Bitingly sarcastic and witty comedian Bo Burnham has come out with a new comedy special after taking a five year hiatus from performing. The special, Inside, was released on Netflix on May 30. Bo doesn’t disappoint with his unique innovative comedy style of discrete bits combined with original songs, as well as somehow managing to make his audience feel something other than entertained. His comedy is introspective, and many people have admitted to tearing up during the special. In the spirit of how everyone’s lives have been, the entire thing is shot by him, alone in his apartment. The bits are then cut together to be one cohesive, hour and a half long comedy show with no live audience. 

Bo is a master of polarity. In Inside, he has a song titled “White Woman’s Instagram”, where he evaluates how the images seen on the typical white woman’s social media page (like dogs in flower crowns or selfies at the beach) can be confused with Heaven. Not long after that track comes “That Funny Feeling”, where Bo meticulously picks out very specific scenarios that all give off the same sort of emotion, like carpool karaoke and obeying traffic laws in GTA V. In his song “Look Who’s Inside Again”, a sort of jaunty ballad to himself, he tauntingly acknowledges that he went outside just to look for a reason to hide again. The songs in the special give the comedy a sort of pacing that no other comedian could achieve, as Bo has taken advantage of both his humor and musical talent to combine them into a show like no other. Inside, like his two other specials available on Netflix, is incredible in giving its viewer something to think about while also making them laugh. 

The non-musical pieces of Inside are equally genius and thought provoking. One bit sees Bo sitting in the middle of his apartment on a stool with a single alarm clock next to him, displaying the time 11:58. As the minutes pass, he explains that he’s turning 30 at midnight, and he wished he would have finished the special before his birthday. He also has one where he pretends as if he’s doing stand up for a crowd, saying thank you to an audience that isn’t there, and then asking if anyone in the world can shut up about anything ever. 

Inside is overall a work of incredible talent, and Bo has never failed to tell us exactly what he thinks while maintaining our attention and making it entertaining.