In January, many fans of comedian and musician Bo Burnham suspected he was cooking up something new for 2025. After rising to fame in the 2010s with his cheeky lyrics and hilarious rhymes, Burnham took an even darker approach to his comedy when his 2021 special Inside was released. Now, is it time to go outside? With a completely wiped Instagram and some cryptic TikToks, longtime listeners thought they cracked the code on a forthcoming Burnham special.
TikTok account, @destroyarasaka, has since been deleted after posting a few cryptic videos on TikTok. The name on the TikTok bio read “Robert Burnham.” In mid-January, the account began posting video outtakes from Inside, including one where the artist says, “It’s very upsetting that the future is in front of now, do you know what I mean? Like that we have to keep living from now onward.”
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Then, the account dropped videos of crashing beach waves in the dark as well as three different posts spelling the word “OUT.”
The TikTok bio read: “stay, outside. 6 days remain – @pleasestayoutside on youtube.”
When the TikTok account was gaining traction, one could head to the YouTube page to find two videos, both nearly one minute in length. They both featured beach noises, though “NOTIR_OTSD.mov” features the visual of waves as well as what sounds like the beginning of a forthcoming piano song.
Unfortunately, the videos have been deleted and replaced with two videos of apologies. YouTube users Peyton and Bo were simply making a project that gained traction.
Many YouTube users were quick to forgive the two commenting support and thanking them for offering hope in a rather dark time. @brendonmcelwain4280 shared, “The reason it blew up was simple. Hope. For a lot of us, Bo Burnham gave us a moment of reprieve. It was cathartic. To be clear though, the lack of hope prevalent right now is not your fault by any means. That’s something much greater, beyond any of us. If the general populace was doing better, this would have been an attempt at something cool. It backfired albeit, but still.”
Another user @charliecarries commented, “You made a cool thing, and created amazing project that I fully believe Bo Burnham would think is pretty darn cool. Way to own up to this, and be yourself. I’m bummed Bo isn’t making another project currently but you embodied his former works so well. Keep on keeping on.”
Per Bo’s apology, the duo still plans to release their project in time. “I hope me and Peyton can make all of you who are sticking around happy. See you soon,” Bo said.
