 😅
Living with an agoraphobic person, I think the "losing focus, cover blown" is speaking on what it's like when your mental resources run out when forced to leave your home for something simple for other people like grocery shopping. You lose focus on the task at hand and start spiraling, and your ability to mask as neurotypical quickly wanes, your cover is blown. It's not easy to deal with.
Excellent video :)
On the meditation line, usually people meditate with their eyes closed aswell, and so a "Stunning 8K Resolution" is just.. Ironic?
I need help with this song I’m way too dumb lmao so here I am
I’m sure that’s no true :) thanks for checking out the video
Does anyone else see the irony in this?
Enlighten us
As someone from Gen Z, the way I'd interpret "that funny feeling" is Gen Z humor, I could see myself looking at memes that have a lot of what Bo describes. It could involve something absurd & distorted, completely normal and unhumorous, or something relatively nihilistic or tragic, sometimes involving mental health issues.
To me the song feels like a critique of this that when put outside the context of funny social media posts or memes, a lot of the things we'd post about are pretty concerning, although some are obviously funny, the rest of them which evoke this "funny feeling" feels like something that needs to be sat with and understood. Especially how some of these memes or such point towards controversial issues.
Can you expand on the '20.000 years of this, 7 more to go' line?
It's the only line in the song where I don't get what he's referencing. You said something about Ice age and net zero, how does that fit in with the lyric?
Thank you
Sure! So there is a climate clock which is based on scientific research which suggests that if we do not make a significant impact on our carbon emissions before 2028 the effects will be irreversible and could likely lead to another ice age. I am unsure what the 20,000 is but I think it’s simply to refer to a time when the earth was much colder. Hope that helps :)
Some data suggests that humans first arrived in the Americas 20,000 years ago. :)
@@thewolfeden4766 aha that all makes perfect sense actually! I like that explanation a lot. Thanks again for these replies.
For some reason this song really gripped me, 'that funny feeling' is such a relatable feeling, and I'm not sure there's a single word for it yet.
It's such a nice song on it's own too. The other tunes are funny and relatable and sometimes poignant too but this one is something else..
@@thewolfeden4766 Not first humans, but first sense of modern human civilization
Good luck getting back on your feet dude x
Thank you
is that a tom robbins book on your shelf?
Explanation starts at 2:34
Great review!
I love this special, and Bo Burnham in general, but the juxtaposition of his message(s) against him getting paid by Netflix, UA-cam etc. and selling the album of the songs now.....
He still seems very humble, down to earth and not in to being a celebrity. He's also got a great message and shed loads of talent! You have to pay your bills and eat though 🤷🏻♀️
Sometimes you have to try and fix the machine from within I guess!
@@thewolfeden4766 yes, that too. Absolutely.
Not sure if you’re religious, but I will pray for you and your mind and your heart!
Thank you
I like the performance and the song itself, but the big downside of it is that it's definitely not international friendly, with those many references. Which makes me love it and hate it at the same time =/
I think this whole song is meant to encompass the strangeness of being on social media. He hits each topic as if you are scrolling and these are the things that you're scrolling past.
The funny feeling is the juxtaposition of all these different things you're being exposed to so quickly.
The song is about hypernormalization while we’re watching capitalism destroy the world. “That funny feeling” is the pointlessness of going through the motions of society during/before it’s collapse
Stop self-actualizating.
That funny feeling is "pointlessness".