Advertisement

Burn dials everything about Reeves’ performance and Cyberpunk itself up to 11, liberally spitting phrases like “that’s cyber-fucked” in a perfect Keanu Reeves voice while somehow not breaking character to laugh about how ridiculous he sounds. In what is now his second most-popular clip of all time, Burn takes this joke to its (logical?) conclusion, telling a department of corrections officer the name of a person who can help him bring down the diabolical Arasaka corporation: Howard. The officer, another player, says he does not know Howard.

“You’ve never met Howard?” replies Burn, as Johnny. “What about...Howard Deez Nuts?”

Advertisement

“Oh my goodness,” says the officer, who walks away.

Burn then Burn makes his Johnny avatar turn and face the camera, as the distinctive Cyberpunk 2077 theme music suddenly swells.

Advertisement

“Yeah,” he says, using an emote to make it look like Johnny’s removing his sunglasses, “I’m Johnny Silverhand, and you just got cyber-punked.”

It is the dumbest shit I’ve seen in my life, and it made me laugh so hard that I’m sure my neighbors two floors up heard me.

Advertisement

Burn is not just Johnny Silverhand; he is Johnny Silverhand from the notoriously buggy video game Cyberpunk. This means that he, too, regularly glitches out, barking half-phrases over and over while using an emote to T-pose. It’s not exactly an original joke at this point, but what sells it are Burn’s execution and timing, as well as the game’s willingness to play along. No Pixel, after all, should not exist. It is unofficial and player-made, meaning that it, too, is prone to over-the-top comedic freakouts.

Advertisement

One of the most popular clips on all of Twitch in the past several days sees Burn crash a truck into a mailbox, at which point Lengyel, who was riding in back, goes flying out into the street.

“What the fuck?” Lengyel yells.

Burn begins to say “You cyber-fucked up, kid,” but cuts himself off and starts T-posing while saying, “You, you, you, you, you.”

Advertisement

“I think we broke him,” says Lengyel.

But then, without missing a beat, Burn resumes walking normally and moves to get back in the truck. “I’m perfectly fine,” he replies in a tone of venom-filled petulance. “Just get in the fucking car.” His character then sits down outside the car and floats in place. Burn set up the joke, but it was the game that delivered the punchline.

Advertisement

Rust and Minecraft might have upstaged it, but GTA RP never went anywhere, and now it’s here to remind everyone who the real king of preposterously dumb, somehow-good performance art is. Truly, we have all been cyber-punked, and we are better for it.

Recommended Stories

Advertisement