Patton Oswalt - Feeling Kinda Patton

heroin addict comedian from toronto. best bit.

(nice to see him turning up as a dungeon master on "reno 911.")

(nice to see him turning up as a dungeon master on "reno 911.") oh that's who that is? ok.

Which one to get?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32K0L8Q3O0Q&search=patton%20oswalt

patton vs. alcohol vs. zach vs. patton is funny but almost painful to listen to. patton's pretty fucking drunk and keeps coming on to a woman in the audience, zach is basically heckling him from the piano. i was laughing and cringing at the same time.

The bit about KFC's bowls on Patton's new album is pure gold.

"Is there a way that the bowl can play This Mortal Coil's It'll End in Tears album while I'm eating it at 2:00 in the morning in my darkened apartment, just kind of staring into the distance?"

America!/Eatin my lunch from a single bowl
In my parents basement/Where I'm livin'
Happy birthday/I'm 43
That's how I want my lunch/I don't wanna waste those precious calories chewin!
Somebody move my jaw for me/Jesus come work my jaw
And help my sloppy pile of food go down

i love the bit about bonding with brian dennehy

its a good record everyone get it.

ok

interested

the "Death Bed" bit make me cry from laughin' at work yesterday.

id post on leonardo but im banned

Patton is the tits. I finally saw The Comedians of Comedy not too long ago and lol'd hard. All I ever really knew him for was being the schlubby dude on that sitcom. Well, one of the schlubby dudes on that sitcom. I hope he gets rich and famous.

The Robert Evans/ Diane Keaton's apple juice-soaked pussy bit is gold. And while I could go the rest of my life and not hear another nerdy comic talk about star wars and be ok, his Nick Nolte as Han Solo bit was pretty funny, too - "Goooodddammit Chewbacca go fix the goddamned hyperdrive... ahhh hell."

yeah I hear you about the comic talk thing, but that chance encounter with George Lucas bit he does where George asks "hey, do you like ice cream? cause here's a big of rock salt" is hilarious

i'd post this and all my other patton stuff on leonardo but i too am banned

"we go to Planned Parenthood, where my cell phone didn't work"

I saw him open for Yo La Tengo and he was the first LOL comedian I'd seen in years.

the new one comes with a DVD -- is it the same material as the album?

"everything at cirque de soleil is wet and french and gay and on fire."

hahaha!

http://youtube.com/watch?v=vKmAlMIpc0Q

kfc bowl on conan:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=eoBQzAODeao

Yeah he was just talking about that on Conan again last night:

"Just give me two scoops of despair and cover it with I give up."

Then he read a poem about the Famous Bowl that worked in a Conan dis at the end.

dear god these things are revolting.
http://www.boredstop.com/imgp/kfcbowl1.jpg

anyone here actually eaten this?

i had the last 1/3rd of a leftover Famous Bowl one night while staying in a Motel 6 during an Albuquerque blizzard that shut down I-40 east for 2 days. it was mostly mashed potatoes and gravy but there were a few corn kernels left. it was cold.

that one seriously looks like it just took a money shot

looks like chinese food that a dead guy came on

Patton was disappointing on Conan. (I saw his performance during the San Fran episodes as well.) Are his CDs much better? He comes across like a very poor man's David Cross sometimes.

not really

(re: David Cross comparison)

well the poem was lame, but the line I quoted and "fill the bathtub with Nilla Wafers, it's time for a cookie parade in my tum tum" made me laugh a bit.

come on... that Conan clip is teh funny. Like a pile of laundry on top of another pile of laundry. He's great with words, is his thing.

The album is dead freakin' funny.

"anyone here actually eaten this?"

i have.
most awkward meal i've ever eaten.

did it taste of despair?

"Is the red planet Mercury like the crimson eye of Cerebus?"

Patton OTMFM about Austin, TX, btw

to be honest, it didn't taste all that bad. it's the feeling of chewing on corn, chicken and potatoes at the same time, that makes it so awkward and terrible.

He didn't mention Austin in those clips?

xpost

"Loretta Switt had a bush you could hide a VCR in"

<i>He comes across like a very poor man's David Cross sometimes.</i>

Cross is great in sketch comedy or as an actor in a role, but he's a pissy fussy unfunny stand-up. Oswalt, on the other hand, excels in both areas. And, as was mentioned above, Oswalt chooses his verbage so very carefully it just amplifies the jokes themselves.

"I'm gonna sneak you into the movies in my tummy!"

the new one isnt nearly as funny as "feeling kinda patton," sadly.

Cross spends a lot of time bitching about how uncool everyone else is, Americans are stupid!!!, etc..

