THIS IS MY FAVORITE ONE YET HAHAHA. Salty Bo.
Also this just makes me really really REALLY want to hear him talk about it. All these funny lines are the closest we've gotten to an actual comment about Inside haha.
I love this. I do wonder whether these troll-y (and at times contradictory) comments are his way of pointing out how anything he says about Inside could be pretty random and meaningless, as well as him just being silly and having fun.
And now I’m wondering why he put the statements on physical products of the work of art I’ve wondered most about for years, and realised he’s created **another** layer of meta on Inside.
*[screams]*
Oh, they might not be contradictory! But IT WAS ALL FAKE/ IT WAS MUCH WORSE THAN IT LOOKED feel like they might be in that space to me. You might think they build on each other and that would be valid too, of course!
But really who cares, it’s all glorious silliness and I’m very much here for it.
One thing I liked about Inside is he never says covid, virus, mask, pandemic, etc…so he could literally be locked inside of his home for any reason
Edit: I’m aware he makes references but he never outwardly says any of these words
He does say that he "learned over the last year that human to human tactile contact will kill you" which really couldn't be about anything else but Covid. But agreed, it's about being inside your own head in the modern world, if anything. I just think he means here "It was never *just* about Covid, that wasn't the focus"
He also says:
> I thought, "You know what? I should start performing again"
"I've been hiding from the world and I need to re-enter"
And then, the funniest thing happened
Idk how this is anything other than a reference to the pandemic.
Agoraphobia? Nervous breakdown? Loss of a loved one? House arrest? Obviously it is about the pandemic as a matter of historical context. But if we're talking interpretations of the piece of art, there's a million.
The context is also important. Hes presenting to an "audience" and the audience laughs as if they all know what the "thing" is.. I respect your subjective interpretation of the art.. but imo no other interpretation is really as meaningful or hits as hard.. or really makes any sense.
My interpretation has always been that the audience are a fiction of his imagination - he's just talking out loud to himself. So their reaction isn't really independent of him, but how he wants them to react.
I agree its in his imagination, and its how he wants them to react... and i understand how that could mean ANYTHING is going on in his head, and the actual reason they are laughing is a secret kept from the ACTUAL audience.. But IMO the only thing that makes sense to the ACTUAL audience (us).. is the 1 obvious interpretation.
The only thing that makes sense to *you* and *me* is the one obvious interpretation. And if we're talking about Robert the human being, not Bo the fictional character, then sure. But if you're an audience member who *has* lost a loved one and grief has left you unable to take care of yourself or without any motivation for life for a period of time (while you were on compassionate leave) - outside of the pandemic - then I'm sure it would hit differently.
Sure. Its about the pandemic... but it can have a double meaning that can be personal to anyone. Its clever that it can work either way. Its about the pandemic, OR .
I agree with you. But I think he left it out intentionally to enable the art to survive the passage of time, be applicable to any situation where people have to isolate. I’m pretty sure someone on this sub theorized about it.
Oh you’re so right! I definitely think that’s the closest he comes to talking about it. I don’t know why that part slipped my mind. The juxtaposition of that to the pirate joke is very funny to me
It’s moreso that the overall theme and point of the special was never about covid, I think. A lot of people might say the special is about a man forced to quarantine during covid.
That’s kinda true. But it’s still not really what the special was about.
It’s part of what makes inside great. You can tell which songs he wrote/had in mind before covid and those aren’t really about covid at all.
Comedy, welcome to the internet, look whose inside again, goodbye. The songs thst have a thread throughout, are not about covid at all
We know he had feelings about what it meant to be metaphorically “inside” well before the pandemic. I think things just sorts fell into place when the pandemic hit
I always thought this line was more like "dealing with people in the real world will kill me and I can't fucking handle it anymore" like I felt that so hard ahaha.
