Abby Seney

If one were to encapsulate this whole special with one word, I would use the word aware. Bo Burnham is almost alarmingly hyper-aware of both himself and the world around him. He picks apart every action of his, and tries to understand the real motive behind it, not so much what he wishes the motive were. With his awareness of the world, he is less aware of the motives of big corporations or politicians, but he is aware of the reactions to their actions. For me, this awareness that Burnham has, is both humorous but also horrifying. I find it to be humorous in that he is still able to crack jokes about worsening state of both himself and the world. It grows horrifying though, when Burnham has grown so aware of his surroundings, and indulges in them, that the viewer is able to see the man loose hope in himself, the special, and the world. There is a visible shift in purpose about halfway through the movie. To me, the first half’s purpose was to entertain the viewers, like Bo had been wanting to do after a hiatus. As the minutes continued for the viewer, and the days continued for Burnham. The second half centered more around Bo’s survival than it did our pleasure. This project became essential to Burnham’s livelihood. He goes from trying to cheer us up in the beginning, to trying to find hope in us; encouraging us to make jokes at a time like this, rather than he only making jokes at a time like this. In conclusion, I really enjoyed the special, it was extremely impressive what one man could do in the confinement of one room. I still don’t know how to feel about the “climax” of the special, really, I didn’t care too much for it, but it was so very important to Bo Burnham’s health, and it needed to be heard. The very ending is the perfect way to end something as complicated as “Inside.” The ending left me with a sense of hope, and a new purpose to be joking at a time like this.