Bo Burnham Surprises Us All By Releasing Unused Content From Inside

I think it's safe to say that one of the only good things to come out of lockdown was Bo Burnham's Netflix special "Inside." It remains one of the most accurate depictions of the feeling we all had when the world shut down. Even if you were lucky enough to be locked in with your loved ones, there was still a sense of isolation that got to each and every one of us at some point during that scary period as Covid-19 was first spreading across the globe.

Burnham made this art piece in the height of all that, doing everything himself. He shot it, set up the mics, reviewed the footage ... everything, all by himself. Just one funny dude alone in his guest room making a piece that is wholly its own thing. It's touching, but it's not fully an introspective exercise. It's funny, but it's not a conventional comedy special. This is something completely new and special. 

I'm pretty sure "Inside" will be used as an example of what came out of the historic pandemic we all just went through (and, I guess, are still going through, just now armed with vaccines which are stronger against the weaker variants of the virus) and now those future historians will have even more footage to consider when looking at the very specific time that was 2020 to 2021.

In a surprise move, Burnham took to Twitter to announce that there was material he shot for "Inside" that didn't make the cut, but that he has spent the last two months editing that material and is releasing it directly via his YouTube channel. The video — simply titled "THE INSIDE OUTTAKES" — is over an hour long and features various songs. 

Interestingly enough, "Inside" was released May 30, 2021, which means Burnham is marking its one year anniversary with this new footage. Driven mostly by his comedic music, the special went on to win a ton of awards, including Emmys for Directing, Writing and Music Direction, a Grammy for Best Song ("All Eyes on Me") and even a Critics Choice Award for Best Comedy Special.

An album of the songs from the special went Gold and charted on the US Billboard Top 200, taking the Billboard #1 spot for Comedy Album. 

Now there's this brand new bit of business that was trimmed from the original cut. Any glimpse inside the mind of Bo Burnham while he was in the midst of making this special is going to be valuable as so much of the power of "Inside" is in that shared headspace we were all in when he was conceiving this thing. 

If you've somehow missed the original piece, you can still find it at Netflix. I have a feeling a lot of folks will want to go back and rewatch this after seeing this new footage.