Oswalt hates on hippies and makes fun of himself. Way better. "I'm on basic cable, I get pussy."

From top to bottom this one is stronger than Feeling Kinda Patton, but the peaks aren't as high. Diane Keaton's pussy, the billboards, relating what it's like to feel you're way out on the comic edge only to be blown away by the mentally insane - all better than anything on Werewolves & Lollipops.

sadly i think i've heard most of the bits on the new one already. but i'm buying it anywya.

(also, what is leonardo? is it a secret?)

Do torrents of Zach Galifinakis's old VH1 show exist anywhere? Can't turn up anything on isohunt or pirate bay.

http://www.myspleen.net/details.php?id=3152. Only 3 seeders at the moment, but it's better than nothing.

(email me if you need an invite).

^favorite person ever

jouster!!! wtf are you doing here!?!? great job on the sharpling and wurster podcast!!!

whoever said patton is the poor man's david cross is a fucking idiot. seriously the wrongest thing ever said on this message board.

I just downloaded 222.

"George Bush is a psychotic murder, but you know what's great? Snuggling!"

<3

"we go to Planned Parenthood, where my cell phone didn't work"

this was my favorite bit.

Seeing Patton, Maria Banford, and Brian Posehn in Portland tonight. Very excited!

this reminds me: is bamford good? is posehn's standup good? IS IT WORTH SITTING THROUGH THEM + 2 OTHER PEOPLE FOR PATTON?

I don't really like Bamford, but Posehn kills.

Bamford is amazing live. Almost surreal. Posehn is an amazing writer but his delivery is mediocre at best.

"take her easy"

I have kind of a crush on Posehn.

xxp yeah that was my exact concern with posehn. the show in boston is going to be canceled if the sox go to the playoffs anyway. :/

Awesome show. Bamford was insanely good - maybe the best of the lot. Her cds and television specials don't do her justice. Posehn was great since he shut up an annoying heckler sitting in front of us. Patton brought all kinds of new material (I was weary that his whole act be his new album, but I was wrong).

A+++++ would see again

told u!!! bamford is nxt lvl sht!!!

OMG she has this new sketch with her calling her religious mom as baby jesus (or BJ for short ha ha) and fucking with her that is pure gold I tell you - tears of laughter

Oh and Patton was trying out new "Get 'er Done" slogans. His best one was "Throw that puppy in the bucket!"

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/pmarca/~3/213444655/yum-patton-oswa.html

"breaded to the point of parody"

Nicely takes a turn for the Lovecraftian in the last paragraph.

I actually watch King of Queens, mostly because of Patton (though Leah Remini ain't so hard on the eyes, and I have kinda grown to really enjoy Kevin James, God help me).

Patton's great!

kevin james's stand up isn't bad. very polished, if predictable.

there is no comedians of comedy thread apparently but i came to observe that brian posehn is funnier off the stage, he's a pretty bad standup.

he is, actually, but i still like his standup. but he's probably weakest out of the galifiniakis/oswalt/bamford/posehn lineup.

yeah i don't mind him, he just can't hang.

yeah i have to say his standup never transcends "gross nerd" for me

i lol at the story about dokken telling teenaged him to grow some tits.

Posehn's got great material and I like him, but yeah his delivery is just way too eh. Even so, thumbs up. Bamford freaks me out... and I love that!

Here's the actual speech I gave at my old high school on June 18th. Well, more or less. There were some extra, last-minute thoughts I threw in there. I think the core idea of what I was trying to say was unchanged.

What a great group of kids. What a bunch of smarty-pants, too. Brainy bunch. Very intimidating. Their valedictorian had a 4.35 GPA. That means she took extra classes in a PARALLEL DIMENSION, and then found a way to have the credits count in this one.

4.35? She introduced me, and brought me onstage. And then she shook hands with 2.71. And then I said this:

First off, I want to thank the teachers and faculty of Broad Run High School for first considering and then inviting me to speak here. It was flattering, I am touched and humbled, and you have made a grave mistake.

I’m being paid for this, right? Oh, wait, there’s some advice, right off the bat – always get paid. If you make enough money in this world you can smoke pot all day and have people killed.

I’m sorry, that was irresponsible.

You shouldn’t have people killed.

Boom! Marijuana endorsement eleven seconds into my speech! Too late to cancel me now!

It’s dumb-ass remarks like that which kept me out of the National Honor Society and also made me insanely wealthy. If I move to Brazil.

I graduated from Broad Run High School 21 years ago. That means, theoretically, I could be – each and every one of you – your father. And I’m speaking especially to the black and Asian students.

