Earlier this month, comedian Bo Burnham released a 1 hour, 27 minute long Netflix special titled “Inside” that was written, directed, filmed, edited, and starred all by Burnham himself. The comedian recorded everything in his house during the recent pandemic without a crew or audience–which is pretty incredible.
If you don’t know, Bo Burnham is a 30-year-old American comedian, musician, actor, poet and more. He’s a talented dude who began his career on YouTube in 2006 when his video titled “My Whole Family” went viral!
Despite his success in the media, he received backlash for controversial language in his satirical early videos. This didn’t stop him, however.
After his initial YouTube debut, Burnham released full-length, self-titled albums and began appearing on major talk shows like “Late Night” with Jimmy Fallon and “Conan”.
In 2013, his show “what.” was created and released on Netflix. He also toured, performed comedy specials, and interviewed. Here, he started opening up about his mental health: Burnham had several severe on-stage panic attacks and decided to stop performing live comedy as a result.
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All this didn’t stop the comedian from pursuing his dreams. In 2015, his show “Make Happy” premiered on Netflix, which brought a whole new level of intimacy and sincerity to his work. People loved it!
Since then, Burnham worked with a therapist and the support of his loved ones to improve himself mentally. In January of 2020, he planned on returning to live comedy, but postponed because of the pandemic. Instead, the comedian got creative and started working on his next project: “Inside”.
“Inside” starts off where “Make Happy” ended and makes tons of references through songs and jokes about his previous work–even his first viral video from 2006.
To label “Inside” as a “comedy special” doesn’t really describe the show accurately. It is more of a collection of songs, bits, and monologues of Burnham filming in his messy attic room.
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While some parts are funny, Burnham doesn’t shy away from sharing his reflections on mental health and what a tough year 2020 has been in general.
The shining moment from Burnham’s special that really resonated with his audience was one of his songs “That Funny Feeling”.
Included at the one-hour mark, Burnham sits down with his guitar and somber lighting. He opens by apologizing for not being able to play the guitar or sing well, then plays a melancholic song alternating between hyper-specific lyrics and repeating lines showcasing Burnham’s titular “funny feeling”.
While viewers loved all of Burnham’s creative songs–so much so that he released a whole album of the songs–TikTokers (songwriters or not) have started a trend of re-writing the lyrics to this genius song.
People are resonating with this song, as it is giving them an outlet to share all of their vague senses of discomfort in life that result in personal “funny feelings”.
@dudtheband had to give it a go #boburnham #funnyfeelinginside #sadtiktok #firsttiktok
This trend has since expanded from just a TikTok trend to a more mainstream idea as Phoebe Bridgers, Grammy-nominated artist and singer, captioned a clip of “That Funny Feeling” with “every bone in my body wants to plagiarize this”.
Fans of Bridgers and Burnham are drooling over this idea, begging Bridgers to follow through!
@bodytoflames i would like to see it #greenscreen #phoebebridgers #boygenius #boburnham #boburnhaminside #phoebebridgerstiktok #boygeniustiktok
One Twitter user said: “I won’t have any closure on this past year until @phoebe_bridgers covers @boburnham” while another chimed in with “phoebe bridgers cover that funny feeling by bo burnham challenge”.
I won’t have any closure on this past year until @phoebe_bridgers covers @boburnham
— Mikey Chappell (@mikeychappell) June 17, 2021
someone commented “bo bridgers” on this so like.. close? pic.twitter.com/wUM8y2LOBJ
— katee (@shadykatee) June 17, 2021
who, me? oh, I’m alright. just been watching every video on youtube that has something to do with either bo burnham or phoebe bridgers for like 3 weeks now idk
— aidan (@aidnlckr) June 18, 2021
