Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs died in 2011. By 2017, his canonization was essentially complete. The turtlenecks. The "Think Different." The hagiographic biopic. Steve Jobs wasn't just a tech CEO—he was a secular saint, the patron of innovation, the man who gave us the future in a sleek aluminum package.

Bill Burr had a correction.

"Steve Jobs is a genius? He made a phone. That kids in China put together. How is he a genius? The kid in China who actually built it is a genius."

The bit from "Walk Your Way Out" is Burr at his most class-conscious. He's not attacking innovation or technology—he's attacking the mythology we build around certain rich people while ignoring the actual humans who do the work.

Burr traces the supply chain of an iPhone with the enthusiasm of a man who's been thinking about this for years. The design happens in California (nice offices, free lunch, beanbag chairs). The manufacturing happens in Foxconn factories in China (suicide nets on the buildings). One group gets magazine covers. The other group gets nets.

"Suicide nets. They have nets on the outside of the building so you can't kill yourself. And then they bring you back inside. That's how bad the job is."

The audience is laughing, but the laughs are complicated. Burr is describing real human suffering in service of products they all own. The phone in their pocket was assembled by someone whose workplace requires anti-suicide architecture. That's not a joke—it's a fact that Burr is forcing them to sit with.

The bit expands beyond Jobs to a broader critique of hero worship in capitalism. We celebrate the person who had the idea while ignoring the thousands who executed it. We call the CEO a visionary while the assembly line worker remains invisible.

"We don't even know their names. We know Steve's name. We know what he wore. We know what he ate for breakfast. The person who actually built your phone? Nobody gives a shit."

Burr isn't anti-technology. He's anti-mythology. He's asking why we've agreed to worship certain people while remaining willfully ignorant about the conditions that make their products possible. It's a question most people would rather not think about while scrolling their iPhones.