I finally checked out Bo Burnham’s Inside special on Netflix this weekend, and boy was that something. The special is a fascinating hybrid of a sketch comedy and an anxious documentary about its own creation, serving effectively as a time capsule of Burnham’s solitary life throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s the type of film where you’re not sure whether to laugh or cry.
Its charming soundtrack is one of the reasons Inside works so well. Burnham sounds like a disciple of Weird Al, but his music in this has a gravitas that makes it transcend simple comedy. While “Welcome to the Internet” may have more meme power, the special has plenty of emotional highlights, one of which is “White Woman’s Instagram.” This one initially seems like one of the simpler gags in Inside. The sometimes vacuous world of Instagram is a pretty easy target for ridicule, and ridicule Burnham does.
“An avocado, a poem written in the sand, fresh fallen snow on the ground, a golden retriever in a flower crown.” The lyrics do a wonderful job of capturing the feeling of scrolling through an Instagram feed, watching people who try to present their lives as perfect little vignettes, even as the world descends into crisis around them. “Is this heaven? Or am I looking at a white woman’s Instagram?”
Within the context of Inside‘s isolation and claustrophobia, “White Woman’s Instagram” plays perfectly into its themes of how the internet age has given a platform for people who feel the need to share every single thought that comes into their head, whether it be as dangerous as instructions on how to make a bomb, or as inconsequential as a picture of a salad. While it’s easy to make fun of people who dedicate their lives to this, what makes “White Woman’s Instagram” so powerful is how it reminds us that behind this seemingly empty world of illusion, there is a real person with very real, human pain.
“Her favorite photo of her mom, the caption says: ‘I can’t believe it, it’s been a decade since you’ve been gone. Mom I miss you, I miss sitting with you in the front yard.’” The song’s bridge brilliantly puts the listener on the spot. While it may seem pointless to a random viewer, these pictures have meaning to the person posting them. It’s almost as if the titular woman uses her Instagram account as a means to communicate with her mother from beyond the grave. “‘Mama, I got a job, I live in my own apartment. Mama, I got a boyfriend and I’m crazy about him. Your little girl didn’t do too bad.'”
Inside‘s soundtrack as a whole isn’t perfect, but man is it extremely poignant at points, with this being a prime example. The way it captures so many emotions in such a simple composition is truly commendable. If I ever need to show future generations the complicated mental state of someone living during the tumultuous year of 2020, this will be what I show them.
Amped! 