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Bo Burnham on the floor: "Working on this special should distract me from trying to put a bullet in my head."
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Netflix
In 2016, at the end of his last Netflix special, "Make Happy," the depressed comedian Bo Burnham gets up from the stool of his electric piano and walks through the front door.
A bright future lies ahead of him, music can be heard.
It seems like he finally found a way to be happy.
You just have to go out and live your life.
Can it be that easy?
"Imagine a depressed onion cutting itself."
Bo Burnham 2016 in Make Happy
In 2021 we know: No, it can't.
What is not mentioned in the show from back then: Burnham claims to suffer from panic attacks on stage.
That's why he interrupted his stand-up career after “Make Happy”.
He worked on himself for almost four years, directed ("8th Grade") and stood in front of the camera, but did not dare to go live on stage.
Just before he wanted to face his fear after years of preparation, the corona pandemic hit the world.
To go out, to appear?
Puff cake.
The same apartment door as in 2016, locked this time, now forms the protective barrier between Burnham and its pandemic-ridden environment.
Scared, isolated and increasingly tumbling towards the psychological abyss, he uses the time to do what he does best: biting, painful comedy.
Just without an audience.
His new special "Inside" has been available on Netflix for a week.
Burnham wrote, shot and performed it all by himself last year - in his living room.
The result is something great.
Something very sad.
Against all conventions
"Inside" breaks all the conventions of classic stand-up comedy.
Usually one or more live shows are filmed and edited for comedy specials, sometimes with additional behind-the-scenes clips or a new intro, always accompanied by laughter from the audience.
In »Inside«, on the other hand, socially critical songs from the perspective of an anti-capitalist sock puppet alternate with shots in which Burnham lies wrapped up in his blanket on the floor and ponders the consequences of uncontrolled social media use by small children.
Sometimes he sings in his underpants, other times he angrily smashes his film equipment.
And sometimes he just sits quietly in the room.
It's a colorful mess, here self-critical, there full of hubris, often depressed. Netflix itself doesn't seem to really know how to market it: For the advertising on YouTube, the streaming service decided on the weakest song in the program - the one about the frustrating, evening Corona phone call with the parents. Maybe because the song is easiest to understand if you don't know the context.
The special thing about "Inside" is how unadorned and unfiltered many other things appear.
Burnham is alone with his sadness;
it seems like no producer has told him that some ideas are unsuitable for a comedy special.
One of the high points is reached when Burnham - who has looked like the Unabomber when he was arrested for months without a haircut - films the change of day for his 30th birthday: the sufferer wrests a quiet "yay" before going back to work goes.
"Working on this special should distract me from trying to put a bullet in my head."
Bo Burnham in "Inside"
Good or bad tears
Comedy can help make sad and painful experiences bearable.
Terrorists, Nazis, cancer: they all lose some of their terrifying aura if you just laugh at them.
But what if even the comedian doesn't want to laugh at himself anymore?
What if the clown is depressed?
It remains unclear whether Burnham is actually doing as badly as he shows on camera.
In real life he has been in a happy relationship for eight years - but his partner Lorene Scafaria is not mentioned in the special.
The fact that the film “Promising Young Woman”, in which he starred, won an Oscar in 2020 is left out in the sense of the depressing “Nothing happens in my life” narrative.
And yet »Inside« is a work of art.
Because Burnham shows how many others in his generation are doing right now.
Studies show: Young people suffer particularly from measures known as social distacing.
In the corona pandemic, adolescents and young adults were particularly likely to develop depression and anxiety disorders - they are affected up to 80 percent more often than the average population.
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Mental illnesses in the corona pandemic: adolescents and young adults suffer the most
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Burnham's program comes at the right time.
Because while older people who have been vaccinated can participate more and more in public life again, most young people are still waiting for their circumstances to improve.
The universities are still closed in many places, vaccination appointments are not even in prospect.
Burnham makes it understandable what kind of consequences this can have.
The relentless display of his psychological erosion is often not funny.
Instead of laughing, you want to hug him and comfort him.
Tell him everything will be fine.
That the claustrophobic feeling of being locked in will eventually be over.
Until he starts the catchy tune "Welcome to the Internet" and you ask yourself whether it might be tears of joy on your face after all.
