Funny 'ha ha' or funny 'la la'? (Ephemera 03)
In which I try to figure out which feeling Bo Burnham is referring to exactly for each line in "That Funny Feeling"
Ephemera is my ongoing series in which I look back at moments in pop culture that live rent free in my brain. Previously we’ve covered 9/11 and Prime Hydration. Today we look at Bo Burnham’s “That Funny Feeling”.
The global pandemic was not a good time. There, I’ve said it now.
Like most people, I spent the majority of 2020 at home with my family, either unable to or unwilling to venture out of the house. In fact, the first day of the first Level 4 lockdown in New Zealand was my birthday, March 26.
It was also one of the most surreal days I’ve ever experienced. There had been news coverage of illness outbreaks over the years - the 2002 SARS outbreak, the 2013 Ebola epidemic, various ‘Bird Flu’ outbreaks over the years - but, like all of us, never before had I been so directly affected. And I remember being struck by the fact that everything was quiet and still; we live in a fairly quiet area anyway, but this silence? It was unnerving.
Eventually we got into a rhythm of going for a daily walk together as a family bubble. We noticed the air clearing and, as a result, the view from our local beach extending. We lined up outside our local supermarket, spaced two metres apart as per regulations. We scanned in everywhere we went.
We eventually caught the illness itself; all five members of my family caught COVID. My two youngest, aged 3 and 6 at the time, kind of shrugged it off. My wife and my 8 year old (at the time) were knocked out for a day. I got hit worse than the rest of my family and ended up in bed for about four days.
And just over a year after that first lockdown, Bo Burnham released Inside on Netflix.
My first viewing of Inside was also surreal. Comedian and filmmaker Bo Burnham completely wrote, produced, directed and filmed himself making a comedy special of songs and bits while essentially losing his mind in isolation at home during the pandemic, which he also filmed and included.
The result is a brutally honest film that explores the effect of isolation on mental health. And watching it was like seeing somebody express all the feelings that I’d been hiding behind the brave face I was putting on for the kids and my wife.
I consider it the most accurate document about the mental state of lockdowns.
The songs of Inside are brilliant, statements about social media, interpersonal relationships, the internet at large, kids programming, Jeff Bezos, and more. I’ve listed a few favourites below. But I’ve been obsessed with one song in particular since it came out: “That Funny Feeling”.
The song itself is a fairly simple acoustic track with a four-chord structure'; Burnham sings it while surrounded by a projection of a forest, a campfire ditty maybe, but the lyrics … I mean, the lyrics are Burnham pointing out a list of things we don’t really think about but which are extremely odd and relatable, and the refrain - ‘there it is again / that funny feeling’ - applies to everything in one of two ways: either funny in a hilarious way or funny in an unsettling way.
I have often listened to this song and pondered which way he meant each line, summarising as either ‘ha ha’ for legitimately funny things, 'or ‘la la’ for stuff that is genuinely unsettling. But I’ve never tried to write them out.
Until now.
I’m going to go through “That Funny Feeling” item-by-item and see where I think it lands on the ha-ha to la-la scale. Let’s see how it shakes out - and comment below with your thoughts.
VERSE 1
Stunning 8K-resolution
HA HA: I’ll admit, I’ve laughed at the fact that resolution has gotten so much more detailed than we actually need. Fun fact: MIT professor Pawan Sinha believes that the human eye can’t tell the difference between 4K and 8K resolution from any distance more than 5 feet from the screen. A classic case of doing something because we could, not because we should.
meditation app
LA LA: It took me a while to realise that ‘stunning 8k resolution’ and ‘meditation app’ - which is an oxymoron - were separate lines. And I say ‘meditation app’ is an oxymoron even though I regularly use one called Buddhify.
In honor of the revolution, it's half-off at the Gap
LA LA: Where would you have a meditation app at half price? A capitalist cliche that sells generic clothing to Americans, of course. I also assume that “revolution” refers to the mental health revolution.
Deadpool's self-awareness
HA HA: Deadpool is inherently funny.
loving parents
HA HA: Given Burnham’s well documented history with his own parents, I think he would laugh out loud at the idea of loving parents.
harmless fun
HA HA: No explanation needed.
The backlash to the backlash to the thing that's just begun
LA LA: This is one of the reasons I backed off social media, especially argument starters like Twitter (X). It feels like discourse (if you can even call it that) moves so fast online that people can’t keep up - the notion of a backlash to something that has just begun is wild, but so often the backlash already has a backlash that is moving so quickly you can feel overwhelmed by the whole thing before you’ve even seen or heard or read the original thing.
VERSE 2
The surgeon general's pop-up shop
LA LA: The idea of the pop-up shop is a bit weird at the best of times - during the pandemic, American medical institutions talked a lot about outreach, and we all know about pop-up vaccination clinics, and I assume this line is a reference to those kind of things. Honestly, it just all feels a bit weird.
Robert Iger's face
HA HA: Some people look funny to some people. I dunno what to tell you.
Discount Etsy agitprop
HA HA: So ‘agitprop’ refers to political propaganda - in the case of Etsy, homemade agitprop might look like badges, flags or posters for specific causes. Discount is a key word here: things go on discount when they are no longer relevant, so discount agitprop would refer to political items that are no longer needed. As this line goes, I think its ‘ha ha’ because coming across stuff for old causes usually leads to a laugh and a ‘remember this?!’
Bugles' take on race
LA LA: Bugles are an American potato chip brand so them having a take on racial harmony is weird by definition. But then we tolerate so many brands taking a performative stance on so many social issues.
