When counter-trends and complaints become the norm, what would a counter-trend, resentful comedian do? Bill Burr, long-term Poster kids For an angry white male orgasm, it might be the last person you expect to accept sympathy in response to everything – but it seems that is the case.
Burr Recently told “There is a part of me who really hates the fact that I’m angry,” said NPR’s Terry Gross, who is a new Hulu comedy special Bill Burr: Throwing the Death Yearsalways tend to repent and joke, in most cases – avoiding anger and demonstrations rather than self-reflection. A far cry from his old character, Often intoxicated They seem to have caused his anger in jokes about lesbians, fat people, trans athletes and other marginalized groups.
Burr discusses what he might have been the first to laugh at before: his experience with therapy, learning how to be a friendly partner and the real impact of toxic masculinity on men. He even briefly covered the severe depression and child sexual abuse. It’s something very heavy, treated with surprising and diligent care.
Besides special people, he also made headlines Targeting billionaires,,,,, Defensive Luigi Mangione,Enter fighting With conservative commentators, and Baked Elon Musk Nazi salute-his actions Propose Let him be marked by the X that Musk owns. Some conservatives Asked, Burr was actually “wake up?”
OK, no, no. But Burr positioned himself as the 2025 American man has something new. “His voice expresses a sense that rules or acceptable strategies for climbing masculinity feel opaque, contradiction and change,” Northwestern sociologist Rebecca Ewert Tell Vox that refers to the hierarchy of status that men must navigate in a patriarchal society. “There are rules – they’re never consistent. Black people need different strategies than white people. In weightlifting gyms, there are different ways to prove the dominance of the gyms and the Congress floor. Burr explains that they’re more conflicting than ever.”
As a 56-year-old white man, Burr embodies a highly-watched crisis of masculinity – however, while catching his own losses, he also notices that even his strengths can be flaws in disguise. “He is expressing the way the system can’t serve him, but he’s also afraid to lose his whole life. We see that throughout the culture.”
You might think that anxiety about his perception of losing his status would produce a more angry comedy. However, contrary to the angry white aging and more clumsy cultural narrative, Burr seems to be liberated by aging. He was happy to get along better with his wife and was finally able to speak loudly that he was sad.
“Men are not allowed to feel sad,” he said in a self-deprecating moment, describing how he opens his emotions to his wife. “We were allowed to be one of two things. We were allowed to be angry or fined.” It was far from a shocking revelation, but when it came from someone like Burr, it seemed provocative before, and even proud of his limited range of emotions. He is far away from one person. If anything, he is part of a cultural moment that seems to be aimed at rewarding Emotional depression and Regression form of Masculinity.
Sociologist at the University of Birmingham Yuchen Yang It is pointed out that Burr’s sudden interest in relaxation is selfish at the level of survival. He has been a poster child with a masculine temperament for many years [men]Your own existence. ”
“The main cultural beliefs about masculinity often lead men to an unhealthy lifestyle,” Young said. “However, at the same time, the stigma of vulnerability around them also makes it difficult for men to seek help.”
The real problem, Yang said, is that people are “chasing a cultural ideal that is far from reality.” As he points out, “few men can achieve this ideal, and those who are really close to it hardly always embody it.” In other words, even if men want to embody patriarchal masculinity, they are plagued by their social expectations like everyone else.
Over the past decade, the “manosphere” (the internet space has been concentrated on the lives and status of men, leading By influential people and podcasts Andrew Tate,,,,, Joe Roganand A young man Their peers – both are reactions to and worsen and worsen. Yang suggested that its existence “is a contradiction that attempts to resolve the inherent contradictions of patriarchy without overturning it.”
“Those people want to restore the ‘natural’ masculinity of men, but there is nothing ‘natural’ of the masculinity they invest in,” he said.
While these online spaces give men a sense of community, they also contribute to growth Misogyny,,,,, Extremismand dissatisfied. The man is now More isolated More than ever Dying young And it is more likely to die from suicide, overdose, or alcohol or drug complications.
From beginning to end Lost the years of deathBurr discusses his struggle with alcoholism and the wider popularity of sad men. (“Seeing the first place for the pathetic man?” he joked. “Guitar Center.”) However, he seemed not only to recognize all of this, but to decide on the reaction to develop. Burr points out that all the suppression of emotions has caused real losses to men’s health, which in a particular special point cites his perception of death. “You start thinking about your life, you know?” he admitted. “You will take a look. I started thinking about how fast my life is, how fast my children grow.”
None of these are simple, “Men realize that they want to be a better person, as they get older.” What Ewert highlights is his deep contradiction to all of this. She noted that Burr often swings from serious discussions about his deepest fears and hopes to sting women – as if his intuition was to remind himself and others that he was not at the bottom.
“I can’t see him making a coherent argument. I see a lot of reactions,” she said. “That’s relevant – I think that’s what a lot of men are going through.”
In a sense, Burr is not only about getting in touch with his gentle emotions, but also about softer, less confrontational comedy in a way that still feels meticulous—we might think it is comedy, not the intended direction.
Once, he roasted listeners and laughed at him for making a joke about Joe Biden and dementia. “Not 30 seconds ago, when I said someone in my family was diagnosed [with dementia]you guys are all-you can hear the pins falling. He said, “Second, you put a blue or red tie on it – ‘Fuck that old man! Fuck him! I’m so glad he’ll die!'”
In recent years, comedy has been regarded as a series of comics Dave Chappelle arrive Louis CKHis commitment to their dissatisfaction doubled when various crimes were solicited. Burr didn’t go beyond that idea either. He is still frustrated that the rules about who is cancelled and who is less inconsistent are still talking about how social phenomena prevent him from insulting a person he deserves. “Even if he took my last piece of pizza and denied it with pepperoni,” Burr said, “I can’t say, ‘You fat, fat c**t.”
But Bill Burr might say “cancel culture” as a corrective measure, one thing he has managed to do, and it’s one thing liberals have been seeking: Listen and try to get better. None of these other comics arrived.
“I think he’s been seeing the real rewards of his emotional connection throughout his life,” Ewert said. She noted that yelling on the stage is a thing, “But at your home, you realize no Screaming will make you feel better. ”
“I think there is hope for this sentence,” she continued. “If more of us can talk about men’s problems, men’s mental health, it’s the result of patriarchal system keeping us all in hierarchy, that’s helpful to all of us.”
