Bo Burnham, a YouTube sensation with 22 videos and more than 85 million views, will be performing March 28 at 7 p.m. in the Student Activities Center.
Burnham's comedic songs like "3.14 Apple Pie," "I'm Bo Yo" and "New Math" became hits on YouTube and helped him reach the career heights he has today.
University Program Council is sponsoring the event.
Burnham is known both for his comedic songs and more straightforward stand-up comedy.
"His performance will be a mixture of both," said Aaron Grubbs, senior in civil engineering. "As most of us know, he is best known for his humorous songs, but he might also do some stand-up as well."
The speakers and comedians committee chose Burnham to perform because of how well his comedy relates to students' lives.
"We knew Bo would appeal to college students and what we're interested in," said Jessica Howard, sophomore in business administration and theatre.
Meredith Walkup, UPC graduate adviser, said Burnham would be a good fit for Auburn because of his young voice.
"He's had a lot of rising popularity on YouTube and with Comedy Central, and we just knew he would bring a good crowd," Walkup said.
Grubbs said student appeal was the biggest factor in choosing Burnham.
"Out of the many comedians that we started with at the beginning of the selection process, we picked Bo because he fell within our budget, he was available on a date we could do an event, and we felt he had a large student backing at Auburn," Grubbs said.
Grubbs said his committee had narrowed a list of comedians that included Jo Koy and B.J. Novak.
The committee felt Burnham would attract the largest number of students, Grubbs said.
Burnham, 20, joined YouTube in 2006 when he was 15 years old.
His songs and comedy are considered to be controversial and satirical, filled with jokes about racism, homophobia and sexism.
"Most of the time we advise artists and comedians to try to stay away form over-the-top adult language, sexual references or racial slurs," Grubbs said. "But once the artist is on stage, we really have limited control over what he says."
The show is being publicized as "rated R," Grubbs said.
"We requested a clean show," Walkup said. "But it's really left up to the artist. We're just making sure everyone knows that viewer discretion is advised."
Burnham has released an EP and two studio albums, the most recent of which was released last October, titled "Words, Words, Words." The album is a fusion of music and stand-up.
Tickets to the event are free for students and will be available on the concourse and on the day of the event from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m.
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