Watch Outtakes from Bo Burnham’s Inside on YouTube Right Now

Bo Burnham’s Inside, perhaps the most widely acclaimed comedy special (or film, or whatever you want to call it) of the last however many years, launched on Netflix exactly one year ago today, on May 30, 2021. Both hilarious and sad, Inside captured the frazzled, isolated mood of what we at the time hoped was the late pandemic era; it also scathingly critiqued the utter emptiness of modern life and culture, while also acknowledging how Inside itself wasn’t able to transcend that artificiality. It’s very good and smart and funny but also probably not as good or smart or funny as its most positive reviews have made it out to be, and Burnham actually seems to anticipate that overly impressed response within the special itself. Overall it’s a neat trick that’s very much of its time, and unfortunately, as Covid has continued to rebound and culture has continued to rot, today is its time just as much as a year ago was. So it’s fitting that Burnham would release more Inside tonight, not just as an anniversary celebration, but as recognition that we’re not out of this pandemic just yet.