So now I’m going to try to give all of you some advice as if I contained fatherly wisdom, which I do not. I contain mostly caffeine, Cheet-o dust, fear and scotch.

I know most of you worked very hard to get here today but guess what? The Universe sent you a pasty goblin to welcome you into the world. Were The Greaseman and Arch Campbell not available?

So, 1987. That’s when I got my diploma. But I want to tell you something that happened the week before I graduated. It was life-changing, it was profound, and it was deeper than I realized at the time.

The week before graduation I strangled a hobo. Oh wait, that’s a different story. That was college. I’m speaking at my college later this month. I’ve got both speeches here. Let me sum up the college speech – always have a gallon of bleach in your trunk.

High school. A week before I graduated high school I had dinner, in Leesburg, with a local banker who was giving me a partial scholarship. I still don’t understand why. Maybe he had me confused with another student, someone who hadn’t written his AP English paper on comparisons between Jay Gatsby and Spider-Man. But, I was getting away with it, and I love money and food, so double win.

And I remember, I’m sitting at this dinner, with a bunch of other kids from the other local high schools. And I’m trying my pathetic best to look cool and mysterious, because I was 17 and so into the myth of myself. Remember, this dinner and this scholarship was happening to me.

And I figured this banker guy was a nice guy but hey, I’m the special one at the table. I had a view of the world, where I was eternally Bill Murray in Stripes. I’d be the one with the quips and insights at this dinner. This old man in a suit doesn’t have anything to teach me beyond signing that check. I’ve got a cool mullet and a skinny leather tie from Chess King. And check out my crazy suspenders with the piano keys on them. Have you ever seen Blackadder? ‘Cuz I’ll recite it.

And then this banker – clean-shaven, grey suit and vest – you’d never look twice at him on the street – he told me about The Five Environments.

He leans forward, near the end of the dinner, and he says to me, “There are Five Environments you can live in on this planet. There’s The City. The Desert. The Mountains. The Plains. And The Beach.

You can live in combinations of them. Maybe a city in the desert, or in the mountains by the ocean. Or you could choose just one. Out in the plains somewhere, perhaps.

“But you need to get out there and travel, and figure out where you thrive.

“Some places you’ll go to and you’ll feel yourself wither. Your brain will fog up, your body won’t respond to your thoughts and desires, and you’ll feel sad and angry.

“You need to find out which of the Five Environments are yours. If you belong by the ocean, then the mountains will ruin you. If you’re suited for the blue solitude of the plains, then the city will be a tight, roaring prison cell that’ll eat you alive.

He was right. I’ve traveled and tested his theory and he was absolutely right. There are Five Environments. If you find the right combination, or the perfect singularity, your life will click…into…place. You will click into place.

And I remember, so clearly, driving home from that dinner, how lucky I felt to have met someone who affirmed what I was already planning to do after high school. I was going to roam and blitz and blaze my way all over the planet.

Anywhere but here. Anywhere but Northern Virginia. NoVa. You know what a “nova” is? It’s when a white dwarf star gobbles up so much hydrogen from a neighboring star it causes a cataclysmic nuclear explosion. A cosmic event.

Well, I was a white dwarf and I was definitely doing my share of gobbling up material. But I didn’t feel like any events in my life were cosmic. The “nova” I lived in was a rural coma sprinkled with chunks of strip mall numbness. I had two stable, loving parents, a sane and wise little brother and I was living in Sugarland Run, whose motto is, “Ooooh! A bee! Shut the door!”

I wanted to explode. I devoured books and movies and music and anything that would kick open windows to other worlds real or imagined. Sugarland Run, and Sterling and Ashburn and Northern Virginia were, for me, a sprawling batter’s box before real experience began.

And I followed that banker’s advice. I had to get college out of the way but once I got my paper I lit out hard.

Oh this world. Ladies and gentlemen, this world rocks and it never lets up.

I’ve seen endless daylight and darkness in Alaska. I’ve swum in volcanic craters in Hawaii and saw the mystical green flash when the sun sinks behind the Pacific. I got ripped on absinthe in Prague and watched the sun rise over the synagogue where the Golem is supposedly locked in the attic. I stood under the creepy shadow of Christchurch Spitafields, in London’s East End, and sank a pint next door at The Ten Bells, where two of Jack the Ripper’s victims were last seen drinking. I’ve fed gulls at the harbor in Galway, Ireland. I’ve done impromptu Bloomsday tours of Dublin.

I cried my eyes out on the third floor of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, all those paintings that Vincent and his circle have to each other as gifts because they were all broke some cold Christmas long ago. I’ve eaten crocodile in the Laneways of Melbourne Australia and ortolans on the Left Bank of Paris, France.

