I had a conversation with a friend of a friend recently who was not from around here. That is to say, she wasn’t from America at all. She grew up in South England and this was her first trip to New York. She informed that while she grew up on a steady diet of American pop culture, she was no expert on the subject and felt very lost in New York City (“It’s nothing like Sex in the City,” she informed me.) She was telling me about how she couldn’t quite describe Manhattan in relation to other cities she had visited, how Manhattan felt like so many places at once, a complicated puzzle nobody could solve, and I informed her that trying to summarize New York City is a fool’s errand. She then asked me what movies or TV shows felt best captured the essence of New York City, and it sent my brain into a tailspin. A lot of things popped up at once. Some were obvious answers. Most Woody Allen films, for starters. Taxi Driver, Dog Day Afternoon, The French Connection. Then you got your TV shows, all of whom do the city justice. Seinfeld, of course. 30 Rock is a staple. Broad City is brilliant and captures the essence of being young, lost and stoned in New York City (unlike it’s melodramatic cousin Girls.) It seemed like a great recommendation, until I remembered Billy on the Street. At first, it seemed like a game show with such games as “Rapper or Nic Cage character?” doesn’t quite fit the profile, but Billy Eichner sure as hell does.

Billy Eichner yells. He yells a lot. It’s his thing. His shtick, as far as most people are concerned (“The best part of that is when you scream at me,” declared David Letterman with zero irony after playing a game with him entitled “Celebrity Child or Kentucky Derby Winner.”) In his game show and most of his media appearances, he asks trivia questions related to pop culture. Though it starts with a calm explanation, it frequently escalates into comedic explosion as Billy grows frustrated with the participants lack of knowledge. He has other moves in his comedy toolkit yet people seem to focus only on the fact that, yes, Billy Eichner yells a lot, and your amusement of this may vary.

His profile has increased dramatically in the past year. The third season of Billy on the Street aired and featured a murderer’s row of special guests (Olivia Wilde, Neil Patrick Harris, Paul Rudd, to name a few.) He’s done rounds on pretty much every major talk show in America. He has a recurring role on Parks and Recreation. His new show, Difficult People, an Amy Poehler-produced comedy starring him and Julie Klausner, was picked up for a full season on Hulu and will debut next year. He had a featured bit at the Emmys that killed and was perhaps the only saving grace in an otherwise bland evening of typical award show charades.

Despite this, Billy has caught a lot of unnecessary flack. There are people who call out his shtick, persona, whatever you want to call it. It’s grating. It’s annoying. It gets old fast. Not that we should ever live our lives by YouTube comments (or even look at them to begin with), but for every ten comments that are positive, there’s at least one negative person typing “this faggot isn’t funny.” I really don’t think Billy Eichner is disliked because he’s gay, though there are certainly some homophobic ass holes out there who beg to differ. I don’t see straight people, specifically males, watching Billy Eichner and thinking “Well, he’s gay, and I’m straight, so I can’t actively watch this guy.” I’m pretty sure we’re getting better on that front. Most Americans aren’t looking at it through that viewpoint.

My father is a staunch, red-blooded Republican who worships at the altar of Ronald Reagan (he recently considered buying a Presidential portrait of him to hang above the family room before deciding that, yes, that would be kind of creepy.) He is by no means homophobic, but he’s not out there actively raising awareness for gay rights, nor should he be. That being said, I’ve seen him laugh harder at Billy on the Street than most sitcoms. Granted, he’s not going out of his way to watch it – it’s usually with my sisters and I, when we binge watch most of it off the DVR – but he sure as hell laughs whenever Billy Eichner opens his mouth. He’s not viewing it from a lens of “Hey’s gay, therefore I don’t like him.” He’s viewing it as a comedy. And even with probably a third of the pop culture references flying over his head, he’s still enjoying the shit out of it. There’s something inherently hilarious in Billy Eichner approaching an African American stranger and asking “Sir, for a dollar, name three white people.”

