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The people who say that kind of stuff are the most unfunny people to be around in the world.
As for himself, Burr isnt exactly wanting for an audience.
I dont know what it is.
I just gotta do it.
But the situation now is better because the performers have so much more control about what they put out.
Its mostly up to the comedian: If you sink, you know it was you.
will have a zillion fucking hits.
I just saw something today on Twitter where someone wrote, Thank you fake feminism.
Heres something else we cant make fun of.
If thats what someone is thinking, you should go harder in that direction.
Thats why feminists are some of my favorite people to do comedy in front of.
Theyre so fucking sensitive.
They take themselves so seriously that you cant be absurd enough they still act like youre presenting legislation.
When I was in L.A. during the election I would justtrash Hillary [Clinton].
But when I go to Oklahoma, I make fun of gun owners and theirAR-15s.
Thats where the fun is.
I hate the feeling of somebody trying to control what I think.
Thats an asshole thing to do offstage, but onstage its funny.
I dont know why I brought him up as a reference.
I didnt even realize he was from there.
But I got this huge laugh and afterwards, I was like, Wow, thats a killer bit.
Then people went, No, the crowd was laughing because they thought you knew he was from Pittsburgh.
Whatd you make fun of Mr. Rogers about?About how he made me uncomfortable.
He was just so nice.
Yeah, no ones that nice without a reason.And he had this Norman Bates build.
Whos wearing a cardigan all the time anyway?And all that make-believe and talking to puppets.
And Im there thinking,Im killing with this!
Just to go back to feminism for a second, because its a subject you joke about a lot.
Why not?Because you’re free to ruin your career doing it.
Whose career was ruined by making fun of feminism?What do you mean whose career was ruined?
Im talking about jokes.
Whose career was ruined by making jokes about feminism?Not ruined, but you know what I mean.
You have to then apologize for shit.
That whole punching-down thing I absolutely cannot stand people who say that.
That has got to be the most boring thing you could ever do onstage.
Its yelling into an echo chamber.
Whats so fucking funny to me is that whatsreallygoing on is never brought up.
Who donates to the president and who pays for the advertising on all these big news networks?
Thats shit people should be upset about.
But instead, if you do a fucking feminist joke in a strip mall you make the news.
So thats just a load of shit.
The punching-down idea?Its an utter load of shit.
Smarmy people who arent funny say that.
Comedy is a pastime.
Not everything has to be important.
I honestly think the world is so fucked-up that if you actually looked at it, its too depressing.
So going after comedians and building them up and ripping them down has become this sort of distraction.
But the non-comedy issues youre talking about do get a lot of coverage.
The front page of the New YorkTimesis not about whos getting offended by comedians.Its about what?
Michael Cohen.You tell me how much people pay attention to that.
No one gives a fuck what I think.
I think they do.No, they dont.
Thats done on CNN and on Fox.
Politics and news didnt used to be like it is now.
Now its all people bring up and it doesnt get you anywhere.
Who has ever screamed at somebody and then the other person said, You know what?
Now I see your point.
But both sides are completely delusional.
They say everyone else is either a libtard or a fascist Nazi.
Suddenly you have an agenda.
My hate for that is probably what drove me into doing what I for a living.
I dont listen to the hissy fits on social media.
Social media is good for promoting gigs and its fun if you play an instrument.
But the internet-speak like when theMichael Jordan crying fucking thinggets applied to everything I dont get into that.
But Im trying to do a new thing with it.
Whats that?Ive been trying to put my phone down.
I get into what Im doing.
Thats how my brain works.
I get into something and then I disappear into a room for eight years.
So I have to watch what I point that impulse at or else I will not be productive.
They just sum you up.
Thats how I stay relaxed in traffic.
I dont mind aggressively bad drivers.
I just hate the pot-cookie energy that people drive with in L.A. on surface streets.
Then they get on the highway and its like they fucking did an eight-ball.
Ah, okay, I get it.