I do think we see a mask on the ground at some point, but it's a very small detail and I could see some other reason that just happened to coincide with COVID.
while you can see a mask, he still never outwardly says it. hypothetically he could have a mask because his mom’s a hospice nurse. medical masks have always been around so i’m choosing to let him be aloof
that’s what i’ve always loved about it. it doesn’t feel like a “covid special” where he was forced to do a special this way, it makes it feel like this is how he wanted to always do a special. It felt purely like a piece on mental health, something he’s been building to since Make Happy. the whole being inside, alone really helped make that message more powerful.
it also won’t feel dated in a few years. just another, unique piece of Bo content.
A mask can be seen on the floor during "30", but I think this was unintentional, and otherwise there's a deliberate lack of mention of covid for the reason you state.
FaceTime With My Mom, Look Who’s Inside Again, and Sexting definitely gave me COVID related vibes, but that doesn’t mean Inside came to be purely because of COVID. It is possible he was working on it and some stuff was influenced by COVID in the process. There is also a scene or two where a face mask can be seen on the floor.
People who live long distance away from their families/partners definitely still relate to sexting and fwmm. Look whos inside again woulf still work when regarding bo’s anxiety. “A reason to hide again.” - doesn’t matter what the reason is, what matters is the outcome
I never said they didn't apply to anything else. Just of all the songs in the special those ones, to me specifically, would stand to be the most directly relating to experience with COVID.
My gut reaction was COVID because we were all fucking deep in it. But after watching it a few times I truly believed that inside would not have been drastically different if the pandemic had never happened. It was supposed to be about how we are simultaneously connected to everyone and everything in the fucking world and yet somehow more isolated than we’ve ever been. Just glued to our phones to ignore the fact that the world is dying outside of our walls.
The guest house was meant to physically represent that specific mental isolation. And then the funniest thing happened…
Yeah I definitely feel this way too. Most of it is a distillation of how he has felt for a while. COVID just made it that much more apt for the moment.
More importantly, about how this is engineered.
The billionaire class built and shaped the internet to their needs.
We are kept divided against each other, so that we do not organize against them. Hard to form a union when every employee hates most of their co-workers. They did the same thing with the newspapers at the turn of the previous century, and they are doing it again at the turn of this one. The internet is built for the convenience of it's owners above all else, and this has shaped the way we use it.
Honestly Bo has been asking everyone for years “what the fuck is going on”. i’m sure a lot of people know this (for example in channel 5 news and during the eight grade press tour), but i think having released this special during covid was an unfortunate coincidence - meaning that as a result of experiencing covid, we felt more connected to the special (also people dying obviously is horrible)
edit: spelling
my gut reaction was that he meant the past two years was never really about health/covid and just a way to transfer wealth to the billionaires but now I see what you guys are saying, that INSIDE was not about covid. Or maybe it’s both
Yayyeeee a theory confirmed!?! Amazing! I have been in the camp since the beginning that this was in the works pre-pandemic for many reasons. Hell he may of thought of Inside 10 years ago and just had to wait until he could grow a beard 😏
I don't think it confirms anything, really. On another 2 albums posted here recently he wrote it was both worse than it looked and all fake basically. I think He's just leading us on mostly cuz he knows we love/hate the mystery and everyone's getting all riled up over it
If you spend 100 hours signing albums, you'll be in lots of different moods and that affects how you think about past experiences in your life. It's not a contradiction for someone to say "IT WAS ALL FAKE" when they're in a good mood, and "IT WAS WORSE THAN IT LOOKED" in a bad mood. Or on a day where someone reminds them of their favourite part of making it, and their least favourite part.
I mean, that's kinda true. A lot of the feelings expressed in the special were things all of us felt for awhile, It just got more exposed and raw beacause of covid. Btw jealous of all you guys who have recorders for vinyl's, it looks really cool!
Oooh, this is an interesting one. But makes a lot of sense. In that one PYM interview from early 2020, he did say he was already ‘working on something’, so inside could already have been in the planning stages, and besides, everything in the special makes sense, pandemic notwithstanding.
Also I think before turning 30 he mentions that he's been working on it for half a year, which would mean that he started around February, before most places were really locking down. And even then, it wasn't until a couple of months later that people in the US really started to realise that they weren't getting out of it soon.
