That Funny Feeling 🎶
"There it is, again..." Phoebe Bridgers releases a cover of Bo Burnham's "That Funny Feeling".
[DISCLAIMER] This article presumes you have watched Bo Burnham’s recent Netflix special Inside, or at the very least, listened to one of its defining songs, That Funny Feeling.
While it is strongly recommended you watch the full thing to hear the song in its intended context (as well as to, you know, experience and engage with one of the better pieces of art made in recent memory), below are some links to the song on Spotify and YouTube.
Again, this was all in the syllabus... I don’t know how else you expect to follow my ramblings without doing the preparatory work in advance. A familiarity with the works of Bo Burnham was listed in the mailing list course requirements directly under “an intermediate fluency in Kanye West’s discography”, and just above “a frustration with Zach Lavine’s shot selection”.
If you’re anything like me, you might have watched Bo Burnham’s Inside on May 30th, the day it got released on Netflix. You might have watched it again with your roommate two hours later. And a third time, with your other roommate, when he got home from work. And a fourth time, with the guys who live above you, and a fifth time, with your friend who lives across the street. You might have downloaded the audio from the special, and spliced it into individual tracks so that you (and all the people incessantly texting you about it) could listen to it “outside”, – much like you would do with the Donda listening party audio streams a few months later – only for the CDQ version to be properly released a few days later on Spotify.
If you aren’t like me, and haven’t watched Inside even once - first of all, what’s it like being in a ‘relationship’ (am I spelling that correctly?). Second of ly, close this email, carve out 90 minutes within the next few days, lock your phone in another room, and watch Inside in one sitting. Attentively. Preferably with good headphones/speakers.
All finished? Great. Welcome back :)
I’ll save a full write-up on Inside for another time, but I do want to share some thoughts on “That Funny Feeling”, especially because indie singer Phoebe Bridgers released an excellent cover version on Bandcamp and Spotify this week.
In the context of the full special, the song ostensibly serves as a palette cleanser for some of the flashier, more visually-demanding musical numbers that came before it. The viewer is situated at a comfortable distance from Bo, and sits on the other side of an implied fire pit. The simulated chirping of crickets and crackle of campfire elicit an estival intimacy, and it feels worth noting that this is the only song during which Bo plays the guitar, an instrument he neglected to use in his two previous specials, what. and Make Happy. The humility displayed before his first strum – by acknowledging that he’s not much of a guitar player nor singer – further accentuates the environment created by his folksy, upbeat, second-fret-capo chord progression.
All of this leads to a chilling contrast with some of the ensuing, dystopian lyrics:
Female Colonel Sanders, easy answers, civil war
The whole world at your fingertips, the ocean at your door
The live-action Lion King, the Pepsi Halftime Show
Twenty-thousand years of this, seven more to go
Carpool Karaoke, Steve Aoki, Logan Paul
A gift shop at the gun range, a mass shooting at the mall
or, later,
Total disassociation, fully out your mind
Googling "derealization", hating what you find
That unapparent summer air in early fall
The quiet comprehending of the ending of it all
The lyrics of the song’s verses perfectly encapsulate the sensation any cynic gets from time to time, like when thinking about Amazon Prime Day, or Blackout Wednesday.
It’s Space Jam 2, and the Mustache Bar Crawl, and the Nickelodeon x NFL telecast.
It’s Stephen A. Smith vs. Baby Stephen A. on ESPN’s First Take, and the upcoming live-action Rick and Morty. and the Detroit Lions actually making the “Detroit Lines” shirts ironically designed by TikTok user Emily Zugay. It’s Double XP weekend, and Capri Sun joining in on the hard seltzer craze (OK, I might have made that last one up…).
Put more succinctly, and in the key of E major, it’s, “that funny feeling”.
Fun Fact #1: The chords in the chorus and coda are generally the same as those in Kanye’s recent anthem “Jail” off Donda (E, F#, A, E on loop), for the 3 of you that care.
Fun Fact #2: Not only did Phoebe Bridgers perform the song with Bo a few months ago in LA, but she also played it at Pitchfork, and just released it for a fee of “pay what you want” on bandcamp the other day. Last night, it was finally released on Spotify:
Longtime readers of the mailing list might remember that last spring, I wrote a column that tried to answer the question, “should you go to Pitchfork this summer?”, with the answer of course being completely moot, as the festival was ultimately canceled due to Covid. So naturally, I didn’t buy a ticket this year.
But I definitely would have, had I known Bridgers would do this to close her set:
Of course, the cynic in me can’t help but acknowledge the irony of Bridgers potentially profiting by covering a song that directly maligns remakes, but this was quickly lampshaded by the bandcamp release’s description, which assures buyers that:
“all proceeds will go to TX Funds (secure.actblue.com/donate/txfunds) which splits evenly between Texas Equal Access Fund, West Fund, Whole Woman's Health Alliance, Inc., Frontera Fund, The Bridge Collective, Clinic Access Support Network, Fund Texas Choice, the Lilith Fund, Jane's Due Process, and Support Your Sistah at the Afiya Center”.
Phew!
While both iterations are great for different reasons, I think the key difference is that Bridgers’ gives me, “that fuzzy feeling”. Despite its bleak content, it still feels a bit like being tucked into bed after a particularly tough day at school, or when you’re finally able to stomach some chicken noodle soup after several days of being dreadfully ill.
Here’s to hoping it becomes a staple of her live shows for years to come!
Now if we can just get Billie Eilish to cover The Hannukah Song…
What about you, dear reader? Did you watch this special? What did you think of it? What else gives you that “funny feeling?” What about that “fuzzy feeling?”.
Feel free to shoot back an email with your thoughts, or leave a comment below.