Female Colonel Sanders
LA LA: Given that Sanders is a real person - Colonel Harland Sanders - it seems odd to try and mythologise him in a way that he becomes a character who transcends reality and can be used in any way KFC wants. Interestingly, the first woman cast as Colonel Sanders was Reba McEntire.
easy answers
HA HA: There are no easy answers.
civil war
LA LA: More likely than easy answers, to be honest.
The whole world at your fingertips, the ocean at your door
LA LA: I’ve always read this line as about on climate change - the second half of the line, the ocean at your door, being the rising sea levels getting closer. The first half of the line hints at the same themes as another track in the special, “Welcome To The Internet”, in which he sings (embodying the web) ‘can I interest you in everything all of the time’; we’re so distracted by our access to everything that we don’t notice reality creeping up to our doorstep. (This idea of the internet being a hazard is a hallmark of his work.)
The live-action Lion King / the Pepsi Halftime Show
LA LA: There are two live-action Lion King productions and he could be referring to either - both are a bit weird: the Broadway production has people in makeup wearing animal style headdress, while the movie sits comfortably in the uncanny valley. Arguably, neither one needs to exist.
Twenty-thousand years of this, seven more to go
LA LA: This line hints at the notion that human society is at or near its end, which he explores further in Verse 3.
Carpool Karaoke / Steve Aoki / Logan Paul
HA HA: In order - laughing with, laughing at, laughing at.
A gift shop at the gun range, a mass shooting at the mall
LA LA: When I think about the chaos in America, I think about this - how things just seem so backwards in the (self-described) ‘land of the free’. For a country so famous for self-exceptionalism, there is so much wrong there.
VERSE 3
Reading Pornhub's terms of service
HA HA: I’ve never done this and the idea of it is patently ridiculous. Oops, I mean, what is PornHub, is that a website or something, never heard of it.
going for a drive / And obeying all the traffic laws in Grand Theft Auto V
HA HA: Okay, I’ve done this before - occasionally when playing GTA V, I would drive responsibly and laugh at myself for being so whimsical with such a violent video game. Its so silly, in fact, that GTA missions sometimes include missions that require you to drive responsibly so as not to attract attention.
Full agoraphobic, losing focus, cover blown
LA LA: Agoraphobia is the fear of outdoor spaces - though its definition includes anxiety caused by being in spaces the sufferer considers to be unsafe, and can manifest as the idea that home is the only safe space. According to the American Psychological Association, the ‘sheer magnitude of the COVID-19 crisis is hard to fathom’ and that ‘nearly 8 in 10 adults (78%) say the coronavirus pandemic is a significant source of stress in their life’.
A book on getting better hand-delivered by a drone
HA HA: Burnham is an expert at following an insightful setup with a great gag. Agoraphobia can also manifest as anxiety about dealing with people, so the notion of trying to get better with talking to anyone is a hoot.
Total disassociation, fully out your mind
LA LA: According to WebMD (the same site that tells many people they’re going to die any second), disassociation is a ‘break in how your mind handles information. You may feel disconnected from your thoughts, feelings, memories, and surroundings. It can affect your sense of identity and your perception of time.’ Sound familiar? I certainly had those feelings during the pandemic.
Googling "derealization", hating what you find
LA LA: Derealization, per the Cleveland Clinic, ‘affects your ability to see your surroundings accurately. Things might not seem real. Or you might feel like you’re looking through a clouded window or in black-and-white rather than full color. Objects might look distorted in shape or size, or you may feel like they change while you look at them.’ I almost made this a ‘ha ha’ because the idea of hating a phenomena to do with your perception of reality is pretty funny. But in a very real sense, derealization links with disassociation - the news cycle during the pandemic, and I imagine especially in America, certainly caused people to turn off in the face of a society they didn’t recognise.
That unapparent summer air in early fall
LA LA: The line links back to the Verse 2 line ‘the whole world at your fingertips, the ocean at your door’; the use of ‘unapparent’ here tells me that its another climate change symptom - increased temperature in autumn - that the public doesn’t notice because they simply aren’t paying attention.
The quiet comprehending of the ending of it all
LA LA: This line links back to the Verse 2 line ‘twenty-thousand years of this, seven more to go’ and speaks to the notion that humanity is heading toward a cataclysmic event of some kind. Maybe another, even worse pandemic. Maybe a climate change disaster. Maybe something else entirely; American’s are more dissatisfied now than three years ago. If anything, maybe Burnham was ahead of the curve. And according to verse two, we’ve got 4-5 years left.
But hey, what can you say? We were overdue. It’ll be over soon.
Five Songs Worth Checking Out!
Other brilliance from Inside edition
> “Welcome To The Internet”
Arguably the most famous song from the show is a broad condemnation of the internet as it exists today. It’s also kind of hilarious even as Burnham’s vocal moves from aloof to maniacal.
> “How The World Works”
A perfect explanation about how our innate class systems have destroyed the world, followed by a relevant example.
> “FaceTime With My Mom (Tonight)”
The most relatable song on the album. I don’t know how many times my parents have been half off the screen during a video call.
> “Bezos I”
The weirdest song here. The sheer glee of the line ‘c’mon Jeff, get ‘em!’ Is a thing of beauty.
> “White Woman’s Instagram”
Not just a funny set of lyrics, but the video sequence (embedded below) cleverly recreates the images in a square border, before the border expands to full screen when talk turns real, like there’s more real life outside the box.
A bit of a weird one today - but thanks for sticking with me!
See you Friday ;)
Chris
Inside and Charli XCX’s How I’m Feeling Now are the things I’ll watch or listen to in 10 years’ time and go ‘oh yeah, that was really cooked eh?’ I don’t know how anyone managed to be creative during that time, let alone sum it all up so succinctly.