0:00 the year is 2006 and nobody knew that the world's greatest social experiment had just planted its roots in the digital soil of the internet YouTube was born alongside other buzzing online social connection platforms like Facebook and Myspace at the time it was just a fun way to connect with others little did we know it was going to drive us all into the deepest numb most disconnected feeling of human isolation all while spreading Mass paranoia giving most of us depression and anxiety at the nucleus of this dystopian nightmare was a comedian that some may see as a modern-day philosopher Bo Burnham Bo uploaded his first video in December 2006 and became a superstar in the modern entertainment World however his super stardome was built off his eerily self-aware prophecies about the death of society in the form of Engagement
0:46 surveillance and distractions that make you feel all fuzzy inside and while he distracted you with his silly jokes and musical numbers he also tried to warn all of us about our pending Doom but it was too late all he could do from there was benefit from the the very system he spent his whole life trying to convince you to destroy and since most people laughed off his MNS and didn't take them seriously he realized they would be better to just disappear today he is nowhere to be found today we are going to Deep dive into the story of Bo Burnham The Reluctant prophet of the internet age how do I accomplish what you've accomplished what's your advice for young people I'd say well you got to just take a deep breath and give up don't theist is rigged against you
1:31 your hard work and talent will not pay off Bo Burnham's family thought he was gay so the 16-year-old wrote a song about it and unintentionally infiltrated the internet and comedy landscape when he uploaded the video of him performing the song to YouTube familys and watching SpongeBob had side effects but I'm not gay and that's what I said if I'm gay then God strike me dead that's weird it's hard to imagine a video like this going viral today as most people would just call it corny or cringe and move on but at the time YouTube was a new and exciting way to share videos online most of the content was amateur and many people saw it as a fun platform where anyone could post videos of personal Moments Funny Memes and random life experiences and anyone who spent a considerable amount of time
2:17 on the internet at this point was still considered to be Fringe and weird which is also likely the reason why they gravitated towards B the video's virality is largely credited to Burnham's awkward yet quirky demeanor he didn't present himself as the greatest musician in the world world but rather just an ordinary theater kid trying to make his brother laugh I definitely didn't put it up there as like this is my ticket out of this town I had written these songs and I wanted to show them to my brother who's in college and at the time YouTube was nothing no one knew what it was it was just like another outlet and I didn't think of it as a career move once the video was shared to another video aggregate site called break.com it skyrocketed to 250,000 listens in a day now today a quar million views seems small but back then it was an astronomical amount of people people to have seen a video in one day
3:02 it was very strange because I saw this giant number and then I went to school and nothing was different and I think it started a lifelong journey of these two separate sort of narratives being absolutely incoherent but overlaid on top of each other from the very moment Bose's internet career started he realized The Bleak world of entertainers especially those on social media on one hand they represent an idealized version of human potential and on the other hand they possibly don't deserve the attention they receive because well they're just another human the problem then compounds because social media personalities rely on attention to maintain their financial livelihoods this balance of needing wanting and also sometimes not wanting the attention is something both struggled with from day one despite that he continued to upload videos of his comedic songs fostering a cult-like fan base in the process all of
3:48 Burnham's early videos were recorded in and around his family's house in Hamilton Massachusetts in his bedroom Bo couldn't look anymore like the average 2007 American teen swoopy Justin Bieber is hair a t-shirt likely bought from Target or a collar and neck tie if he was trying to ironically look dressed up his songs were written and performed alongside an acoustic guitar or the classic early 2000s digital electric piano I [Applause] JFK a car with a roof Bose flamboyance musical style and genuine Talent showed his prowess as a theater kid now all teenagers across all generations are awkward and struggle to discover their identity while navigating social expectations but theater kids are often looked at as the most awkward or weird
4:35 because they typically don't try to match the social standards of their peers but B was a little different his commentary on pop culture combined with his edgy humor allowed him to appeal to the cool kids or adults online which is probably why he earned such a large fan base and led to every one of his videos surpassing multiple millions of views go to a vagina Orchard count one two three spin that plan around you got a third world country that's right consider yourself warned them offensive and creative like handicapped porn you're playing with your breasts excuse me can I try it ma'am you're pushing them together like a titty van diagram look at that crack excuse me can I bu a right below your diaphragm ass looks like you're hiding ham but because of his edgy lyrics some of his songs have today been deemed offensive including one called Clan cookout which is a song
