Bo Burnham's 'Inside'

About

Inside is a 2021 Netflix comedy special by musical comedian Bo Burnham. The entirety of the film, arranged as a digital vlog over the course of a year, takes place in Burnham's home where he is quarantined due to COVID-19. The special gained popularity by dealing with topics such as depression, the pandemic, social media and social distancing with a comedic spin. Following the special's release, various elements and songs from Inside became the subject of memes during summer 2021.

History

Burnham announced his new special, titled Inside, on April 28th, 2021, through Twitter,^[1] sharing a teaser alongside it (seen below). His tweet received over 244,000 likes and 47,100 retweets in less than four months.

hi. i made a new special. it was filmed by me, alone, without a crew or an audience, over the course of the past year. it is almost finished. i hope you like it. pic.twitter.com/5a59IUrzVj

— Bo Burnham (@boburnham) April 28, 2021

Bo Burnham wrote, directed, filmed and starred in the special entirely on his own, which took place in his home during the COVID-19 pandemic. Popular songs he performed include "Welcome to the Internet," "Shit," "Bezos 1 & 2," "White Woman's Instagram," "All Eyes on Me," "Look Who’s Inside Again" and more. It is Burnham's most recent special as of 2021, premiering on May 30th via Netflix.

Reception

Upon release in late May 2021, Inside received a 93 percent fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes. ^[2] It is often perceived as incredibly bleak, but funny and relatable due to its commentary on life during the quarantine, depression and other elements. "Welcome to the Internet" became particularly popular among fans as a "villain theme song." The clip of the song (seen below) was uploaded by Burnham to YouTube^[3] on June 4th, 2021, and has been viewed over 35 million times as of August 2021.

Online Presence

The same day the special premiered, Inside became the subject of memes across a wide array of sites and platforms. On May 30th, 2021, Twitter^[4] user @MemelordPeri uploaded a meme captioned "Inside by Bo Burnham (2021)." It received over 4,200 likes and 336 retweets and is the earliest known meme based on the special.

On July 23rd, 2021, Gus Johnson uploaded a video to his YouTube^[5] channel as a parody of the many similar reactions found online to Inside. Titled "Lots of People After Watching Bo Burnham’s Inside," Johnson’s video earned over 1.4 million views in under two months, as well as 134,000 likes. As the video began to trend, people used similar quotes online to describe the special, especially by copying the phrase "Bo hit the nail on the head."

Memes about the special rose in popularity quickly. The subreddit /r/BoBurnham was home to numerous memes, with the most popular from a post (seen below) by u/Bunnywith_Wings^[6] on June 11th, 2021. It received over 5,900 upvotes and 32 comments in two months.

Related Memes

Bezos

Bezos is a two-part song (part one seen below)^[7] about Amazon CEO Jeffrey Bezos by comedian Bo Burnham, which he performs in Inside as a commentary on his wealth garnered during the pandemic. It gained popularity as a meme and led to a number of jokes about the controversial figure.

Search Interest

External References