Adolf Hitler was a dictator-tot. Jesus hates you for masturbating. We can fix Africa through laughter. By this point, you are either laughing or nodding disapprovingly at the comedic styling of 21-year-old Robert Burnham. Known affectionately to the world as “Burnham”, he singlehandedly placed the world of comedy into a chokehold from his bedroom piano five years ago. Equipped with a tie-dye T-shirt, a happy disposition and a post-Catholic-school allure that would make any humor-seeker uncomfortable, Burnham has transitioned from viral video phenomenon to beloved comedian for his well-tuned satire.
“There are parts that don’t feel like 21,” Burnham said. “There are parts that just don’t feel real, I don’t know what age it is. Getting on stage and performing weird songs for people or telling dick jokes doesn’t really feel like any age… I feel like a kid.”
His early foray into the Internet was no surprise or stroke of luck; Burnham was heavily involved in the theatre and campus ministry of his high school. He was accepted to NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts in 2008, but deferred his admission for a year. After graduating high school, he went on tour to the revere of critics and audiences alike. Extrapolate to the end of this semester, and Burnham may very well have been graduating from NYU this year if he didn’t defer. Would he have been the loveable figure we know him as today?
“I was studying experimental theatre, so I don’t know,” Burnham said. “I don’t know if I would’ve made it there, gotten antsy there or not. I have no idea if I hadn’t deferred. I never could’ve predicted this, so I don’t think I could predict the other side either.”
Burnham’s lyrics have the capacity to offend and appease listeners in the same breath. He was noted early on in his career for his shocking-yet-smug content that was scathing enough to raise eyebrows, yet clever enough to keep listeners engaged. In a media landscape where shock value reigns supreme, Burnham sees no problem in such a rebellious nature in entertainment.
“I think entertainment is pretty cyclical and people get bored of it pretty soon,” Burnham said. “A change of pace is always important, for someone to challenge the status quo. And if that means young kids yelling obscene things to challenge our ideas about language, that’s important.”
“And it might be something sweet and gentle that challenges that,” Burnham said. “And then people are like ‘Oh wait, there’s this part of me that I like being stimulated.’ It’s exciting to bounce around world views as long as you keep moving.”
Though he does not consider himself a hip-hop artist, Burnham is revered for his lyrical ability. His uncanny wordplay and fine-tuned melodies can pit him against 95% of hip-hop artists today. But in a world where a white rapper is pigeonholed into a snapback or thick-rimmed black glasses to be successful, Burnham wants no place in the scene of frat rap and suburb-hop.
“I think the problem is when white kids try to make a rap career and are engaging a culture that they have no fucking business engaging,” Burnham said. “Hip-hop started as a beautiful thing for a certain subculture to have a voice when they didn’t, and all their imagery that was violent and angry, coming from a reflection of a place that was real and society needed to acknowledge.”
“For little old suburban me to come out of the woodwork and imitate that because I think it’s cool is just fucking lame and really dumb.” Burnham said. “I can rap about the things that are true about me, but to engage the hip-hop scene as a hip-hop artist doesn’t feel genuine to me. I don’t want to ever imitate the aesthetic of a background that I didn’t come from just to be cool. I think that’s really disrespectful to the people that actually lived it and are trying to tell their stories through this medium.”
Burnham’s rise to success through YouTube has made some detractors quip about his illegitimacy as a comedian. But three albums, two Comedy Central stand-up specials and over 70 million views later, the Catholic-schoolboy-turned-comedy prodigy has won in all his youthful bliss. At age 21, Burnham reflects on the infancy of his career and what he would say now about his younger self.
“I’d say ‘Change your shirt.’ And then I’d say ‘Good luck, you little weirdo.’”