I’ve been to Canada.

I’ve been to every state in this country. I’ve been to hidden, subterranean restaurants in New York with the guys from Anthrax and eaten at L.A. taquieras with “Weird” Al Yankovic. I held the guitar that Hendrix torched at Monterey Pop and watched Woodstock ’99 burn to the ground. I’ve lingered at the corner of Bush and Stockton in San Francisco where Miles Archer took a bullet in The Maltese Falcon, and brooded over the grave of H.P. Lovecraft in Providence, R.I. I’ve hung out with Donny Osmond and Jim Goad, Suge Knight and Aimee Mann, Bill Hicks and Don Rickles.

I’ve done stand-up comedy in laundromats, soup kitchens and frat houses, and onstage at Lollapalooza and Coachella. I’ve toured with bands, been to the Oscars and the Superbowl, and been killed in movies by vampires, forest fires and air-to-air missiles.

And I missed the banker’s lesson. 100%, I completely missed it.

In my defense, he didn’t even know he was teaching it.

Telling me about the 5 Environments and urging me to travel? That was advice. It wasn’t a lesson. Advice is everywhere in this world. Your friends, family, teachers and strangers are all happy to give it.

A lesson is yours and yours alone. Some of them take years to recognize and utilize.

My lesson was this – experience, and reward and glory are meaningless unless you’re open and present with the people you share them with in the moment.

Let me go back to that dinner, 21 years ago. There I was, shut off from this wise, amazing old man. Then he zaps me with one of the top 5 pieces of information I’ve ever received in this life, and all I was thankful for was how it benefited me.

I completely ignored the deeper lesson which is do not judge, and get outside yourself, and realize that everyone and everything has its own story, and something to teach you, and that they’re also trying – consciously or unconsciously – to learn and grow from you and everything else around them. And they’re trying with the same passion and hunger and confusion that I was feeling – no matter where they were in their lives, no matter how old or how young.

I’m not saying that you guys shouldn’t go out there and see and do everything there is to see and do. Go. As fast as you can. I don’t know how much longer this world has got, to be honest.

All of you have been given a harsh gift. It’s the same gift the graduating class of 1917, and 1938, and 1968 and now you guys got – the chance to enter adulthood when the world teeters on the rim of the sphincter of oblivion. You’re jumping into the deep end. You have no choice but to be exceptional.

But please don’t mistake miles traveled, and money earned, and fame accumulated for who you are.

Because now I understand how the miraculous, horrifying and memorable lurk everywhere. But they’re hidden to the kind of person I was when I graduated high school. And now – and it’s because of my traveling and living and some pretty profound mistakes along the way – they’re all laid open to me. They’re mine for the feasting. In the Sistine Chapel and in a Taco Bell. In Bach’s Goldberg Variations and in the half-heard brain dead chatter of a woman on her cell phone behind me on an airplane. In Baghdad, Berlin and Sterling, Virginia.

I think now about the amazing thunderstorms in the summer evenings. And how – late at night, during a blizzard, you can stand outside and hear the collective, thumping murmur of a million snowflakes hitting the earth, like you’re inside a sleeping god’s thoughts.

I think of the zombie movies I shot back in the gnarled, grey woods and the sad, suburban punks I waited on at Waxie Maxie’s. I think of the disastrous redneck weddings I deejay’d for when I was working for Sounds Unlimited and the Lego spaceships my friends and I would build after seeing Star Wars.

I think about my dad, and how he consoled me when I’d first moved to L.A. and called him, saying I was going into therapy for depression, and how ashamed I was. And he laughed and said, “What the hell’s to be ashamed of?” And I said, “Man, you got your leg machine-gunned in Vietnam. You never went to therapy. Humphrey Bogart never went to therapy.” And my dad said, “Yeah, but Bogie smoked three cartons of cigarettes a day.” And how my mom came down to the kitchen when I was studying for my trig final, at 2 o’clock in the morning, and said, “Haven’t you already been accepted to college?” And I said, “Yeah, but this test is really going to be hard.” And she asked, “What’s the test for again?” And I said, “Calculus” and she closed my notebook and said, “You’ll never use this. Ever. Go to bed or watch a movie.” And how when I got my first ever acting gig, on Seinfeld, my brother sent me a postcard of Minnie Pearl, and he wrote on it, “Never forget, you and her are in the same profession.”

I didn’t realize how all of these places and people and events were just as crucial in shaping me as anything I roamed to the corners of the Earth to see. And they’ve shaped you, and will shape you, whether you realize it now or later. All of you are richer and wiser than you know.