5:20 where Bo is inviting people to a cookout that is hosted by a clan member here's my wife/ sister she brightens up my day she went away and I miss cuz my mom's a lousy lay don't hang with foreign fellows it'll only be your loss stay here and roast marshmallows by the burning cross at the clan cook or his song titled perfect woman where Bo describes Helen Keller the deaf and blind author as the ideal woman for a relationship alen was my perfect woman but I don't think she cared I played the song for her she just sat there and
6:05 stared she was still my perfect woman I was sort of a mess I asked her to marry me she said at the time these jokes were seen as just status quo typical edgy teenage humor today people think the punch lines didn't age Too Well by the time he graduated in 2008 he already secured a holly agent Douglas edley who represented several top tier comedians including Drew Cary and Dave Chappelle Bo was able to transition quickly from YouTube to live performances and other traditional entertainment opportunities one of his most memorable was his performance at YouTube live not so much for his song but rather his mortified reaction to Katy Perry's awkward intro
6:50 he's funny he's filthy and he's gotten over 20 million views on his YouTube and he's only 18 years old thank God you're 18 at least he's here to play his world premiere of his new song Welcome to YouTube come on everybody make some noise for b b thank you Mrs Perry although many consider him a pioneer of YouTube Bo had his sight set on Hollywood I always wanted to be a comedian and actor Burnham explained I basically stumbled into the music medium though musically he adds I'm okay but that's about it I like to think I'm good enough not to negatively affect the performance from there YouTube would just become this sort of catalog or landing page where he would return whenever it was time to
7:35 release new material entering 2009 he leveled up his production higher than ever releasing his first self-titled album the album mostly included songs that had already been uploaded to his channel he said I wanted to show respect for the online community that I think what pleases you guys what you guys like is good enough for any medium the album received positive reviews from critics and peaked at number one on the US billboard comedy albums chart it also entered the US billboard independent albums chart peaking at number 12 and was later certified gold despite seeing much success early on in his career not everyone were exactly huge fans of his comedy on March 2nd 2009 15 Westminster college students protested his concert there that evening due to his use of homophobic and racist language gay bashing is wrong which is so ironic
8:22 because people would gay Bashers would label me you know as you know so I was like butt of that and then all of a sudden M gay basher in 6 months I I completely changed who who have th it Bo continued to defend his jokes I try and write satire that's well-intentioned but those intentions have to be hidden it can't be completely clear and that's what makes it comedy this small incident ultimately had no impact on his career he embarked on his first Nationwide tour titled the fake ID tour he booked more televised events like an appearance on Carson Daily's MTV show and NBC's Late Night with Jimmy Fallon and he even earned a 20-minute Comedy Central standup special called fractions speak louder than words because having sex is like quadratic expansion if it can't be split then it's time to stop and having
9:08 sex is like a do in fractions it's improper for the larger one to be on top yeah having sex is like math homework I do it best when I'm alone in my bed and squaring numbers are just like women if they're under 13 just in your head at age 19 Burnham debuted his standup routine words words words at the Boston House of Blues Bec the youngest person ever to get an hourong special on Comedy Central the album charted on four separate Billboard charts and peaked at number one on the billboard comedy chart and while his music gradually became more mainstream his audience didn't seem to care if anything they applauded Burnham's improved word play and ability to remain true to himself also he was being recognized as a fresh face in comedy he was able to sit down with Legends like Jud appow Mark Marin Ray Romano and Gary shanling is that Bo
9:54 actually when he performs is there's a lot of ironic attachment there there's a lot you know you're not you're not really revealing yourselves I never talk about what I really think about on stage directly cuz I just don't think I don't value what I think at this point I don't think anyone wants to get up and hear a 20-year-old like tell them what they think about how the world work would you kind of make would you do me favor would you do artist dead me psychotic I must be demented to think that I'm worthy of all this attention of all of this money you worked really hard for I slept and late while you worked at the drug store my drugs attention I am an addict but I get paid to indulge in my habit it's all in a Los I'm wearing makeup I'm wearing makeup the song Art Is Dead was way ahead of its time and shockingly profound for the 19-year-old and in a
