Patton Oswalt: No Reason to Complain

It's a shame that sub-standard comedians like Dane Cook have achieved mainstream success because they make 14-year-old girls' hearts go aflutter, but genuinely brilliant comics such as Patton Oswalt go unnoticed. Oswalt, the pudgy, baby-faced comic whose resume includes "King of Queens" and "Reno 911", is one of the most unique comics of our time. He eschews stale conventional humor (relationships, pop culture) and offers a fresh, if sometimes warped, perspective on the ridiculous state of the world. His topics range from the dumbing down of America, the homo-eroticism of '80s hair band videos, and midgets. Forget the "next level" of humor… Oswalt fearlessly takes a joke to numerous planes just when you think that it can't go any further. One example, which is also my favorite bit, Oswalt discusses how the steakhouse Black Angus practically tortures its patrons with its endless array of "angry food": (Imitating a Black Angus waiter): "At Black Angus, we'll start you off with five deep-fried gulf shrimp served on a disk of salted butter, served with 15 our of Potato-Bacon Bombs, and a big bowl of pork cracklin's, with our cheese and butter dippin' sauce!" (As himself): "Uh, we're gonna split that."

"Oh, you'll each get your own!!!" Sound appalling? Just wait… it only gets funnier (and more horrifying) from there.

A self-proclaimed "man without a country" (he dislikes both hippies and Republicans), Oswalt theorizes that Bush will bring about the "Biblical apocalypse" and that dying in the apocalypse will get you a special spot in Heaven ("you should have been there! There were volcanoes that spewed menstrual blood… and there were sentient razors that cut your face, Bush was President, and mediocrity held sway!").

Yet Oswalt isn't as nihilistic and angry as George Carlin, Chris Rock, or Lewis Black. Instead of waxing poetic on how much the world sucks, he shows us how absurd modern life is… not to mention hilarious. He's also a refreshing antidote to the increasingly safe and white bread humor of comedians like Bill Engvall or Jeff Foxworthy. More in the vein of offbeat yet upbeat comedians like Louis C.K. or Jim Gaffigan, Oswalt is a gifted comic who might one day get the recognition he deserves. In fact, that day is closer than we think, since he stars in the 2007 Pixar animated film, "Ratatouille".

Stand up comedy is about as subjective as it gets in entertainment. Certain performers who could be accurately described as half talents are raking in millions with really dumb routines, while the more intelligent voices have to take a somewhat different journey to become well known. Over the last fifty years, Lenny Bruce, Richard Pryor, George Carlin, Bill Hicks and others laid the track down for gutsier commentary on just about all subjects in society. The idea comedy should be relevant and not threatening to the psyche of some hypothetical five year old who might listen to or watch entertainment that isn't intended for their young minds is one big obstacle that execs like to use (something Carlin's classic bits, especially "Seven Dirty Words", were integral in), explaining why material for adults is not always presented in a firmly mature context and not interfered with.

Patton Oswalt is best known from "The King Of Queens" and as one of the original "MadTV" writers (and now "Big Fan", a film I'm dying to see, but hasn't been released in any theatres near me!). In this terrific disc, he's on fire, searing all the things which annoy him so much. If there are better comics working today, they can't number too many (maybe Chris Rock and Dave Atell, if we're considering only North American talent). Oswalt blows away his targets like an expert skeet shooter. I'd love to see Patton team up with Henry Rollins for a much more down to earth kind of news broadcast that they could co-anchor together.

"I want a famous face!", he cries out in mock despair near the beginning, elaborating on how some poor souls think looking like a celebrity is the answer to their life's problems. And the desperation of modern humans gives Mr. O endless material for satire (there's a shorter, almost equally good television spot from an earlier point in his career as a special feature). Friends sobering up, the art and science of titling films, sneaky e-mail strategies, open mike night memories, what makes a woman truly "crazy" as opposed to just movie style "nuts" and decoding 1980s dude imagery in music videos...they're all here and more.

My only reason to complain is that this amazing concert has to come to an end!