B Movies Blog

Hello, Movie Mavens! Welcome back to the B Movies Blog. Today, we’re popping Bo Burnham’s Inside into the ol’ VCR (again).

From the mind that brought you a review on Inside, an anniversary piece on Inside (which is my personal favorite), a piece on The Inside Outtakes, and a piece earlier this year that explicitly stated I wouldn’t be writing about Inside anymore, comes another piece about…Inside. 

Yes, friends, I’m officially back on my BS, aka Bo Shit. 

(Every time I think I’m done, that brilliant bastard draws me back in) 

In case you haven’t noticed, the world is falling apart, and, like many of you, I’ve turned to Inside for comfort. 

And, as we all know, I believe that what., Make Happy, and Inside are a trilogy, so I watched all three. 

However, on this particular watch-through, I noticed something I hadn’t noticed before (and yes, I read all the other pieces to make sure, thank you). 

Now, this isn’t as prolific as my Bagel Bites = Bo Burnham theory, but I still think it’s worth discussing. 

You see, there’s a line in Make Happy that I hadn’t given too much thought to in the past that I want to go ahead and highlight now: 

“What do we want more than to lie in our bed at the end of the day and just watch our life as a satisfied audience member?”

Holy shit. 

Let that sink in. 

This man just described a major theme of Inside…in a special that was filmed four or five years earlier. 

I kept this line in mind as I rewatched Inside, and I noticed something else. 

I’ve touched on the idea before about how Bo is watching his life from the audience throughout the special, but I think it actually goes way deeper than that. 

My little festive and analytical ass writing this piece on Christmas Eve

In Make Happy, there’s a cut to the audience during “Can’t Handle This (Kanye Rant)” that’s framed with very specific lighting. 

And friends, I think Bo is mimicking that exact shot at the end of Inside, confirming that, at the very least, Make Happy and Inside are indeed a set. 

The scene in question

I know how absolutely unhinged this sounds, but you also have to remember that Bo HIMSELF has not only discussed but joked about how all of his specials are so meticulously timed and written. 

We’ve seen examples of this in what. with the “Art is a lie” segment. 

We’ve seen examples of this in Make Happy with the “improv” bit he does. 

We’ve seen examples of this in Inside when he jokes about the transitions not being smooth. 

Every single thing this man does is planned, so I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the shot we get of the audience is very similar to the lighting and the audience shot we get of Bo throughout Inside, especially in the final scene. 

Look familiar?

Additionally, as I believe I mentioned in my anniversary piece, towards the end of Make Happy, Bo says, “If you can live your life without an audience, you should do it,” and cuts to a shot of the audience that’s eerily similar to the idea of the camera being turned back to us in Inside. 

YUP. 

I know, right?

But, it doesn’t stop there. 

I think there’s even more to the lighting than I originally thought, and I think I can officially prove my trilogy theory once and for all (maybe). 

Before I continue, though, I do want to go ahead and give a little bit of a disclaimer for those who are new around here. 

While Bo Burnham is one of two celebrities that would leave me speechless if I ever met them (the other being Elmo—yes, I’m serious), this is all in good fun. 

I love to theorize and analyze pop culture, and Bo Burnham’s content is a prime example of the gift that keeps on giving. 

Also, every time I write about Bo Burnham, it seems as though the degrees of separation get smaller (God help me), so on the off chance Bo Burnham does ever see this, I want to be clear that I’m of sound mind and spirit (mostly)*, so please know I’m just doing what I love to do. 

*Editor’s Note: Elliott says that she can (mostly) vouch for this.

Additionally, I want to take a moment and talk about something rq. As much as I love Bo Burnham, I still don’t condone some of the jokes and use of the f slur in a lot of his specials prior to Inside. 

That’s the entire point of “Problematic,” right? 

We shouldn’t put people on pedestals, even though I think Bo Burnham is an excellent writer, performer, director, comedian, you name it. He still said some really offensive things and had some really offensive jokes through Make Happy. 

Okay, now that I’ve given you some extremely rational and practical disclaimers, I’m going to pitch to you that Bo Burnham uses lighting to literally highlight the moments where his mental health is deteriorating. 

I contain multitudes, baby. 

Alrighty, let’s dive in. 

Let’s start with what., aka what I believe is the unofficial beginning of this trilogy. 

In the song “Left Brain, Right Brain,” there are strobe lights to represent the “procedure” that both separates and combines the sides of Bo’s brain. 

This lighting is extremely similar to the lighting we see during “Can’t Handle This (Kanye Rant)” in Make Happy, AND Inside starts with a similar strobe effect in “Content.” 

Crazy, right?

Video source: Bo Burnham 

Well, I also noticed that what. and Make Happy have extremely similar starts with pantomiming, call and responses, and Bo faking out a piano intro. 

Again, crazy, right?

Now, let’s take what we’ve learned and apply it to Make Happy. 

In “Breakup Song,” Bo uses the same red lighting he uses in “Left Brain, Right Brain” as a device to illustrate a conversation between two different people (clever girl), but there are also very similar strobe lights whenever he’s lashing out at his ex-girlfriend and gets vulnerable about why he does it. 

He also mentions how he was born in 1990 in Make Happy, which is a direct line from “30” in Inside (which is one of my weaker points, but still). 

Additionally, in Make Happy, Bo says, “It is performer and audience melded together,” during a monologue. To illustrate this point, there are shots at the end of Make Happy where we switch between Bo’s POV and the audience’s because we’ve officially “melded together,” and that line has been fully blurred. 

And this is the part of Make Happy I really want to hone in on for a minute… 

When Bo says, “My biggest problem’s you,” in Make Happy as we cut to the audience, the vantage point is almost identical to the shots we see of Bo watching his own content in Inside. 

Here’s my take: 

Because Inside is part retrospective, Bo has now taken a seat in the audience to examine his own work, becoming part of the problem. 

Yeah, I know. 

Then, when you think about some of the cover art for Inside and Make Happy on Netflix, things get wild because several of them have strobe lighting in them. 

Exhibit A 

Exhibit BB 

Yeah, fam. 

And that brings us to Inside, which not only has the most strobe/flashing lights because it’s the special Bo’s been the most vulnerable about his mental health in but also contains “All Eyes on Me,” which has the SAME SPECIFIC BLUE LIGHTING WE’VE COME TO ASSOCIATE WITH THE AUDIENCE IN BOTH Inside AND Make Happy TO SHOW THAT BO AND THE AUDIENCE HAVE “MELDED.” 

We also see similar blue lighting in songs like “Facetime With My Mom (Tonight)” because Bo’s mom is his audience as he is performing in the sense that he’s acting as though his mental health isn’t deteriorating. 

Whew. 

Let’s recap. 

1. I believe what., Make Happy, and Inside are 100% a trilogy (probably?) 

2. The lighting has been specifically structured throughout to represent Bo’s declining mental health (strobe/flashing lights) as well as to represent the audience and how Bo has become his “biggest problem” by assimilating with them (blue lights). 

3. I should probably add aluminum foil to my grocery order. 

Look, I’m not gonna make the same promise I made in the last piece I wrote about Inside because we all see how that turned out.

I’ll leave you all with this instead: 

I promise that I’ll only write about Inside when I discover something like this. Bo Burnham’s content is chock-full of stuff to uncover, so I can’t promise if or when I’ll write about Inside again, and we’ll just leave that door open a la the end of Make Happy. 

P.S., aka Paul Stanley’s son, Evan. Hi, hello. I know you’ve liked my story before, and you were mutuals with Phoebs before she wiped her Insta. Please don’t tell Bo about this. Be cool, man.