10:41 way he spent the rest of his career continuously rewriting the exact premise of this song some comedians are prophetic and extremely introspective and extrospective about the everchanging society we live in they almost know too much for their own good which results in them seeming highly intelligent which is also ironic because they are constantly telling silly juvenile jokes or in Bo's case singing Silly Songs most people still thought Bo at this point was some theater geek who needs to go touch grass Mark Baron described his song as cute arst dead is both a confession and a critique as Burnham wrestles with his role in an industry that is more about profit ego and attention than genuine creativity or contribution to society but because of his Bieber hair and nervous energy they didn't take him
11:27 seriously but the biggest reason why was and is still successful is because he truly values the process of developing his act and doesn't rush out new material in 2010 he explained his mentality if I don't feel like doing this next month I won't do it and if I don't think I'm good anymore or if I haven't carved something new then I will quit this approach is what gave him the time to write and perfect the next standup special that would drastically change his career what first it's worth mentioning that what was released on Netflix meaning Bo was an early adopter on two different platforms because nobody could have predicted the absolute Powerhouse that Netflix would become especially in the world of stand-up comedy second people knew B was good but this special unlocked a creative potential that took Everyone by surprise
12:12 what went beyond the straightforward comedic skits of his earlier YouTube videos blending comedy Music Theater and philosophy he created a multimedia experience that used intricate lighting sound cues and staging in ways not typically seen in standup what added a level of maturity and introspection to his work departing from purely surface level teenage edgy humor you think you know better than everybody you will die alone but in the meantime you might as well tell those silly jokes of yours the very first line in the first song he performed said you used to do comedy when you felt like being funny but now you're contractually obligated so dance you effing monkey setting the tone that he was going to explore the more complex dynamics of Fame Artistic integrity and a comedian's role in society being a Med
12:59 it isn't being an insensitive prick capitalizing on the most animalistic impulses of the public it's being a hero but make no mistake this thing was still filled with absurdest humor yo fellas don't you hate it when you're blowing a guy and he ends up being a fat am I right I've been blowing a fat this whole time or how about the full 1 and a half minute section where he simulated himself pleasing himself but this special is definitely remembered for its impressive musical numbers and exploring themes of our destructive world and existential ISM from God's perspective is a song that addresses religion as Burnham from God's perspective argues that people shouldn't think their religious views protect them from being bad people he even criticized religious people who constantly argue whose perspective is correct questioning but no one entertains the thought that maybe
13:45 God does not believe in you this balance of comedy and darker more personal themes would become a defining element of his style perhaps the most memorable part of the show was a song called repeat stuff which criticizes The Emptiness of modern pop songs more specifically the ones performed by musicians like Justin Bieber and One Direction who use the same formula to hypnotize little girls and rake in millions of dollars he sings oh girl I hope you don't think that I'm rude when I tell you that I love you boo I also hope that you don't see through this cleverly constructed ruse designed by a marketing team cashing in on puberty and low self-esteem and girls desperate need to feel loved what the songs basically do is they their love songs to girls and they describe the girls as vaguely as they possibly can so that every girl can
14:30 think that that song's about them so it's like it's like I love how your fingerprints are different than everybody else's and like I love how your eyes have that like bluish brownish greenish color and your and like your torso is an arm on either side of it and just before the end of the track Bo abruptly interrupts the song to portray the artist selling their soul or body to Satan if you're my agent you might be thinking oh no sound the alarms you're not appealing to little girls who don't have arms but they can't use iTunes so them who needs up oh girl like oh hello Satan oh Satan you taste so good repeat stuff
15:16 repeat stuff repeat stuff repeat stuff he closes with the intense and hauntingly orchestrated musical number we think we know you in the song Burnham seems to Grapple with the pressure of audience expectations the struggle to stay authentic and the reality of being placed in a box by his fans and the public as the song reaches its peak Burnham stops abruptly which results in a powerful silence where the audience understands what the song and what the entire special is actually about we think we know we think we know we think we know you we think we know we think we know we think we know this ending tells viewers that more than just a comedy show this was was an exploration of the contradictions of our
