Neil Hamburger (the comedic persona of Gregg Turkington) has cultivated an image that would churn the stomachs of most comedy crowds. Always dressed in an old, rumpled tuxedo with a greasy mess of a comb over, Hamburger looks like he took the stage after getting thrown out of a nightclub nightmare from the seediest corner of Nixon-era Las Vegas. Hamburger slings jokes to match his look. His routine is a string of one-liners about his divorce, celebrities, diseases; if it’s unpleasant, Hamburger tries to mine it for some groan-inducing joke. “Why did God invent dentists?” Hamburger asks the audience, clearing his throat violently, “Apparently to fill my ex-wife’s southernmost cavity, unfortunately.” And to ensure he’s as alienating as possible, there is no subject that’s taboo, no off-limits topic that can’t be probed for a petty knock on a celebrity. “What is the only thing worse than 9/11?” Hamburger grumbles to the audience, cradling two empty drink glasses in his arm. He retorts after a chorus of why’s erupts from the crowd, “311.” Hamburger has positioned himself as the heir apparent to the anti-comedy crown of Tony Clifton (an alter-ego of Andy Kaufman). He’s seen his profile boosted by stints with Tom Green, regular appearances on the Adult Swim show Tim and Eric’s Awesome Show, Great Job!, as well as periodic interviews on the overnight Fox News program Red Eye. Hamburger talked, via phone, with contributor John C. Schlotfelt.

John C. Schlotfelt, Wag’s Revue: Since guys like Richard Pryor and [George] Carlin back in the ‘70s and ‘80s, the primary delivery system for jokes has been longer pieces, more observational and anecdotal, but a lot of your stuff is really short and to-the-point, set-up/punchline. Do you think it’s been helpful for you to be different from what most people do or do you think it’s been a hindrance?

Neil Hamburger: Oh I don’t know if it’s helpful to me because these guys are all multi-millionaires—of course, except that they’re both dead. From my point of view, these people come out, they pay their money, they want to laugh their fool-heads off, you know what I’m saying? And we’re gonna ramble on and on with one of these stories about what happened to us at the dry cleaner that afternoon, it better well be funny, because if it isn’t, you’ve wasted several minutes that these people could spend laughing their heads off. This way, I feel, you give them a joke every thirty seconds, if they’re not laughing at this one, well they’ll probably be laughing within the next minute at one of the others. You don’t waste everybody’s time.