So why the hate for Billy Eichner? Well, he’s really blowing up as of late, and pretty much every media appearance he’s done involves distilling Billy on the Street into two minutes or less. And so on pretty much every major talk show appearance, such as Letterman, he gets to chat for about five minutes before the producers make him play a game (the same thing has been done on Fallon and Conan.) The games don’t get any of the time or nuance they have on the show, nor does it involve the pedestrians of New York City that are the real stars – the key ingredient to why the show clicks. It involves talk show hosts who want to get to the laughs as quick as possible. It frequently devolves into yelling, and yes, it can get a little exhausting. I beg you to check out a full episode of Billy on the Street (where he’s not yelling every five seconds) before casting judgment, because these media appearances dwindle down the essence of a truly great comedic performer into the same thing, and I totally understand why this overexposure can get on people’s nerves.

He’s also been a recurring character named Craig on Parks and Recreation this past year. He’s been in ten episodes thus far and slated to appear for more in the upcoming final season. Yet his appearances as Craig, while funny, have ultimately felt slightly disappointing. Craig has become less of a character and more of a caricature of Billy Eichner. Like I said, he sure is great at yelling at people, and that dynamic works well in some places, but can often feel like a misstep. Still, he spits out dazzling non-sequiturs with a delivery that most comedians could never nail (“You’re Craig, right?” “Yes, I hate that name. It’s so boring. I sound like someone’s cousin. Craig. Craig. I want to be a Spanish man named Terence but that didn’t happen.” “…OK.”) Yet Craig fails to develop as a character within the confines of the show. He sticks out like a sore thumb at times, and while I’ve found him an enjoyable addition to a show that’s lost Rob Lowe and Rashida Jones this past season, there’s been a vocal divide about his presence on the show. Here’s to hoping the seventh and final season will dig a little deeper into his character, and knowing the brilliance of Michael Schur (the showrunner and creator of Parks and Recreation who declared Eichner “one of the funniest human beings I have ever seen in my entire life”) I have confidence his appearances will improve.

Other than that, it’s difficult to see the problem. Look – you’re either going to find him funny within a couple of minutes or not, but that doesn’t mean he is anything less than an excellent comedic performer. He writes jokes that come so far out of left-field that the setup and the punchline are practically intertwined into gold. His delivery is great at any volume. His improvisational skills under pressure are a force to be reckoned with. Sure, he’s yelling on every media appearance he gives, and often on his own show, but there are jokes that are absolutely pitch-perfect that don’t require his vocal cadence to rise above a simply phrased question. “Miss, we’re taking donations for the cast of The Big Bang Theory,” he states to two foreigners who happily donate a dollar to the highest paid actors on television. “Thank you. Thank you. Johnny Galecki thanks you,” he states before he and Seth Meyers run away.

The reason why I told the British girl to check out Billy on the Street was that Billy Eichner very much embodies the city he’s ambushing. New York City is loud and fast. People get in your face. It moves quicker than you can blink. Arguments concerning benign subjects are abundant. People ask you crazy shit. Sound familiar? And the best part is that the real stars of the show are not fictional characters. It’s the pedestrians. The real New Yorkers. They are New York City being ambushed by a persona that very much embodies its spirit. It’s a fascinating sociological experiment.

On a recent episode, Billy informs a contestant that if she needs help answering a question, she can “Beg a stranger, pretend to laugh for thirty seconds, or ask a squirter.” When the woman – in a rush and kind of freaked out, with reactions only New Yorkers could emote – reluctantly accepts to be helped by a squirter, Billy runs off and approaches a middle-aged woman in casual attire, purple scarf, black sunglasses, with a deep but powerful no-bullshit type of voice.

“Miss! Miss! Are you a squirter?”

“A squirter?”

“Yeah.”

“How much would you buy me to drink?”

They proceed to engage in a five minute discussion on squirting as they complete the quiz. You know the saying “Only in New York”, right? This is a show built on that premise, with a persona that only elevates it higher. People have plenty of New York experiences. But really, only Billy Eichner can capture such moments with grace.