HAMILTON - Bo knows satire. Bo knows viral video. Bo knows his song lyrics won't fly in a family newspaper, but Bo doesn't take it personally.

"Most of my songs make fun of myself," Bo Burnham says, defending his taste for R-rated material. "They're about stuff kids my age normally wouldn't laugh at, except they do."

Burnham, 17, is a senior at St. John's Prep, an all-boys' Catholic high school in Danvers. If you've never heard of him, you probably haven't spent much time lately surfing video-sharing websites like YouTube or Break.com. If you've seen any of his dozen or so videos, which have generated 10 million Web hits and already brought Burnham a Hollywood agent and Comedy Central booking, you know the "stuff" he sings about is so politically incorrect it isn't funny. Except it is.

Take "My Whole Family (Thinks I'm Gay)," a video that debuted on YouTube a year ago and propelled Burnham to Internet stardom. Its theme is self-explanatory, yet how many 17-year-olds dream up lines like, "I was John Elway/Now I'm Elton John"?

"Klan KooKout," another Burnham offering, does a comedic number on white supremacists worthy of Randy Newman (sample punch line: "someone loses Schindler's List"). Burnham's latest, "3.14 Apple Pi," drags gangsta rap down alleyways even Snoop Dogg would fear to tread.

Then there's "Perfect Woman," a three-minute ode to feminine perfection starring Helen Keller. "I'm going to hell," Burnham predicts on camera after finishing the song, which, if the World Association of People with Disabilities has any say, seems likely. Kids, one hastens to warn, do not hum this at home.

Home is where Burnham's heart is, though, at least for now. Each of his videos has been shot in and around his family's house in Hamilton, mostly in Bo's bedroom. Wearing a preppy shirt and necktie or long-sleeved T-shirt, he accompanies himself on the guitar or electric piano, rarely changing expression or camera angle.

The effect is simultaneously wholesome and disturbing, intimate in a folksy-creepy sort of way. "Hello, Internet pedophiles," welcomes Burnham as one video rolls. You know he's joking around, playing with the medium. Yet of course they could be watching, too.

"At first, I jumped up and down like any parent would and told him to get [his videos] off the Internet," says his mother, Patricia, a staff nurse at St. John's Prep. "They're not exactly mother-friendly, after all."

Bo's father, Scott, who runs a North Shore construction company, admits the videos were "a little shocking at first" but says: "The key for us is, this hasn't taken over his life. Bo's a smart, serious, hard-working kid. It's probably overtaken us more than him."

Or maybe not. Last month, Burnham flew to London to tape a segment for Comedy Central. He's also recorded a CD for Comedy Central Records, due out later this month, and performed standup gigs at Boston's Comedy Connection. His agent, Douglas Edley, represents a stable of top-tier comedians that includes Drew Carey and Dave Chappelle. Edley's assistant caught Burnham on YouTube a few months ago and recommended his boss check him out. That was on a Sunday.