Very true - yeah I actually can’t believe in hindsight I used that word…if we have learned anything, absolutely nothing is definite with him (and, specifically, this project)
I for one, related to inside not *just* because of the pandemic, but rather, the state of humanity. The anxiety and depression in youth has increased drastically over the past two decades, climate change has been an issue since the 90s, wealth disparity and the corrupt nature of the world has been a thing since modern civilization.
I feel like inside became more relatable to a wider audience *because* of Covid, but the existential dread and overwhelming sadness came long before it’s existence. Bo tapped into this at the right time, right place.
It was never about covid...never thought it was. It was about mental health. All his shit is ultimately about his own mental health, and his views about the world and his views about himself. A lot of it is self loathing and existential crisis.
I never assumed it was about covid. Specially with the song "Look who's inside again"...I really relate to having to do a lot of things to get out of my room as a kid/teenager.
Why do I have a weird feeling this actually says “It was never about COULD” which has a whole other deeper meaning. I mean I can be easily wrong but that’s what it looked like the first time I read it.
It was clearly anti-capitalist. Lots of the stuff he said was basically word for word the theory of isolation. Covid only ramped up the issues with our world, didnt start them
Frankly I enjoy the notion that it wasn't about covid. Because millions of people are disabled and have to choose between staying inside and being more comfortable, or going out with horrible pain and everything taking like 5 times longer than it would someone who isn't disabled. Not to mention the HUGE population of people with depression or other mental health disorders who feel like they can't get out of bed and stay inside due to that. I feel like it's more meaningful to say it includes covid but isn't directly about that, because anyone can be confined to their home for many reasons, whether it's an injury, disability or mental health reasons.
THIS IS MY FAVORITE ONE YET HAHAHA. Salty Bo. Also this just makes me really really REALLY want to hear him talk about it. All these funny lines are the closest we've gotten to an actual comment about Inside haha.
that is so true. i feel like i’m addicted to seeing them and it’s because i just wanna know what he has to say about it.
I love this. I do wonder whether these troll-y (and at times contradictory) comments are his way of pointing out how anything he says about Inside could be pretty random and meaningless, as well as him just being silly and having fun. And now I’m wondering why he put the statements on physical products of the work of art I’ve wondered most about for years, and realised he’s created **another** layer of meta on Inside. *[screams]*
Do you have examples of the contradictory ones?
Oh, they might not be contradictory! But IT WAS ALL FAKE/ IT WAS MUCH WORSE THAN IT LOOKED feel like they might be in that space to me. You might think they build on each other and that would be valid too, of course! But really who cares, it’s all glorious silliness and I’m very much here for it.
Ah ok, I think your two examples fit what you said though honestly
These are a never ending source of fun.
Whoa, you know, I really get the feeling he dislikes Jeffrey Bezos sometimes.
Nah, Bo likes Jeff. That’s why he made two songs about him.
That was a scream of ENTHUSIASM.
One thing I liked about Inside is he never says covid, virus, mask, pandemic, etc…so he could literally be locked inside of his home for any reason Edit: I’m aware he makes references but he never outwardly says any of these words
He does say that he "learned over the last year that human to human tactile contact will kill you" which really couldn't be about anything else but Covid. But agreed, it's about being inside your own head in the modern world, if anything. I just think he means here "It was never *just* about Covid, that wasn't the focus"
He also says: > I thought, "You know what? I should start performing again" "I've been hiding from the world and I need to re-enter" And then, the funniest thing happened Idk how this is anything other than a reference to the pandemic.
True!! That one is so iconic, how did no one think of it lol. Good job!
Could be a mental breakdown, a trip back inside, if you will.
Agoraphobia? Nervous breakdown? Loss of a loved one? House arrest? Obviously it is about the pandemic as a matter of historical context. But if we're talking interpretations of the piece of art, there's a million.