16:01 pretentious Society the dangers of celebrity worship as well as foreshadowing the deeper existential themes that would characterize Burnham's later work and at this point Burnham had stopped creating content solely for YouTube expressing very clearly why he quit in 2006 2007 when I was 16 17 you guys were 10 whatever I was convinced like and I think most people were like oh Oscar winning movies and shorts and everything will be YouTube videos in in 8 years it has not happened and and the reason it hasn't happened is cuz like it just sucks I mean go on YouTube and look at like a majority of user generated content it is God awful I know there are some really good stuff and I know there are probably a lot of people doing good work they're not getting the most views the most popular people are you want to talk about like translated mediums and
16:47 derivative stuff it's just like kids talking about other pop culture it's The Tonight Show posting their own Clips on it this was supposed to be like the medium that bypassed all the corporations and bypassed all this stuff and it isn't I we lost we lost the internet I I stand by that that the internet got it had a chance to be like the people's medium and we lost I was a YouTuber that posted 133 minute videos over the course of three years I mean that that was my presence on YouTube you know and now being a YouTuber is posting 15minute videos every other day of your life you know it's wild and it sort of felt like what YouTube asked of you 10 years ago was you got a little funny thing to post post it and now it's like live reflect yourself be there um it's weird you know it's it's the same thing like you know you used to be on Facebook and you make a little website and it's like oh my little picture and my
17:33 interests and now it's like Instagram and Twitter what do you think what do you look like what do you think what do you those are base weird deep questions however he did upload this special to YouTube entirely for free which today sits at over 25 million views what received overwhelmingly positive reviews and certified him as a mainstream comedian and artist from there he unsuccessfully tried to Pivot into scripted television Burnham would be the star of the show Zach stone is going to be famous portraying the protagonist a teenager who spent the money he was going to use on College tuition to hire a camera crew to document his life at home the character believed he could manufacture Fame for himself by making himself look like the star of a reality show with Stage defense hey is that z stone did he reinvent himself yes and
18:21 yes who's that hot girl on Zach's arm is that chrisy acran yep I'll do the voices okay Zack stone is going to be famous premiered on MTV in May of 2013 despite earning generally positive reviews from critics including news day which described the show as almost too clever funny and ironic for MTV the show struggled in the ratings during its run leading to its ultimate cancellation after the first season in a Bittersweet message to his Facebook he wrote if you like the show I am sorry that you won't be getting more of it soon but please don't feel sorry for me I am the luckiest guy that I know thank you all so very much B aside from his short stint on the 6-second video sharing app Vine Burnham would remain out of the public eye he occasionally posted on social media or attended an event here and there but he spent 3 years working
19:06 on his songwriting and carefully crafting new theatrical performances which were on full display in his most successful stand-up special to date make happy thematically make happy was nearly the exact same as what but perhaps slightly less interpretive and more to the point and it also is probably Bose's funniest special he remained consistent in his ability to weave together various genres and styles blending standup comedy musical theater and performance art in a way that made his show unpredictable we'll do a racial joke about the white people so you don't feel uncomfortable uh white people we like the same Foods uh favorite sandwich peanut butter and jelly macaroni and cheese our favorite chips salt and VI wow who said
19:54 it get the cameras on them straight white man is a song on the problems one faces when cursed with being Caucasian heterosexual and male with the irony being that they don't face as many problems since straight white men have historically caused most of the oppression experienced by women ethnic minorities and those a part of the lgbtq community among others we used to have all the money in land and we still do but it's not as fun I wrote that song cuz I just think it's so funny these straight white men that are coming out and like you know in these like most of what I hear like the men's rights activists and stuff it's like uh uh it's the funniest thing in the world where it's like but affirmative action what are you talking it's like everything else in the world is working in your
20:40 favor everything else everything literally everything else can can they have one thing can can we do one thing to make other people more comfortable the last 15 minutes of make happy takes a dramatic turn as Bo shares that his comedy is almost always about performing itself because he thinks that people are at all times doing a performance for one another he explained they say it's like the me generation it's not the arrogance it's taught or it was cultivated it's self-conscious that's what it is it's conscious of self social media it's just the Market's answer to a generation that demanded to perform so the market said here perform everything to each other all the time for no reason but what I do know is that if you can live your life without an
