It�s hard to know what to make of Bo Burnham.

At a stand-up comedy concert last night at Westminster College in Fulton, he came out to a rock star welcome and matched the energy of a revved-up crowd of 300 students ounce for ounce. Girls had his name scrawled on shirts, and frat guys bellowed out, �Bo Fo� Sho,� and took photos with their camera phones.

Burnham is an 18-year old YouTube sensation whose videos have been viewed more than 20 million times. But on stage yesterday, he didn�t soak up the adulation or look to stroke his ego. Instead, he strummed an acoustic guitar and began singing an achingly awkward song about his family thinking he�s gay.

�My whole family thinks I�m queer/that�s all I ever hear,� he crooned. �But I�ve been straight as a ramp if you don�t count Bible camp.�

With floppy hair, tight jeans and the overly dramatic gestures of a theater kid, Burnham is an original. There�s a self-deprecation that borders on self-loathing running up the spine of his comedy, but Burnham balances that out with in-your-face politically incorrect material that he gleefully lobs at his young audiences.

Take, for example, his second song, a composition called �Klan Cookout.�

�Stay here and roast marshmallows by the burning cross at the Klan Cookout,� he warbled, pretending to be a Klansman. �And if you�re black, don�t want to see your face/they�re like the high school track, it�s just a stupid race. We got a plan, yeah kill all the Jews/Are you a Mexican, cause you seem confused? Que, Que, Que?�

A mixture of laughs and groans from the audience provided fuel to the flame for Burnham.

�All men are created equal, man that sh gets me pissed/here�s an idea for a sequel: Someone loses Schindler�s list.�

Burnham is an equal-opportunity offender. Jokes about abortion clinics are told back-to-back with jokes about civil rights leaders Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks. For the religious crowd, he packed in jokes about pleasuring himself while reading the Bible.

He, of course, is playing characters throughout his performance, but for some the irony is thin. About 15 protesters, including members of the Gay-Straight Alliance, Black Students Association, International Club and the Cultural Diversity Organization held signs and rallied outside Champ Auditorium, where the concert took place.

�It�s just a plethora of derogatory and tasteless comments that I don�t find funny,� said Derick Dailey, a sophomore from Little Rock, Ark. �It�s not comedy, it�s not satire, it�s just insulting, and it�s not what Westminster College stands for.�

The event put campus leaders in an awkward position. The performance was paid for out of a $200,000 annual pot of money controlled by the Student Government Association to book music and entertainment. The protests were the first of Burnham�s career, said a representative, and school leaders confessed they were unfamiliar with his material until he was booked.

�This is leading us to a good campus conversation,� said John Comerford, dean of students. �Our students have already scheduled for next Thursday a �Lunch and Learn� to talk about this. Who should be welcome on this campus, and who should decide that? � We�re going to have these important, productive conversations, so I�m looking forward to it.�

Burnham, of course, found the college�s uncomfortable position hilarious. �Remember, Westminster does not endorse any of these opinions,� he intoned near the end of his hourlong act. �But they paid me!�

After the show, most of the crowd seemed to take Burnham�s side. Comedy should be edgy, they said, and the protesters need a better sense of humor. �I�m super hard to offend, so I love sexist jokes, and I think people take them way too seriously,� said Jessica Kunze, a junior. �So I think the fact that someone can have fun with it is pretty cool.�

Asked what she would say to her classmates who were offended, Kunze said, �Chill out, take it easy. It�s just words. It�s not like he�s actually burning crosses in yards.�

Others agreed that a line needs to be drawn between an act and actual hate speech. �Within his act, he says he�s joking,� said Scott Wright, a freshman. �It�s not like he singled anybody out and made them feel bad.�

After the show, Burnham briefly signed autographs and talked with fans. A young fan who is a paraplegic came up with his father and friends to get a poster and CD signed. Burnham shifted back and forth uncomfortably as the young man worked hard to form a sentence; perhaps Burnham recalled the numerous jokes in his act mocking the disabled. And then the disabled student spoke: �What do you call a blonde with two brain cells?� he asked slowly. The answer: �Pregnant.