If Netflix comedy special Bill Burr: Paper Tiger illustrates anything, it’s that a lot has happened in two years. In the time since Burr’s previous special debuted, American culture changed significantly — the #MeToo movement emerged, racial tensions were amplified, the political divide grew into a chasm and, most relevant to the topic at hand, ideas about what is and isn’t funny became a point of heated debate. Dave Chappelle’s recent controversial Netflix special Sticks and Stones stirred the latter topical soup rigorously, prompting many of us to wonder what role standup comics play in 2019. Do they offer escapist relief? Are they artists reflecting and commenting on our troubles? If they’re breaking boundaries, how, and why are they doing it? Burr surely wouldn’t pretend to know the answers, but in the context of his trenchant comedy, maybe the answer is, all of the above.
BILL BURR: PAPER TIGER: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
The Gist: Burr’s trademark is what my dad calls a “shit-eating grin.” It’s that wide, ear-to-ear smile that says he knows he’s staring at a button, and he shouldn’t push it, and he does it anyway, perhaps against his own better judgment, but how funny is it to watch everyone scramble when the fire alarm goes off and there isn’t a fire? His stage persona is a blend of agent-of-chaos Joker and preadolescent troublemaker Dennis the Menace — the angry man and the mischievous child, the corrupted elder and the young naif. Sometimes the grin comes before a withering joke as a sort-of warning, sometimes after as a sort-of apology. There’s a twinkle in his eye. He pulls the pin on the grenade. He tosses it.
“Y’know what’s hilarious about sexual assault?”
Those of us familiar with Burr’s work — Paper Tiger is his sixth standup special and third produced by Netflix — know what we’re getting into. One of his more famous bits addressed how Hitler gets all the glory as history’s No. 1 dictator when Stalin actually murdered more people. Here, he gets into the razor-edged material right off the bat: He mocks someone who says he’s been “triggered.” He says a movie role in which Bryan Cranston plays a quadriplegic is “acting,” and if they’d gotten a real quadriplegic to play the role, that’s “just laying there reading something someone else wrote.”
Before long, Burr says feminists are “full of shit,” and launches his rage-bazooka at “male feminists.” He says the #MeToo movement devolved into calling out men for “bad dates.” He wonders what men should do with women “who like it a little rough.” He calls out an audience member for cheering the idea of the first woman U.S. president: “You don’t even know what her f—ing platform is, and you automatically cheer!” He soon reveals that he knows exactly what he’s doing: “By the way, this is going to be my last show ever.” Cue the grin.
But soon, Paper Tiger shows why it bears that title. Burr becomes — sharp inhalation — self-reflective. He talks about how a female comic sexually bullied — for lack of a better word — him once, and his surprisingly mature response to it. He reveals that he tends to bottle up his feelings until he explodes. He illustrates how he and his African-American wife interpret an Elvis Presley documentary differently. He shares a sad story about how they had to give up their much-loved, but overly aggressive dog before their child was born — and plainly says he worries about the world in which his daughter will have to grow up. I’m removing the jokes from the above summary — you should hear them from the original source, because they’ll be much, much funnier that way. Except that last bit about his daughter. That wasn’t a joke, I don’t think. Does Bill Burr change before our very eyes over the course of 67 minutes? Is he woke or not? What does “woke” even mean, really?
What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: Burr is often compared to Louis CK, and it’s hard not to think about the disgraced comedian when Burr jokes about the #MeToo perp who “vigorously masturbated” in front of women. (The gist of the joke: Is there any other way to masturbate?) If you’re uncomfortable revisiting CK’s work — which is remarkably unfunny in the light of the truth about him — Burr may fill that void. Although you may still be a bit uncomfortable.
Performance Worth Watching: Your own. Yes, that’s right. Watch yourself laugh in spite of yourself.
Memorable Dialogue: “I don’t know what the f— is going on, but I think white women started it.”
Sex and Skin: Burr also emulates what one does with a sex doll.
Our Take: (Gets up on soapbox) THE ROLE OF THE COMEDIAN IN TODAY’S SOCIETY IS (pause for effect) well, I still don’t know. Why would I pretend to answer a question that may be unanswerable? Or at least unanswerable in a pithy manner? I’m not here to write a dissertation, but tell you whether you should watch a damn comedy special or not. What the hell am I trying to make me do here, anyway?
This is sort of the point Burr comes to when all is said and done — and a whole lot is said and done in Paper Tiger, ranging from scathingly critical commentary to some crass frivolity about sex robots. Burr says he can only see the world through his own eyes, and then turns a shrewd eye towards his own eyes, as if that shrewd eye was outside himself and viewing himself, or something like that.
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The point: our perspective on the world is colored by our own experiences, and self-awareness is the key to learning others’ perspectives, to being empathetic. There’s a part of him (and us!) that reacts emotionally, illogically, in the face of the unfamiliar, but it doesn’t mean he (we!) isn’t ultimately open to change. There’s a transition in the show where he half-mutters, “Times are changing, I guess” and it’s not protest, but a one-line deflation of many minutes of his own (very funny) un-PC rage. There’s also a point where he plainly states that absolutism is bullshit, and he picks at the core concept of extremity — when one extreme idea is expressed, it inspires an equal and opposite extremity. Is he espousing centrism? Nah. That’s too simple. He’s pointing out how there’s no harmony here, just conflict, and that may just be the source of Burr’s discontent.
Our Call: STREAM IT. All of this is extremely funny. Maybe that’s the bottom line. Maybe it’s as simple as that. Maybe it’s not. This is just the world as Burr sees it. Like some of it or lump some of it as you will.
John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Read more of his work at johnserbaatlarge.com or follow him on Twitter: @johnserba.</em)
Stream Bill Burr: Paper Tiger on Netflix
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