Comedian and actor Bill Burr has a role on the Star War TV show The Mandalorian as Mayfeld, a character who–like Burr himself–speaks with a Boston accent. Some part of the Star Wars community has raised some concerns about this.
Burr defended this character’s Boston accent in an interview with Jimmy Fallon. Burr said people don’t seem to care that Han Solo can communicate with Chewbacca or that C-3PO has an English accent, so it’s not much concern that Mayfeld has a Boston accent.
“What about English? Doesn’t that look weird if you went to a galaxy far, far away and you get off, and somebody’s like, ‘Hey, how’s it going?’ And you totally understand them?” Burr said. “What about the fact that Han Solo is talking to a bigfoot? He’s talking bigfoot, Han Solo’s speaking English. They never break character. How about C-3PO with an English accent, that was OK?”
Burr ended his defense with a shot at Star Wars fans who took issue with it in the first place, “Eff those nerdy, nitpicking nerds,” he said with a laugh.
Burr is a comedian known for pulling no punches, so his response to Star Wars fans in this manner is no surprise. Prior to his casting in The Mandalorian, Burr had been very outspoken about how much he did not like Star Wars, and it was this very element that helped him get the role in the end.
It’s also worth noting that Burr is not being serious here. He’s just trying to be funny. Similar to how he made fun of Michelle Obama’s book tour, Burr was poking fun at the Star Wars crowd with his jokes just to get laughs. “Well, the thing is, when I was making it, I wasn’t being serious. I was just doing that comedian thing,” he said in an interview.
The Mandalorian Season 2 premiered in October and a third season is currently in production.
