Bo Burnham’s Unique Special Gives a Glimpse Inside The Minds of Gen Z (Opinion)

After a half decade hiatus from performance, comedian Bo Burnham crashed back into the scene with an exclusive Netflix special that provided uniquely incongruous comedy in the midst of a pandemic and created a piece of media that resonated with young Millennial and Gen Z culture.

Titled “Bo Burnham: Inside,” the special first dropped onto Netflix May 30, 2021. Two weeks later, an audio album of the songs featured in the special was released digitally on music platforms. In total, the special runs for about an hour and a half, which seems long for a comedy special, but I didn’t mind in this case. Because of the shifting of moods throughout, the film had a great pace to it and never had a dull or boring moment.

While the majority of the special depicts Burnham’s deteriorating mental health and life during the early stages of the COVD-19 pandemic, it also touches on other social movements and climate change. For many, these topics were incredibly difficult to sit through, but that was the whole point. By having media depicting more serious topics, they will eventually become less taboo. By making the discussion around mental health easier, more people will be allowed to feel comfortable advocating their personal struggles.

Often, comedy specials appear in the form of a taped recording of a live comedy show, usually from said comedian’s current tour. This special is unique because it takes place in Burnham’s guest house, on the property of his Los Angeles home. Also unique is the lack of crew for the film. While Josh Senior was featured as a producer, the whole film was written (both spoken monologues and music), filmed, directed, edited and starred by Burnham himself. Because of this creative autonomy, the whole project has an intimate feeling throughout. These aspects completely contrast with his previous Netflix stand-up projects “Make Happy” (2016) and “what.” (2013). Both previous specials, while still heavily involving music, were in the style mentioned before.

This special immediately was a success, especially with younger people.

It didn’t take too long after the release of the film for it to circulate the internet via viral virtual shenanigans. Clips from the film, especially portions from “Welcome To The Internet,” were used to create videos on platforms such as TikTok and Twitter.

Numerous trends and inside jokes were created as a result, which were humorous to participate in and witness. On other platforms, content creators made their own parodies and covers of songs from the special. One such case was by Phoebe Bridgers, who eventually released her cover onto music platforms and donated the proceeds to fight anti-abortion legislation in Texas.

Overall, the special won numerous Emmy Awards, and many of its songs were on weekly music charts internationally. It's fairly obvious that this film struck such a strong chord with a large audience and for good reason.

The dark humor conveyed is the perfect allegory for the feelings being expressed by the younger generations of today but completely disregarded by everybody else. The humor has helped many young people cope with how the world is, all the while being presented by a comedian that is exactly where we all are. Burnham gets it, when many simply do not. He does not look down on those struggles but rather he punches up at the society that has created them.

I implore everyone to at least make an attempt to watch this film. Even if it is not enjoyable, there is still a valuable message to be received from it.

(Find on Page 6 of Mystician 83.8)