Do you think your act gets misrepresented online a lot?I do feel I get misunderstood.
My favorite thing with those videos youre talking about is when whoever makes them renames the stuff.
Therell be a video of my stuff and its called Women Ruin Everything.
I never fucking said that!
My joke is processed with whatever happened to you in your life.
Thats what its supposed to be: Whatever you do, dont say this.
Thats the setup and then you fucking say it!
This whole weight that is put on comedy now is hilarious.
Then theres the comics doing comedy for a cause.
Thats a whole brand-new thing.
I know youve talked before about Louis C.K.
and #MeToo, but Im wondering if youve seenany of the storieslately about the prospect of his comeback?
Do people want him to become homeless?
I dont know the answer.
I know these are complicated questions.I dont have the answer either.
I definitely think Louis is going to come back.
I believe if you do something wrong and get punished then its over.
This is obviously a whole new thing.
He admitted that what all the women said he did was true.
Hes been punished for what he did.
Hes a friend of mine.
I feel horrible about the whole situation.
I feel horrible about the people that he did that to.
The whole fucking thing, you just wish it didnt happen.
And he got punished and he should be, at some point, allowed to move on.
Because I dont get it.
What do I gotta do for you to realize that Im a fucking idiot?
Im literally doing a job that is the silliest job other than dressing up like a clown.
And I say in my act I dont read.
I say that I dont research shit.
Why would you put any weight to anything Im saying?
Theres that argument where people go, Youre influencing the people that come to your show.
What I always say to them is, Are you homophobic?
Of course they say no.
And I go, Now what joke could I tell in an hour of stand-up that would undo that?
If stand-up had that power, it wouldnt be legal.
Its not just people on the outside.I find that all hilarious.
When people say, He trained like a boxer for that special.
Yeah, sure he skipped some rope, but he didnt take any head shots.
Does it ever seem like certain comedians kind of want it both ways?
If I never say what Im saying is important, then you should never take it seriously.
Throughout my career Ive said Im a fucking idiot.
I am hyperconscious that I dont know shit.
Howd you get out of that?I got a dog and theNHL Center Ice package.
I have a little life now.
I do myF Is for Family, I do thepodcast internet thing, and I tell my jokes.
If Im not doing that, I am at homeplaying with my kid or hanging with my wife.
Do you still get ideas from the things that scare you?Yeah.
Stephen King cannot fuck with the things that you think could happen to your kids.
The only thing that would pull me out of it would be getting a new chunk of material.
And to get a new chunk of material you have to go out into the world.
But when youre in that funk you dont want to go out and then you get writers block.
When I was younger I even used to think all that cliched sad-clown shit.
Now I dont want to fucking be that guy.
I want to be the happy guy, which believe it or not, I am.
Youre turning 50 soon.
What does that mean to you?Its fucking awesome.
And now Im not that.
I have questions about two things that are sort of related …Thats my whole act.
Two things that are sort of related welded together.
I would fantasize about doing it in front of my entire grade in the school auditorium.
But I still wasnt able to make the connection ofmaybe that means you want to be a comedian.
It didnt seem possible.
And I used to go over to his house to drink beers before wed go out that night.
To save money wed get a good buzz before we got to the bar.
And I remember my friend goes, Were funnier than these guys.
And it hit me:Oh, you’ve got the option to just do that.
Sad-clown stuff.No, no I was doing it in a funny way.
But I didnt bomb.
I did okay, and I remember it was just like,This is what Im doingnow.
Comedy is the only thing in my life I never had any doubt about.
I obviously learned from a bunch of masters, but it always flowed into me.
When you find what youre supposed to do theres not a lot of thinking.
And if you love what you do, you transcend so much bullshit.
My life was really unbalanced before.
I didnt have any kids.
I was sleeping on a futon.
But you got where you wanted to be.Yeah, I did.
I had a nice balance.
I also felt like a freak because of how I looked.
I thought that becoming a comic was going to fix these other problems.
Of course, it didnt.