21:26 audience you should do it he then transitions to a half rant half autotuned song that was inspired by Kanye West who at the time was on his yeus tour taking breaks in songs to talk directly to the audience about issues in his personal life I told you before I started that I was so arrogant that I thought that I would be able to change my own narrative and outsmart the media eventually eventually eventually eventually eventually because now that I actually signed now that I actually signed my deal with aetas I've got opportunity got opportunity I've got
22:13 [Music] opportun the randomness mixed in with seriousness inspired B to do a 7-minute rendition of y's performance the first half was about him not being able to fit his hand inside of a Pringles can say it again the diameter of pringle cans is way too small two radiuses of a Pringle can is way too small if you feel me put your hands up come on if you feel me put your hands up look at all these hands that are way too big a fit and the second half was a little bit more serious I can handle this right I don't think that I can handle this right look at them they just staring at me like
22:59 come and watch the skinny kid with a steadily declining mental health and laugh as he to give you what he cannot himself the special ends on a very depressing yet honest note with the song are you happy where he essentially in song form asks the audience if they loved or hated the performance but he recognizes it doesn't really matter what they think because he is not happy with himself he sings the most most profound line at the end you're everything you hated are you happy Bo was still that awkward charismatic theater kid that his YouTube audience loved however here peing in Fame and success he recognizes he is just another one of those celebrities that he spent so much time making fun of who will Pander act like
23:47 he deserves attention or his art is somehow better or more valuable than anyone else's and because of that he will be rewarded with more money and more Fame only continuing to compound the prop problem perhaps one of the reasons why this special ends this way is because he genuinely believed he was not going to continue doing comedy after this special I don't know man I don't I I am not lying when I am saying it's a very good possibility I don't do it anymore after this one comes out in a couple months there is a real possibility of that the show was sort of about my anxiety towards performing I mean today was fun and we like you know screw around with the kids and stuff we'll see in the special what it kind of is about um yeah I like writing I feel like I'm a writer you know so I'd like to continue to write I'd love to
24:32 continue to make theater shows maybe for other people but I might be raising the end of the line for me so like more poetry books and stuff like that possible yeah or like yeah or or writing a show for another person or like a stage show or musical or something you know I'd be more into I I'm a little tired of myself I'm a little tired of writing for myself you know I I kind of want to collaborate a little bit there's only so much I can do and and and and so much of what I write is limited by my ability like I'm not a great singer anything be so great to write for someone who can really belt although B's outlook here might seem a bit overly self-critical his material and creative direction for both of his specials were almost exactly the same the only things that felt new were the silly and stupid jokes which don't really mean all that much however his societal critiques his
25:18 life as a straight white male or his LoveHate Dynamic for performing summarizes his entire act since he became famous at a young age he didn't have much time to be normal he knows being a celebrity is unrelatable to Comedy fans and typically the more famous a comic gets the less relatable they become which negatively impacts their jokes but another huge reason why Bo was not going to continue to do comedy was because his anxiety was so bad to the point where he felt physically debilitated on stage backstage or even just doing ordinary tasks well it was so constant that we I didn't think it could have been it was every day um which actually probably should have pointed to anxiety but but um and then it really when I was
26:04 23 I had my first panic attack on stage and that that was like oh how did you how did the show continue it continued I've had like you know you pushed through it yeah I've had about 10 on stage and I I have a script that I have to keep to so I have this inner monologue freaking out and then I'm having to perform a show found that you're able to still like perform the script while having a somewhat out-of- body experience yeah I was but it was like it was like I'd be a little out of breath so I'd be the entire show for 20 minutes would be existing like on like the inhale kind of um it was definitely wasn't my best work it seemed like no matter what Burnham did he could not subside his anxiousness and Performing just made it worse it's very literal I cannot handle performing in front of you
26:49 people it gives me panic attacks I want to stop and I did and so it was decided Bo Burnham was done performing live on stage instead he wrote and directed his first feature film 8th grade which was produced and distributed by a24 before premiering at the Sundance Film Festival in January of 2018 8th grade follows 13-year-old Kayla day during her final week of Middle School shy and socially awkward Kayla struggles with anxiety and self-confidence while navigating the pressures of adolescence social media and the desire to fit in despite her timid nature in real life Kayla posts motivational YouTube videos giving advice that she struggles to follow herself even though this film is not an autobiography it feels heavily rooted in Bo's own experience as a young person trying to navigate this hyperconnected
