During a conversation with Bo Burnham at the New Yorker Festival, host Michael Schulman asked the Eight Grade director about Brett Kavanaugh’s yearbook jokes, considering Burnham’s own history as a high school YouTuber. “It’s not about the fucking jokes, but it’s all we have that tangibly points to the thing that’s been fucking with us forever. It’s about the behaviors that lead to those jokes being cultural standards in the first place.†He continued by saying he understands why comedy itself has come under such scrutiny: “He won on comedy – Trump won on comedy. I think, ya know, he learned everything he learned from the fucking Comedy Central Roast of himself he did.†Burnham went on to point out that Trump’s humor was a big help in the debates. “You watch him with Ted Cruz and all those people onstage, he’s roasting them,†he said. “He’s super super funny, super slick, super good.â€
He also noted Trump’s comedy makes it hard to satirize him with shows like Our Cartoon President. “It’s like the Donald Trump cartoon – they made a cartoon of Trump and I’m like ‘Whaat? …Cool?’ ‘Get it?? It’s a CAKE of a CAKE, isn’t that funny?’ and it’s like ‘…What?’â€