Photo Credit | Creative Commons | Montclair Film
Bo Burnham’s “Inside” was released on May 30, of this year exclusively on Netflix. This is one of Burnham’s three Netflix comedy specials. The difference with this special is in the fact that he produced this by himself during his time in self-isolation due to the pandemic. Burnham’s other specials featured a one-take live show in front of an audience with much more structure than “Inside.”
Yet, “Inside” has quickly become widely beloved, especially by the millennial and Gen-Z population. The music from this special has been widely used on TikTok, and you can find countless covers or remixes of these songs. Why exactly is this special so fascinating to our generation?
The spontaneity of this special’s structure matches well with the millennial’s humor and minds, especially the Gen-Z population. With topics ranging from internet culture to jokingly poking fun at white women stereotypes to even deep and candid discussions about mental health, social and environmental issues, this special seems to show a portrait of the modern generation. Burnham does a great job of blending his reliable and topical comedy on ongoing topics while also having real and candid discussions about them. It worked marvelously and captured the hearts of a whole generation.
This masterpiece of a comedy special has not only represented the modern generation, but it has represented the modern generation with beauty. The marvelous thing about the Gen-Z and millennial groups are that they know how to balance humor and seriousness. These groups have managed to create large-scale phenomenons. Informs of memes that bring joy and activism while also bringing about effective and necessary change. That is the exact thing that “Inside” portrays, this spectacular duality of the modern generation.
When we, as a society, have come to the point that we can have a healthy balance of humor and seriousness, we should be proud. Undoubtedly, life would be bland without humor, as widely portrayed through meme culture today. Yet, we are not so idealistic and head-in-the-clouds that we do not tackle serious issues and have activism to see positive social change.
So, thank you, Bo Burnham, for captivating and portraying this generation through “Inside” in a fantastic way.