27:36 world I had felt like my anxiety for a long time was like very specific to me being a 25-year-old comedian with like an audience um and then I would like do my shows and like young kids would come up to me and say they felt like me and they felt like they knew what I was going through even what I was talking about was like being on stage in front of thousands of people I'm like why is this resonating with you um and I just think the sort of pressures the weird pressures that are usually only afforded to like dless celebrities have now been democratized and given to everybody so I was always interested in like who are the telling a story about someone on the internet that nobody's watching cuz the internet tends to and the culture at large tends to only talk about the people on the internet that are being seen but the majority of people on the internet and there's a lot more and more who are just talking to the camera and nobody's watching yeah that's 99% of the
28:23 videos that are uploaded 99.9 you know um and the kind of the only thing we talk about is like people that go viral and as someone that went viral it's really not that interesting 8th grade garnered a 99% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes and holds an average rating of 85 out of 100 on Metacritic Burnham won the Director's Guild of America award for outstanding firsttime feature and The Writers Guild of America Award for best original screenplay it was also during the marketing and promotion of this film that Bo did the most press he has ever done participating in various interviews and podcasts we finally got to hear both speak at length and realize just how prophetic introspective and thought-provoking he was without him trying to be funny and also the political problem for me if I've identified it is the volume of noise so
29:09 no noise I contribute to it is going to save that to me my political view is shut up to every just please can we all be quiet for a day like a day just if someone does something on Monday on Wednesday we can hold them accountable but just Tuesday just like let's just all be quiet and and the problem with Trump is that like everyone is cashing in why is everyone pretending like the comedians are thrilled this is exactly what they wanted everyone wanted someone to make fun of an eviscerate and to act like you're going to play the victim and cash in at the same time this is exactly what the system called for specifically entertainment did we called for a big boisterous guy that was an easy target and we got it so to so to keep making jokes the jokes are as much keeping him alive as his support is you're not going to he he he he was a clown like erected
29:56 for this purpose so to think we're tearing him down with the thing that he you know at least 50% of him is there for I think is just silly B seemingly can't decide if everyone having an opinion on literally everything is good or bad maybe we are drowning out the experts that deserve to be heard more than the ordinary person or maybe we can't trust the experts because they have the incentive to not tell us the truth therefore the more talking from the ordinary person and the more information that we get could be better which is to try to give a a more subjective emotional description of what the internet is not like a description of the internet as most people do which is like the rates of cyber bullying are up and kids are spending 5 hours staring at a screen and they're getting headaches it's like no no no what is the
30:43 feeling of and you hinted at this walking through your life and not just living your life which is already hell and impossible but taking inventory of your life being a viewer to your own life living an experience and at the same time hovering behind find yourself and watching yourself live that experience being nostalgic for moments that haven't happened yet planning your future to look back on it those are really weird strange disassociative things that are that are I think new because of the specific structure of social media and the way it sort of disassociates our self from ourself and Not only was he just upset at this overstimulating hyperconnected world that big tech companies have created he went to the Google headquarters and confronted them directly I don't know I just don't think we're totally processing I think we're
31:30 maybe processing on our own internally but are we processing it as a group what this thing means what it's doing to kids how it changes them how significant this stuff is you know you want to say the word sh on television you got to go to Congress you you want to change the neurochemistry of an entire generation you got to be five people in a room putting your hands up in Silicon Valley you know I mean and it's crazy it's really strange you know you put a 50mm lens on a camera on a on a phone and all of a sudden kids can take compressed images that are beautiful portraits of themselves is that good should we allow that does everything need to be streamlined we can talk to five people now we can talk to 500 we can talk to do we need to actualize our social lives in the same way we're actualizing our clean energy and our travel I don't know you
