‘Inside’ and the lack of critical thinking skills in Gen Z
Now, I know that title is hyperbolic without statistics to back me up, but lack of critical thinking had to be the conclusion I came to when I watched the reaction of some young people to Bo Burnham’s new comedy special, Inside.
Burnham’s comedy special was so unusual for the genre that I even debated whether it should be considered one. The special was definitely funny, but I would never call it light-hearted. Tackling such heavy topics such as racism, climate change, and white male domination, in an honest and self-aware way, the comedy special is unconventional.
Burnham’s comedy has always been unconventional. It’s not the tradition for a stand-up comedian to go on stage and sing most of his set whilst playing the piano. But he’s definitely not alone in musical comedy, but for most people under 21, he’s the most recognisable.
Burnham opens the special by introducing how he’s “been a little depressed” and how that has led him to create this comedy special. Next, he contemplates if he should even be making the special in the first place in the second song ‘Comedy’. This work is part of the new subgenre of ‘pandemic art’, alongside works like Taylor Swift’s Folklore and Evermore albums. Burnham is questioning this probably because towards the start of the pandemic racial tensions in the United States were high due to the murder of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. This was not the time to hear from “a white guy”. But, race wasn’t the only issue plaguing the world, there was of course the actual plague — aka Covid. And income inequality. And climate change. And more.
In ‘Comedy’ Burnham mocks the need to be the centre of attention in a world that has always paid attention to “American white guys”. In a flippant way, Burnham addresses how his opinion doesn’t really matter but like all the American white guys before him, he’ll keep talking anyway. ‘Comedy’ was necessary for the rest of the comedy special because it introduces Burnham’s self-awareness. However, this seems to be the song that many viewers decided to take off their thinking caps for.
I expected that the songs in the special would be used as TikTok audios before I had even watched the special, and that expectation was not disappointed. I’m not totally against the use of the songs, despite Burnham’s explicit criticism of the endless cycle of commentary that exists on the internet. (I am aware that I am contributing to it by writing this article).
What I didn’t expect was for so many TikTok users to use the songs in direct contradiction to Burnham’s message.
Socko is a character in the song ‘How the World Works’ which begins by talking about nature and subtly alluding to climate change and the need for balance for the world to literally work, using the tone of a children’s song. Then Socko is introduced, he maintains the childish tone but introduces the violent and bloody history — and present — of capitalism and genocide, particularly in America.
Shortly after the release of the special, several white liberals used part of Socko’s verse in ‘How the World Works’ to pat themselves on the back for standing up to racists or mysogynists. One example of this is by a user who went by @ crabgrudge. They’re video has since been taken down and their account has been privated. But the video can be watched in a stitch by @ _lesdeeian_ or a duet by @ ecco2kconnoisseur. In this video, crabgrudge boasts about dunking on fake woke people, failing to consider that they are fake woke too. Their video is just one of many by white people who didn’t consider that they are not the person being represented by the character of Socko.
It’s clear that Socko represents people of colour and other minorities because Burnham — who represents “American white guys” — threatens to take Socko off his hand, implying that he would end Socko’s life or at least damn him to “a frightening, liminal space between states of being”. This is the action that white people, and other oppressors, take when the oppressed are too violent or agressive in their tone when they demand justice and freedom. The oppressor flexes their power.
When called out for this, some creators state they participated in that trend “accidentally”, and deny white saviourism, still unable to recognise their choices as their own and shifting responsibility and accountability. Some only apologised to Bo Burnham, not the people of colour actually harmed. Even weirder are the white people who try to place themselves as people who ‘get it’ by lip syncing Burnham’s lines, holding up their own socko — they simply can’t not centre themselves at any moment.
White women also had their own TikTok trend inspired by a Bo Burnham song, ‘White Woman’s Instagram’. I recognised the song as criticising white women and their faux activism as they hide behind cuteness or their own oppression to absolve themselves of their whiteness. It seems white women could not see that the lines, “some random quote from Lord of the Rings incorrectly attributed to Martin Luther King” and “Incredibly derivative political street art, a dreamcatcher bought from Urban Outfitters” were not praise.
This trend consisted of white women showing photos from their Instagram pages that matched the lyrics of the song. In this video, and like others under that sound, this white woman feels called out by the song, and jokes about it. And I understand how funny it must be to find yourself perfectly fitting a stereotype, my issue comes when you refuse to recognise how that might mean you exhibit problematic behaviours. There was only one user I saw that actually admitted to the tape over mouth activism ‘trend’ that was part of Burnham’s visuals— others showed absolutely no self reflection. It was very convenient how everyone has a photo for the coffee cups or the fairy lights and feel “called out” but studiously ignore the criticisms of performative activivism and the kind of backhanded racism that white women do so well.
Now, I will be honest that I cannot state that this is an issue with Gen Z, this is an issue with whiteness. I could change the title to ‘young white people’ instead of ‘Gen Z’, but I don’t believe this issue is exclusive to whiteness, just incredibly prevalent in white spaces. I say this because many people of colour, the same age and generation as the white people that created and participated in these trends, were the users that criticised the ignorance displayed in the TikTok videos. I think this ‘lack of critical thinking’ is evident in other areas, such as the ever-present meme “the curtains were just blue”. Sometimes, we must think a bit harder about the media we consume. I believe that people of colour cannot afford to misunderstand or misrepresent the media they consume because so often it contributes the the harm we experience. And because there were some millenials and other older people who participated in these trends, I know the issue is not exclusive to age, but for anything to improve young people must begin to thoughtfully engage with their media.