I just believed that it would for 15 years.
you’re able to only walk around so long being like, Chicks, man.
At some point you realize that youre the common factor.
I wasnt exactly the easiest person to be around.
Im not the most sane person.
But until you sit down and talk to somebody about your issues, theyre foreign to you.
I realized I was pretty fucked-up.
I read somewhere that when you started as a stand-up you worked clean.
Whatd working clean teach you about writing jokes?Oh god, I dont know.
I just learned how to set the joke up and punch it and tag it.
Comedy is the weirdest thing in the world.
You cant practice it in your bedroom.
You cant explain timing.
You cant explain any of it.
I was like, I know, I know.
Twenty-six years later …
And what helped you get more comfortable with hecklers?Getting heckled.
I remember one time feeling down that I got booed.
And it wasnt that I got booed, it was that I didnt put up a fight.
I was riding home withBobby Kellyafter and thought everyone was going to make fun of me for getting booed.
And Bobby was just going, Do you realize you just told that whole city to go fuck themselves?
I was so relieved when other comedians saw a positive side in it.
And I was just like, Guys, insulting your city isnt going to be my thing now.
The second sort-of-related thing was also about your earlier career.
Part of the fun is hearing you win them over.
Do you miss it?I do, but I dont miss not selling tickets.
It isthere sometimes if I just pop in at the Comedy Store or something.
Ive always enjoyed the challenge of getting out of my comfort zone.
I think thats what you should do.
I understand the temptation if youre an alternative comic to just do alternative rooms.
Or if you were a club comic to just do club rooms.
Or if youre a white comic just to do white rooms.
Its because bombing is so humiliating that you want to avoid it.
But humiliation is where the growth is.
This is also like why I enjoy drinking and I dont like pot.
I feel like with drinking you have to earn it.
You gotta get those drinks down.
Thats why I would never take pills: Its so fucking easy.This goes back to that whole punching-down thing.
Then you talk to them and theyre not doing anything about the problem they just got offended about.
Its like, So what areyoudoing aboutchildhood obesity?
Youre not helping it.
You just feel bad about a joke and now you think youre this good person because of that.
Do you find that your ideas come to you fully formed in the moment?
Or do you start with a kernel and then do a ton of revision?Its hard to explain.
I went to my nephews college graduation.
The people running it said, just refrain from cheering.
Everyone immediately had to show how not racist they were by trashing this dude.
But hes just the poor bastard that was given that job.
But for all anyone knew, hed been saying, You want me to do what?
Theres so many fucking themes in that situation.
Can you imagine what Patrice ONeal wouldve done with that situation?
Or what Dave Chappelle would do?
Thats all it is.
And what I like is when people get offended and they never ask what your intent was.
Somehow they know what you were thinking.
No, thats not how I meant the joke.
And theyll go, Well, fuck you, thats how I took it.
But just because you take it seriously doesnt mean I meant it seriously.
Everything that Ive said, you could poke holes in.
Ask two follow-up questions and all my points fall on the floor.
I have philosophies that are working for me, thats all.
But dude, I dont know.
Paying attention to all this stuff and the conspiracy stuff that I was into itll drive you crazy.
Thats why I got a pilots license.
How would I get out of here?You cant get out of this city even when it works.
Up and out was the only way.
So I learned how to fly a helicopter.
Now of course I know how to fly one, but I dont own one.
But you took the first step.I did.
I took a major step.
At least the ones I fly.
Theres a whole process of starting the fucking thing up.
Those zombies are going to be eating you before you even get halfway through your preflight checks.
These were some serious reasons to learn how to fly![Laughs.]
No, but the truth about any of this stuff is that I dont take myself seriously at all.
Because Im a lunatic and I yell, people think a certain way about me.
People meet me and they go, I thought you were going to be a screaming asshole.
Why would I be like that?
But somebody always ends up not liking you no matter what you do.
So you might as well just fucking do what you think is funny.
This interview has been edited and condensed from two conversations.
