Let’s Talk Lyrics | That Funny Feeling
“That Funny Feeling” from Bo Burnham’s Inside has been engrained in my mind since hearing it back in 2021. I think the special encapsulates the collective feelings shared and expressed during Covid, but the impact of that time is still trickling out from its epicenter, and certainly still felt today. “That Funny Feeling” specifically highlights the ambivalent chaos of our modern times, the beauty of life as we face what feels like the end of it all. I thought most related the song to anxiety, but after reading some great articles and insights from listeners, it seems that many have found it to be more complex. Existential dread, derealization, the dichotomy of living in “the best of times” as people suffer as a byproduct of corporate greed, power, and systems in place only benefiting those at the top. There it is, again, that funny feeling.
La Dispute were aware of the nature of the world when they released No One Was Driving The Car in September 2025. The album title comes from the testimonial of a police report describing a victim that was killed by a self-driving Tesla, an unfathomably tragic circumstance that questions our agency in the world we live in today. While Jordan Dreyer’s lyrics describe this (and much more) far better than I could analyze, I’d like to share some of my favorite lyrics from the album. These are a bit more subtle than what the band may be known for, but still precisely relatable for most to find their own perspective in:
“Self-Portrait Backwards”
and you get to the end of, what, fifteen seasons of something? and since it always seems like too much work to find something new to watch you just start it over again, and because it’s changed so much over time it feels like a different show going all the way back, and how could you have not noticed it? but you watch through again and it starts to make sense how, because all the things that did were so small, so gradual, you never realized it was changing
Most people have binged a show or two in their lives. Everyone, whether conscious of it or not, has binged life as well. It could be falling into old habits, bad relationships, but overall I relate the lyrics to how miniscule changes affects one’s life, and how often we are unaware of it. If we were able to dissect it all, go back to when it all began, we could see the clear path from then to now. I think we see that in the broader sense of how Covid impacted everyone, and how gradually everything shifted into an obscure present. It is not the way it was, but the way it will be. In a micro sense, we all change in ways we cannot see. Looking back things become much clearer, but it was out of our mental reach until we were allowed hindsight. Reflecting on your life choices can feel like rewatching a show and noticing how different it all feels from the pilot episode. Was this really the same person that became my favorite character?
The World Is A Beautiful Place And I Am No Longer Afraid To Die released their own perspective on the state of things through their new album Dreams of Being Dust in August 2025. The album begins with blast beats before the ten second mark, and a notable shift into heavier guitars and harsh vocals soon follow. “The World Is are mad” seems too simplistic, but it also seems true. I personally haven’t given the new album enough of a chance for deeper thinking, but I can understand and feel the reasoning behind the band going in this direction. Illusory Walls, their album before, felt heavier and darker in its own right compared to the band’s catalogue. I want to share my favorite lyric from that album because I think it still hits just as hard as when I heard it in 2021.
“Infinite Josh”
Our dreams get drowned in a river of present needs, the years float by like fallen leaves
Our dreams get drowned in a river of present needs, hung like echoes in these frozen trees
This lyric might age better as one ages, and maybe it’s turning 30 this year that caters my heart every time I hear those lines. Luckily it’s repeated more than a few times in the 15+ minute track, a modern emo epic that should go down in the history books of the genre. Many people have succumbed to this feeling of lost time for many different reasons, but it is again only impactful when you are able to reflect and realize that everything is moving faster than anyone could imagine. While the darker tones of their new album are directly present, the darkness is implied in this song, making it a bit more nuanced and encompassing overall. Another lyric simply states You can’t go home again throughout the song, crushing anyone old enough to know the feeling with five short words.
The way this week has been can be scoped into the last month, the last year, the last decade, and it’s turtles all the way down. It has been a weird time. I’ve empathized with so many, and been unable to understand the lives of many others too. I think humans are scared, I think we’re all angry, but we’re not who “we” are anymore in the broader development of technology, business ethics, government ideologies, and anything else that has proven to disconnect us further. We’re all scrambling for a happy life amongst a landscape unforeseen to anyone.
Bo Burnham’s lyrics on “That Funny Feeling” are presented so plainly, and their duality is chilling to listen to still. I think the song is a farewell to the way we want to view the world, and an acknowledgement of the surreal nature we live in now. Maybe we can all find ways to be better, to lessen that funny feeling, to share and understand more. Until then, here are some prophetic lyrics that still ring true today:
“That Funny Feeling”
The surgeon general's pop-up shop, Robert Iger's face
Discount Etsy agitprop, Bugles' take on race
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
Reading Pornhub's terms of service, going for a drive
And obeying all the traffic laws in Grand Theft Auto V
Full agoraphobic, losing focus, cover blown
A book on getting better hand-delivered by a drone
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
There it is again, that funny feeling
That funny feeling
There it is again, that funny feeling
That funny feeling
Written by Evan Lurie
