Patton Oswalt: Talking for Clapping

This 2016 stand-up comedy special was not just outstanding or the best of Patton Oswalt's performances. True, I am not a huge fan of his stand-up comedy routines, but compared to the 2017 "Annihilation" show then "Talking for Clapping" was just not up to matching that following show. Actually, I don't recall laughing a single time throughout the entire show there was an occasional smile or smirk here and there. Which was just a major disappointment in terms of entertainment value. It was perhaps mostly because of his inability to finish all the sentences that he starts, which turned out to become frustrating as he stumbled along. This particular stand-up comedy show is not one I would recommend. And if you are not familiar with Patton Oswalt's stand-up comedy routine, then you are perhaps much better off with watching his "Annihilation" show instead.

I prefer my comedy a little more risqué (ie. Offensive), but I laughed out loud many times, which is unusual for me. Patton is known for his "nerd-dom" and often does a lot of jokes about Star Wars, Marvel, and comic books; which isn't really 'my thing'. But he does not do that in this show. He talks about San Francisco, the difficulties of being PC, being a father, the ease of old people getting drugs, crapping himself on stage, and a horrific birthday clown (my fav). The hour went by, way too fast. Another reviewer said it was too political, but there is only 4 minutes of political jokes in the 65 minute show. I assume this reviewer chose to be offended by a particular joke, and decided to cry about it here. You would be hard pressed to find anything offensive in this show.

This little fella never struck me as funny or talented at anything but I was running out of Netflix specials to watch and gave this a go. It was exactly what I expected - pandering for clapping. Praise women, praise every safe liberal agenda, hammer in the politics with zero humor behind the pointless garbage you're grunting at the audience... Just a really really short trainwreck that I couldn't see through to the end.

I've watched this one 3 times, mostly because it often takes me that long to wring everything out of Oswalt's material. As usual, appreciating Patton Oswalt requires some thinking. I'll say this isn't his most polished, perfected, and unimpeachable set. Some bits didn't work as well as they might have and, in my mind, he's heading down the same road George Carlin did in that the longer he lives, the more he sees how screwed up reality is, and the more he responds with anger. His bald anger isn't quite as funny as the absurd stance he's used in the past. The "gay prom" joke, in particular, took a little unpacking to get over the (unintentional, I think) excuse for discrimination. Patton has always been political, and in this current US political environment, how could he not be? I love his idea of "casting the president", although in late April of 2016, the idea is rather terrifying (again, I have to think a bit beyond the joke to get to that shuddery fear laugh.) And, yes, we get to enjoy his adventures in parenting, his relationship to Star Wars and fandoms in general, and his observations on life and people (the post office/DMV bit is a great example). He's older now, the topics that worked for him at 30 and 40 aren't going to work as well now that he's looking at 50, and that's how it works. It's still enjoyable, still is Patton (and yes, there are a few absurd stories which are wonderful.) So, go in relaxed, and settle into a slower, less bumpy ride that still has some great, funny scenery.

You know that thing people say where entertainers or Hollywood shouldn't get involved in politics. Yeah this is one of those times. It's not even funny, it's just flat wrong and designed for an audience that also knows nothing just like himself. So OK great, Oswalt gives us a few silly jokes that are very much low-brow and unsophisticated. A few jokes that are decent. Then he goes on tirade of politics. I get that he's obsessed with transgender, feminist, and gay politics, who knows why... But OK, fine... that's not where I had my problem. It's when he gets into things like Bush and Obama and starts condescending to the audience and describing political concepts that make no sense. Compares Obama's policies to terminator. Compares Bush to some maniacal torturer. Talks about how he wants "the first ___ blank" presidents. Like as if that means something. We need the "first X president" for almost every minority group or something? What ridiculousness. Politically correct nonsense to the max. This is exactly what makes liberals look bad. Then he goes into nonsense like "secret groups run the country and not the president." Literally spelling out ridiculous conspiracy theories. No wonder he describes himself as a man who spends too much time fighting on the internet. He's a 50 year old man-child. He seems to think there is a world of difference between UAVs and fighter jets apparently when one simply doesn't include a pilot and does the same thing. He believes in nonsense basically. It's unfortunate. So Patton Oswalt is an atheist, and it's funny, atheist philosophers have stated that once you get rid of religion for dumb people, some of these dumb people will start believing in the most nonsensical conspiracy theories and here is this guy, the perfect example of a not-so-smart man who believes in nonsense as a replacement for religion. He goes into rants about feminist silliness where he claims basically that all women direct movies. Watching this, you will be constantly annoyed by really low-quality jokes. Ironies that would only make sense to a high school student who recently got into politics.