Burd, with typical modesty, said his rookie TV effort has exceeded his own high expectations, especially considering he has “not made a show before, never acted before and everything I’ve written has had to rhyme. I feel I’m destined to be amazing at this craft.”

“I’ll be brutally disappointed if it isn’t one of the most explosive comedies on television,” he said.

Burd’s statements often seem over the top, but in conversation, he has none of his alter ego’s braggadocious manner. He speaks in a low-key, thoughtful tone, whether he’s praising FX executives for their helpful notes, or telling you why he is, definitively, obviously, a genius and the greatest at whatever he does. It’s as if Muhammad Ali brought in Eli Manning to recite his prefight poetry.

“Dave” shares Burd’s real back story: a Jewish kid from the Philadelphia suburbs who got good grades and worked in advertising after college. “David always dreamed big,” his mother, Jeanne Burd, wrote in an email. “He was not afraid to say what was on his mind and he was always fearless and confident.”

While Burd’s family thought he had found the perfect outlet working in advertising, he had bigger dreams: He wanted to be a rapper, a comedian with his own TV show or an NBA player. (“That’s not ruled out yet,” he deadpanned about the third option. “I definitely train twice a week so we’ll see — I’m a never-say-never type of guy.”)

Burd’s ad agency job proved inspirational in a pragmatic way. “Making music videos had seemed so unachievable but I saw all these things getting produced on a day in day out basis, and learned how technologically feasible creating high-end art was,” he said.