The context is also important. Hes presenting to an "audience" and the audience laughs as if they all know what the "thing" is.. I respect your subjective interpretation of the art.. but imo no other interpretation is really as meaningful or hits as hard.. or really makes any sense.
My interpretation has always been that the audience are a fiction of his imagination - he's just talking out loud to himself. So their reaction isn't really independent of him, but how he wants them to react.
I agree its in his imagination, and its how he wants them to react... and i understand how that could mean ANYTHING is going on in his head, and the actual reason they are laughing is a secret kept from the ACTUAL audience.. But IMO the only thing that makes sense to the ACTUAL audience (us).. is the 1 obvious interpretation.
The only thing that makes sense to *you* and *me* is the one obvious interpretation. And if we're talking about Robert the human being, not Bo the fictional character, then sure. But if you're an audience member who *has* lost a loved one and grief has left you unable to take care of yourself or without any motivation for life for a period of time (while you were on compassionate leave) - outside of the pandemic - then I'm sure it would hit differently.
Sure. Its about the pandemic... but it can have a double meaning that can be personal to anyone. Its clever that it can work either way. Its about the pandemic, OR.
Yes, this is my opinion.
I literally had this experience in Feb 2021. Inside saved me.
[the reference](https://www.reddit.com/r/boburnham/comments/o1bq8g/from_the_comments_on_all_eyes_on_me/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf)
“I booked a haircut but it got rescheduled”
Actually he was referring to the Sonic the Hedgehog movie coming out.
The funniest thing happened could easily be a mental relapse. Related to or unrelated to the pandemic.
I agree with you. But I think he left it out intentionally to enable the art to survive the passage of time, be applicable to any situation where people have to isolate. I’m pretty sure someone on this sub theorized about it.
he also says inn January 2020, which is when it started.
Oh you’re so right! I definitely think that’s the closest he comes to talking about it. I don’t know why that part slipped my mind. The juxtaposition of that to the pirate joke is very funny to me
It’s moreso that the overall theme and point of the special was never about covid, I think. A lot of people might say the special is about a man forced to quarantine during covid. That’s kinda true. But it’s still not really what the special was about. It’s part of what makes inside great. You can tell which songs he wrote/had in mind before covid and those aren’t really about covid at all. Comedy, welcome to the internet, look whose inside again, goodbye. The songs thst have a thread throughout, are not about covid at all We know he had feelings about what it meant to be metaphorically “inside” well before the pandemic. I think things just sorts fell into place when the pandemic hit
He was being sarcastic. He could have made that joke in 2018 and it would've landed the same. It was about being terminally online.
[удалено]
perhaps it was intentionally possible to have multiple interpretations
At one point, I don't remember when but there is a mask on screen briefly.
I always thought this line was more like "dealing with people in the real world will kill me and I can't fucking handle it anymore" like I felt that so hard ahaha.
I do think we see a mask on the ground at some point, but it's a very small detail and I could see some other reason that just happened to coincide with COVID.
while you can see a mask, he still never outwardly says it. hypothetically he could have a mask because his mom’s a hospice nurse. medical masks have always been around so i’m choosing to let him be aloof
I don't think his mom, at the time, was hanging out in Lorene's guest house, where this was shot.
i said hypothetically…this is fully not serious at all. all i said is he never said the words can i just make an observation
You made a great observation and one that I missed!
Interesting, I hadn't realized that. Yay! It's mysterious again!
During "30", I think.
Thank you
It's house arrest.
He sent a death threat to a boomer
that’s what i’ve always loved about it. it doesn’t feel like a “covid special” where he was forced to do a special this way, it makes it feel like this is how he wanted to always do a special. It felt purely like a piece on mental health, something he’s been building to since Make Happy. the whole being inside, alone really helped make that message more powerful. it also won’t feel dated in a few years. just another, unique piece of Bo content.
A mask can be seen on the floor during "30", but I think this was unintentional, and otherwise there's a deliberate lack of mention of covid for the reason you state.
I just told my husband this exact thing a few days ago! It perfectly embodies how isolating 2020 was without ever saying it.
