Bo Burnham recently released "The Inside Outtakes," nearly an hour of material consisting of behind the scenes footage, early versions of songs and sketches, and unused segments from his Netflix special "Inside." There's also an accompanying album with a few extra songs that never made it to the filming stage. It's been a year since the release of "Inside," a piece of media that's been one of the few to really capture the pandemic zeitgeist. I spent a good chunk of 2021 obsessed with it, and became hyperfixated on Bo Burnham for a few months as a result.
Part of what fueled my reaction is that Burnham did zero press for "Inside," and almost no media appearances, even as the special racked up widespread acclaim, a pile of critical kudos, three Emmy wins and a Grammy. While his audience was busy analyzing every frame of "Inside," trying to decode the themes and figure out how he'd managed to DIY the whole thing by himself during lockdown, Burnham offered zero answers. We got a few announcements related to merchandise and the brief "Inside" theatrical run last summer, but that was about it.
"Outtakes" is fascinating because it offers some indirect answers. How did Burnham make "Inside" so perfect? Everything we see in "Outtakes" points to a monumental amount of work. We see five different iterations of the opening number, "Content," for instance, using different lighting effects. All five versions are put onscreen simultaneously and synced together, so we can appreciate the differences, and see how the initial idea progressed to the finished product. Another screen shows us 35 different takes of "Welcome to the Internet," each one blinking out of existence when Burnham hits a snag, until only the final, familiar one remains.
The highlights, however, are the sketches and songs that were cut from "Inside." It's apparent why some of them didn't make the cut - "Joe Biden" invokes distracting politics, and "Five Years" breaks the illusion that Burnham's character is operating in isolation. "Chicken," doesn't quite fit the apocalyptic mood. I like "The Future," which had its melody repurposed for "Problematic," and its visuals reworked for "All Eyes on Me." Other segments, however, were probably only excised for time. My favorite things in "Outtakes" are the Zoom interview that Burnham conducts with multiple versions of himself, and a podcast spoof that skewers thin-skinned comedians complaining about cancel culture. Only slightly less effective are a nihilistic peanut butter sandwich making tutorial, a MCU-style announcement of an "Inside Cinematic Universe," and an absurdist advertisement for jeans.
I've heard some chatter that "Outtakes" is as good as "Inside," which I don't agree with. "Outtakes" has a lot of good things in it, but it's made up of far more scattered pieces, and derives most of its poignancy from being a companion piece to "Inside." The narrative of showing the ups and downs of the creative process is rudimentary at best. However, "Outtakes" is very much its own piece of media, with its own, slightly different style and a more metatextual point of view. Another interesting twist is that Burnham clearly intended for "Outtakes" to be a Youtube release, with fake midroll ads, fake "skip ads" buttons, and a bevy of humorous pop ups to take advantage of the format.
This is also a piece of media that's clearly aimed at Burnham's most ardent fans, the viewers who will pause the video to try and read a whiteboard in the background of a shot, or will spot the hidden frame from one of Burnham's old Youtube videos in the fiery alternate ending. If you haven't already seen "Inside," I don't see the point in sifting through Burnham's discarded ideas - though some segments work decently on their own. This is all the extras you'd expect to find on an "Inside" home media release, edited together and tweaked to make fun of its own existence, but it's still just the extras.
I am happy to report a sense of relief at realizing that my hyperfixation on Bo Burnham has well and truly passed. After finishing "Outtakes," I had no real urge to rewatch it, to read reviews, or to find out what other people thought of it. I'm delighted that it exists, and that Burnham continues to find new ways to surprise and delight us, but I'm also more than ready for him to move on to the next project.
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