Document Type
Thesis
Degree
Master of Arts (MA)
Major/Program
English
First Advisor's Name
Jason Pearl
First Advisor's Committee Title
Committee chair
Second Advisor's Name
Michael Grafals
Second Advisor's Committee Title
Committee member
Third Advisor's Name
Michael Patrick Gillespie
Third Advisor's Committee Title
Committee member
Fourth Advisor's Name
Mark Kelley
Fourth Advisor's Committee Title
Committee member
Keywords
Hyperreality, Pandemic, Uncanny, Film, Bo Burnham
Date of Defense
3-24-2023
Abstract
The main purpose of this thesis is to examine comedian Bo Burnham’s 2021 musical comedy special Bo Burnham: Inside as it questions reality and the subsequent production of the self in a digital age. This thesis aims to examine the special through the lens of two guiding theoretical concepts, the uncanny and the hyperreal, and how they interact and effect both an understanding of the special’s social critique of mass digital content consumerism and rising concern over authenticity online. Consequently, the work of Martin Heidegger and Jean Baudrillard respectively are discussed at length in tandem with the special. This thesis proposes the argument that the special is not merely a useful example of these theories at work, but a deliberate rebuttal against compulsory categorization and rigid binary thinking in our everyday lives, expanding upon these initial questions about reality and the (un)canny itself. This thesis reveals therefore a historically delimited concern with reality and of our mutual strangeness as people long before the era in which the special was produced - the Pandemic acting not as a catalyst for these issues, but as a breaking point.
Identifier
FIDC011081
Recommended Citation
Sanchez, Sophia E., "The Internet Uncanny Turned Canny: Hyperrealism in Bo Burnham’s Inside" (2023). FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 5251.
https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/5251
Rights Statement
In Copyright. URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).