Bill Bur discusses the significance of humility and not being taken too seriously.

Though he’d probably take issue with the suggestion that he represents anything more than being an exceptionally talented stand-up comic, Bill Burr’s success is a rebuke to the idea that comedy should heed any rules but the big one: be funny. “I hate all this shit now about what you can or can’t make a joke about,” says Burr, a plainspoken provocateur, leaning back on a couch at the Burbank, California, studios of All Things Comedy, the media company he co-founded. “The people who say that kind of stuff are the most unfunny people to be around in the world.”

As for himself, Burr isn’t exactly wanting for an audience. His expertly crafted stand-up — he’s almost always on tour — has earned him arena-headliner status, his Monday Morning Podcast is a hit, and his Netflix animated sitcom F Is for Family is a critical favorite set to return for a third season this fall. “There’s just this thing I have,” Burr says, “that if I see a bunch of people thinking one way, I just gotta go at ’em. I don’t know what it is. I just gotta do it.” 

Well, back in the day there were probably too few opportunities for comedians and now, yeah, you could argue that there are too many. But the situation now is better because the performers have so much more control about what they put out. It’s mostly up to the comedian: If you sink, you know it was you…..

There’s always going to be the thing where something simple — he got kicked in the balls! — will have a zillion fucking hits. And then there’ll be the people who are into comedy who’re saying, “No, this is the guy you need to listen to.” But I do what I think is funny and ignore 90 percent of the rest of it. I just saw something today on Twitter where someone wrote, “Thank you fake feminism. Here’s something else we can’t make fun of.” That whole thing of, like, “Thanks a lot, Group A. I guess I can’t say this is funny now” — I don’t get that. If that’s what someone is thinking, you should go harder in that direction.

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. “Punch up. Punch up.” That has got to be the most boring thing you could ever do onstage. It’s yelling into an echo chamber. What’s so fucking funny to me is that what’s really going on is never brought up. Who donates to the president and who pays for the advertising on all these big news networks? That’s shit people should be upset about. But instead, if you do a fucking feminist joke in a strip mall you make the news. So that’s just a load of shit.