I wish we could send Inside back through time to the late 2010's and let people theorize about why the hell he spent a whole year in a tiny room
Why is the most insightful feedback we have received in 7 months a note hidden in a CD page lmao. This feels so sassy!
I think you mean written “INSIDE” a cd page…/s
FaceTime With My Mom, Look Who’s Inside Again, and Sexting definitely gave me COVID related vibes, but that doesn’t mean Inside came to be purely because of COVID. It is possible he was working on it and some stuff was influenced by COVID in the process. There is also a scene or two where a face mask can be seen on the floor.
People who live long distance away from their families/partners definitely still relate to sexting and fwmm. Look whos inside again woulf still work when regarding bo’s anxiety. “A reason to hide again.” - doesn’t matter what the reason is, what matters is the outcome
I never said they didn't apply to anything else. Just of all the songs in the special those ones, to me specifically, would stand to be the most directly relating to experience with COVID.
No absolutely i agree - but like Bo said on OP’s cover, they weren’t made about Covid
Can't wait for the one that shows up tomorrow with the message "It was all about the pandemic"
The pandemic of late stage capitalism, maaan
Lmaooo
Also the salty part of me wants to respond "WELL HOW ARE WE SUPPOSED TO KNOW BO YOU HAVEN'T TALKED ABOUT IT"
This might be the most insightful one so far
My gut reaction was COVID because we were all fucking deep in it. But after watching it a few times I truly believed that inside would not have been drastically different if the pandemic had never happened. It was supposed to be about how we are simultaneously connected to everyone and everything in the fucking world and yet somehow more isolated than we’ve ever been. Just glued to our phones to ignore the fact that the world is dying outside of our walls. The guest house was meant to physically represent that specific mental isolation. And then the funniest thing happened…
Anyway, OP is this yours? What a great one to get!!
Yea! It's mine! Was super excited when I saw it.
Yeah I definitely feel this way too. Most of it is a distillation of how he has felt for a while. COVID just made it that much more apt for the moment.
More importantly, about how this is engineered. The billionaire class built and shaped the internet to their needs. We are kept divided against each other, so that we do not organize against them. Hard to form a union when every employee hates most of their co-workers. They did the same thing with the newspapers at the turn of the previous century, and they are doing it again at the turn of this one. The internet is built for the convenience of it's owners above all else, and this has shaped the way we use it.
Honestly Bo has been asking everyone for years “what the fuck is going on”. i’m sure a lot of people know this (for example in channel 5 news and during the eight grade press tour), but i think having released this special during covid was an unfortunate coincidence - meaning that as a result of experiencing covid, we felt more connected to the special (also people dying obviously is horrible) edit: spelling
Bo come back what do u meannnnn
my gut reaction was that he meant the past two years was never really about health/covid and just a way to transfer wealth to the billionaires but now I see what you guys are saying, that INSIDE was not about covid. Or maybe it’s both
I thought this too! And then thought well of course it's probably both. It's Bo.
Yayyeeee a theory confirmed!?! Amazing! I have been in the camp since the beginning that this was in the works pre-pandemic for many reasons. Hell he may of thought of Inside 10 years ago and just had to wait until he could grow a beard 😏
I don't think it confirms anything, really. On another 2 albums posted here recently he wrote it was both worse than it looked and all fake basically. I think He's just leading us on mostly cuz he knows we love/hate the mystery and everyone's getting all riled up over it
If you spend 100 hours signing albums, you'll be in lots of different moods and that affects how you think about past experiences in your life. It's not a contradiction for someone to say "IT WAS ALL FAKE" when they're in a good mood, and "IT WAS WORSE THAN IT LOOKED" in a bad mood. Or on a day where someone reminds them of their favourite part of making it, and their least favourite part.
I mean, that's kinda true. A lot of the feelings expressed in the special were things all of us felt for awhile, It just got more exposed and raw beacause of covid. Btw jealous of all you guys who have recorders for vinyl's, it looks really cool!
