Bo Burnham’s Netflix special and how he took the trauma of the creative community and made it into a musical
He is one of two white guy comedians that I would murder for (the other is John Mulaney) *Also this show (not my article) does have a suicide trigger warning
I don’t know how many of you have had the chance to watch Bo’s latest Netflix special called “Inside” but dear Lordt it was a TRIP (in the best and most unsettling ways). As a person who makes their living in a creative industry, let me just say that this special was TRIGGERING. It was everything that I felt about my industry and social media (because they are inseparable at this point) and didn’t have the words to articulate it. He really did create a masterpiece and, without spoiling anything, I want to hype this special up to the heavens!
Mommy, social media killed my mental health
We have all felt a level of burnout in quarantine but there was something especially insidious about the type of burnout felt by the creative community. There was (and still is) this constant pressure to create content, advertise it, post it, hype it, go viral, hopefully get a sponsorship, maybe survive without losing your $1100-per-room apartment in NYC and be happy in the hustle (or at least happy onscreen). As excited as I am for the performing arts to start opening back up in NYC (which is around where I live currently), I also recognize that the artistic community has been traumatized by this pandemic. I will put myself in that collective. Weeks before the pandemic hit, I was cast in a play that I was more excited for than any other production I had ever been in. My commercial modeling career was starting to take off (as in, I got more jobs). Basically, I was starting to get actual money for my acting career. Then it all stopped overnight. No protections, no backup plans, no federal assistance, nothing. Just all the time to stare at a wall at 1 AM and wonder:
“What could I do to become social media relevant so I can, hopefully, make money in a crumbling society during a global pandemic? Is that a normal sentence? Is it even worth it?”
Bo doesn’t talk about this explicitly, but the energy is there from the beginning and he shows this struggle (that I have named the Influencer’s mentality) in more ways that I can write about it.
I know I’m alive because I’m working on a project
I spoke to a good friend recently about their post-project blues. For those who are not working creatives, that is the feeling of loss and sadness around a creative project coming to an end. That could be a show or a movie that is wrapped, a commissioned piece that is sold, etc. Basically, you finished a thing and, now, you are back to being funemployed or just project-less. Some people might just say “MAKE SOMETHING ELSE THAT’S AN EASY SOLUTION” and it really isn’t that simple, especially during the pandemic.
The tightness to which Bo talks about holding onto this one project that he had during the pandemic was the realest thing I’ve seen in so long. He was the entire crew and cast. He did everything. He made this exactly what he wanted it to be and it was stunning. But it was also the thing tethering him to the ground. Without this project, there was nothing but the sad reality of everything outside the room he was filming. And what if it is better to be inside filming with no one but himself and his art than it is to be outside and in constant mourning because social awareness is a heavy burden?
There are so many ways to not be ok
And he showed SO MANY OF THEM. Like the man made me laugh so violently hard and then immediately made me oh so concerned for his mental health. Personally, I think a lot of people got funnier during the pandemic. I also think that traumatized people tend to have a more complex relationship with laughter (which makes their comedy funnier to me). Now I’m not saying to go and traumatize yourself for content! I just find traumatized-people-comedy #relatable
Bo has always been funny to me but the more than he has had to grapple with his identity as a cishet (cisgender and heterosexual) white man in a society were he matters and everyone else doesn’t (in varying degrees), the funnier he got to me. Why, because humor is about complexity and I can’t think of another white dude in comedy that has stared his whiteness in the face like Bo. Does this special also reek of nihilism? Yea probably. But all the questions that this special asks are soooo valid and things that we should all be thinking about as the United States reopens. This special was hilarious. Like without question it was SO funny. But it was equal parts hilarious and very dark. The cinematography and set gave every scene the eeriness of a man unhinged. Nothing is hidden. Not the wires, the cameras, the lighting systems, the open drawers, the absolute mess. It’s all out in the open and it reads as so vulnerable. Then he starts singing about the post-apocalyptic mania that is white women on Instagram and I wheezed.
All this to say, if you have the time I would strongly recommend watching this special. Like, as a Black woman who made a platform specifically to promote all-Black everything...like...recognize that this special MUST be really good for me to be talking about it here.
There’s more than I could say but I also desperately need to do my laundry so imma just...go
A heads up, as my writing career gets busier I’m recognizing that I might not be able to keep up with the one-newsletter-per-week pattern that I have been doing. I might have to move it down to once every two weeks, depending on work and such, but WE SHALL SEE!
Just wanted to give you a heads up :)
Also, I will be moving in November (more info on that in the paid subscribers letter)
K BYEEEE