32:15 know I just worry we're going to look back on this like we looked back on smoking going why are we all doing this and the equivalent of my doctor smoked will be my shrink at a Twitter you know what I mean so I just um yeah I just the conversation is changing so rapidly you know and by the time kids get old enough to become the adults that can then change things the Paradigm is shifted beyond anything they know you know it's really weird I mean now it's now we're going way off the rails but I'm interested in it cuz you guys are all obviously smart young engaged people and it's um this these conversations I have are every I you know everyone's having them all the time privately um but it's very hard to have it um in public you know because maybe it's slightly CR critical of the exact medium that the
33:01 conversations are being had on and probably the mediums have a vested interest for these conversations not to take place he says as the audio feed cuts out Bo had clearly developed a great disdain for our overreliance on smartphones and social media but he wasn't blaming humans for getting addicted that's what they were designed to do they're coming for every second of your life that that's what these companies are coming to this company as well and it's not because anyone is bad it's not because anyone in this company is evil plans or trying to do this they not even doing it consciously it's because these companies like Twitter and uh YouTube and Instagram everything they went public and they went to shareholders so they have to grow their entire models are based off of growth they cannot stay stagnant YouTube uh Twitter grossed four5 billion last year it is in the red it is unprofitable it
33:47 has to get more of you that could be the ceiling for a place like this YouTube the ceiling could be 3 hours of Engagement no matter how nice it's trying to be it is all they're trying to get more engagement from you we the we used to colonize land that was the thing you could expand into and that's where money was to be made we colonized the entire Earth there was no other place for the businesses in capitalism to expand into and then they realized human attention that we can now they are now trying to colonize every minute of your life that is what these people are trying to do every single free moment you have is a moment you could be looking at your phone and they could be gathering information to Target ads at you now this may be much harder for children to Grapple but for adults you can fight this you just have to consciously choose where you are
34:33 spending your time online and constantly re-evaluate what you are watching and why you are watching it now I personally benefit from this exact system I quite literally need you to watch longer as it improves my livelihood but I don't really know how much of you are watching this intently some of you are driving right now or cooking dinner or just laying down and you have me on in the background but now I got your attention so hey how you doing so while I do appreciate you being here and spending your time on something I and my team created I just hope that it was at least by choice and that you weren't tricked or hypnotized and stuck in some sort of content Wormhole anyways Burnham made it apparent that he was more interested in writing directing and acting than Live Comedy I stepped away from standup after make happy Burnham told Rolling Stone I
35:20 just felt like I did what I wanted I had no more ideas in that space and I felt like I'd sort of exhausted myself as a subject Burnham did not performed live standup for 5 years and instead he used that time to work on his struggles with mental health and various other creative projects and in January of 2020 he finally felt like he got a grasp on his mental health he felt better and wanted to pursue comedy on stage again and just as he was preparing to come back the entire world shut down as a result of the 2020 covid pandemic while being forced to be alone and locked in his house Bo had basically nothing else to do than to scroll social media being forced to witness the r riots protests political discourse celebrities getting cancelled comedians complaining about cancel culture brain rot and all the other mind-numbing Whirlwind of chaos we
36:07 all subjected ourselves to during the pandemic Bose's Awakening towards the horrors of social media big Tech and human psychology combined with being stuck at home would be the inspiration for his final Netflix comedy special inside inside was not very funny and he sets you up for that by saying in the beginning that he does not really know what this comedy special is supposed to be inside was created entirely within a roughly 500t detached apartment in his backyard this was created during the lockdown to artistically recreate those feelings of loneliness and isolation we all experienced Bo immediately sets the tone that this special is going to be yet again more social commentary and the themes he explores are pretty much the exact same as all his previous specials
36:52 starting off with healing the world with comedy the track that tells the same exact message as his 2013 song Sad expressing that comedians often feel or are perceived as Heroes for essentially distracting their fans from the horrible atrocities in the world by telling jokes even though the jokes don't do anything to remedy the problems for the actual victims but allow you to just feel better about it a additionally Bose sings about wanting to help but also still wanting to be the center of attention which is critical of the celebrities and really anyone on social media who feels the need to share or post a video of them doing some sort of Good Deed the difference between Bose's approach and inside versus