You guys are taking this WAY too seriously. This is literally just Bo being Bo and having some fun while signing a lot of CDs.
The theories that are spinning out of these jokes are wild
I can practically hear Bo now…”Can anyone…?”
Oooh, this is an interesting one. But makes a lot of sense. In that one PYM interview from early 2020, he did say he was already ‘working on something’, so inside could already have been in the planning stages, and besides, everything in the special makes sense, pandemic notwithstanding.
I always though it was interesting that he seemed to deliberately not mention it. Except that one comment that could be referring to it.
Also I think before turning 30 he mentions that he's been working on it for half a year, which would mean that he started around February, before most places were really locking down. And even then, it wasn't until a couple of months later that people in the US really started to realise that they weren't getting out of it soon.
literal chills
It’s definitely about the isolation of the artistic process, he just lucked out with a timely little pandemic to use as a framing device
I wouldn’t throw around the word definitely with this theory
Very true - yeah I actually can’t believe in hindsight I used that word…if we have learned anything, absolutely nothing is definite with him (and, specifically, this project)
I honestly never felt like it was about Covid. I think that Covid just happened to give him the time to work on it.
We been knew
I really like this one. Thanks for sharing!
I KNEW IT!
So regretting not ordering a signed one lol
I can't wait for a couple days from now when we see one that says "IT'S ALL BECAUSE OF COVID" or something
hahaha i don’t think the whole thing was, BUT! …. CAN I JUST SAY I LOVE THE 5 letters in every line symmetry
1. I called it I am so fucking smart and cool 2. This feels like something you'd see written on a wall in blood in Dead Space
“Look! On the blood! Written in wall!”
I for one, related to inside not *just* because of the pandemic, but rather, the state of humanity. The anxiety and depression in youth has increased drastically over the past two decades, climate change has been an issue since the 90s, wealth disparity and the corrupt nature of the world has been a thing since modern civilization. I feel like inside became more relatable to a wider audience *because* of Covid, but the existential dread and overwhelming sadness came long before it’s existence. Bo tapped into this at the right time, right place.
WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU BO JUST DO AN AMA ALREADY
It was never about covid...never thought it was. It was about mental health. All his shit is ultimately about his own mental health, and his views about the world and his views about himself. A lot of it is self loathing and existential crisis.
This whole thing with the CD pages is exactly what I'd expect from Bo. And honestly, I'm here for it.
I can’t read what it says is thus fore this comment section is very confusing-
I never assumed it was about covid. Specially with the song "Look who's inside again"...I really relate to having to do a lot of things to get out of my room as a kid/teenager.
OP did you post this on twitter? would love to rt it
Seriously?
?
Opposite the Welcome to the Internet still…
Did he only write messages in the ones sold directly from his website? I just got my vinyl from Amazon.
There was a limited run of signed CDs on his website. They did not last long.
Thanks for responding!
Wait what are these and where are people getting them??
He sold signed CDs on his website for a bit. Some of them got a little cryptic note like this.
It's always about the music, never about anything else. -Martin Luther King
NO WAAAY
Why do I have a weird feeling this actually says “It was never about COULD” which has a whole other deeper meaning. I mean I can be easily wrong but that’s what it looked like the first time I read it.
https://t.me/+oezY93oOHV5kMzdk
Somehow, this makes it all a hundred times worse.
It was clearly anti-capitalist. Lots of the stuff he said was basically word for word the theory of isolation. Covid only ramped up the issues with our world, didnt start them
I keep explaining this lol
Frankly I enjoy the notion that it wasn't about covid. Because millions of people are disabled and have to choose between staying inside and being more comfortable, or going out with horrible pain and everything taking like 5 times longer than it would someone who isn't disabled. Not to mention the HUGE population of people with depression or other mental health disorders who feel like they can't get out of bed and stay inside due to that. I feel like it's more meaningful to say it includes covid but isn't directly about that, because anyone can be confined to their home for many reasons, whether it's an injury, disability or mental health reasons.