37:37 previously is that this song is not funny it's actually just sad like I did not feel good watching this you know this is not a feel-good special this is not a feel great special then Bo busts out Sako a sock puppet for the song how the world Works to what you think is going to be some cheesy corny children's song about Sunshine Lollipops and rainbows the tempo and structure of the instrumental is straight out of a Muppets cartoon s we were just talking about the world and how it works boy that sounds complicated and then out of nowhere Sako Go's full-blown radical conspiracy theorist explaining the true Terrors of the world in an eerily fun and educational way Sako sings the simple narrative taught in every history class is demonstrably false and pedagogically classist do you know the
38:25 world is built with blood and genocide and exploitation the global network of capital essentially functions to separate the worker from the means of production and the FBI killed Martin Luther King private properties inherently theft and neoliberal fascists are destroying the left and every politician every cop on the street protects the interest of the pedophilic corporate Elite don't you know the world is built with blood and genocide and exploitation however this is one of the very few upbeat and slightly funny moments from here continues to get darker and sadder the rest of the special definitely has a lot of anti- capitalism anti-monopoly anti-icon Bley rhetoric but it's mostly packed with existential angst melodramatic insights on his life as an Entertainer which
39:11 double as metaphors for your life as an Entertainer that is if you use social media and document any part of your life for your audience I mean friends and family this theme is perfectly actualized in The Ballad All Eyes On meink [Music] look scared sh however the high point of the special which I'm imagining should have been the original outro as it landed exactly on the 1H hour mark is the song Welcome to the internet with this video currently sitting at a staggering 147 million views on YouTube this is easily Bo Burnham's magnum opus the instrumental has this bouncy and fun Dr Seuss nature to it and Bose's delivery and round
39:56 glasses give off the same slightly dark and uncanny energy that Wonka does he takes the role of this omniscent voice of the internet inviting you into an endless source of entertainment information and connection while also reminding you about the harmful content misinformation and degeneracy the chorus can I interest you in everything all of the time apathy a tragedy and boredoms a crime highlights how the internet is always there to trap you in an endless cycle of consumption because today's humans cannot handle a moment of under stimulation or boredom welcome to the internet what would you prefer would you like to fight for civil rights or tweet racial slur he then goes on to mention that life was not always like this and you think he's going to Pivot to a moment where this was all a big accident
40:43 and life was so much better before the Internet only for him to explain that getting people addicted to this social hellscape was all a part of some evil corporate plan Mommy let you use her iPad you were barely too and it did all of the things we designed it to do now look at you it was always the plan to put the world in your hand then the song shifts from playful to Sinister with Bose's maniacal evil laugh that makes the audience realize how trapped we are and how the elites who run this world are laughing at the Endless Ocean of money they are pouring in at the expense of human civilization this track is by far the best overall representation of Bo
41:28 Burnham's art it's funny it's got amazing songwriting and creative word play it's got great singing It's eerie and slightly uncomfortable it's thought-provoking and self-aware and also an incredibly accurate summary of our civilization even B knows that he just peaked so much so that he might even want to disappear the very last song is the track goodbye where Bo expresses how badly he wants to just stay inside how he wants to stop being the jester stop being another Cog in the entertainment wheel of distracting the world from real problems and thwarting human evolution But ultimately he knows that one day his relevance will decline or he will be financially drained or simply needing the approval of others resulting in him going back to the stage and repeating this same cycle he has been stuck in for 14 years I swear to
42:15 God that all I've ever wanted was a little bit of everything all of the time apathy is a tragedy and boredom is a crime I'm finished playing and I'm staying inside Bo Burnham wanted a little bit of everything all of the time he wanted to be a theatrical performer he wanted to be a comedian he wanted to be a musician and a songwriter he wanted to be introspective and thought-provoking but he wanted to be crass and silly he wanted to be quirky and cute he wanted to be tall and handsome he wanted to fit in with the Geeks and the jocks but once he got it all he no longer wanted it but he needed it because everyone's got to make money and trying to balance all of this without going insane is next to Impossible which is likely why his mental health has deteriorated to the point where he has disappeared off the inter internet and is nowhere to be found clearing all of the content from his social medias and replacing them
43:01 with an ocean representing himself being lost at sea but hopefully at peace or maybe he is just this fraud who puts on this fake melodramatic Persona while he rakes in millions of dollars just like all of the other Hollywood phonies he claims to hate so much I don't know