So I will leave you with some final advice. You’ll decide later if this was a lesson. And if you realize there was no lesson in any of this, then that was a lesson.

But I’d like all of you to enter this world, and your exploration of the Five Environments, better armed then I was. And without a mullet. Which I see you’re all way ahead of me on.

First off: Reputation, Posterity and Cool are traps. They’ll drain the life from your life. Reputation, Posterity and Cool = Fear.

Let me put that another way. Bob Hope once said, “When I was twenty, I worried what everything thought of me. When I turned forty, I didn’t care what anyone thought of me. And then I made it to sixty, and I realized no one was ever thinking of me.” And then he pooed his pants, but that didn’t make what he said any less profound.

Secondly: The path is made by walking. And when you’re walking that path, you choose how things affect you. You always have that freedom, no matter how much your liberty it curtailed. You…get to choose…how things affect you.

And lastly, and I guarantee this. It’s the one thing I know ‘cause I’ve experienced it:

There Is No Them.

I’m going to get out of your way now. Get out there. Let’s see which one of you is up here in twenty years. If you’re lacking confidence, remember – I wouldn’t have picked me.

I think our class got a speech from someone about being proud about being graduates or something.

that's from patton's blog btw

i like it!

omg

That is fucking stellar.

The week before graduation I strangled a hobo. Oh wait, that’s a different story.

Ah, so gear was Patton O all along.

Gear stabbed a hobo. Big difference, especially if you're wearing a clown suit.

Poor hobos.

this is good. i def see the connections to dfw's grad speech that patton had praised

HE'S FAT!!!

HE'S ANGRY!!@

THAT'S FUNNY

New stand up cd/dvd out August 25. Woo hoo!

DETAILS DETAILS NOW

According to his website, it's a new 1 hour stand-up special w/bonus features and DVD-only short films.

http://www.pattonoswalt.com/images/events/my-weakness-is-strong.jpg

is that kevin scalzo drawing it?

Looks like Ivan Brunetti

it is ivan brunetti

Love this dude, one of the few comics whose bits I can listen to over and over again like they were songs.

Looks like he'll be in Portland on Sep. 13th.

wonder if he'll unleash a slew of new father jokes.

He will (but don't expect greatness from them, sorry to say).

http://www.thinklikeabride.com/theagency/kertesz/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/leak-main_full.jpg

he just got cast as a regular on that BSG spinoff Caprica

some version of the new special is on comedy central sunday

Amazon has a CD/DVD and DVD/CD version. One is $3 more. Does anyone know the details? Is this the same two discs just one's in a CD case and one's in a DVD case?

According to Patton's MySpace blog, they're the same (no idea why they'd be charging more for one version).

DVD boxes are more expensive I guess?

Damn, I gotta remember to order this shit!

check out his fresh air interview about new movie where he plays obsessed giants fan. he talks about his new special at the end. i've never heard any of his comedy sets before, but it's a great interview (with robert siegel, too).

*failure pile in a sadness bowl*

Potential new dad jokes or not, I'm excited for this.

i've never heard any of his comedy sets before

You really, really should!

Watching the special right now. The new-dad jokes have been entirely tolerable and non-cutesy. Not like Louis CK seething hate or anything, but it kicks off with "Come, woman, issue forth my demon seed from your stink-crevasse! PROVE THE GYPSY WRONG!"

listened to this and paul f. tompkins 'impersonal' the other day, good shit

super funny some parts, "OKAY" lol.

When I said his dad jokes weren't great, I was talking about a set I saw recently where he actually talked about being a father. The special was taped before his child was born. I am confident that none of the dud jokes I heard will end up on the next special.

xpost

loved the new one, thought the dad jokes were hilar

Nothing's been as puking my guts out hilarious as Feeling Kinda Patton but the new one had me cracking the fuck up throughout a most of it. The gonna-be-a-dad jokes were good.

like an anthropomorphic pot of noodles in a 1920s cartoon

Great things: the birthing robot that sometimes skins the baby and makes an iPod case out of it. Big lolz.

Also: "Ten minutes with the sad boy."

haha yeah "whatever, I don't even feel it anymore..."

my fave bit is definitely the epic rat anecdote.

^^^^^^

highlight of the disc for sure

http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i191/fluxion23/patton.jpg

flying sodomy demons

I thought this was very weak for Patton Oswalt but fairly enjoyable nonetheless. "B word fat", stuff about the apocalypse, and the rat anecdote were cool though.

Fuckquatch!

fuck fumes

Fog bank of twat mist.

Yeah I liked that story much better than the rat story, because the rat story was almost too relatable. I too have seen rats the size of squirrels. I always thought they were opossums until the horrible truth became apparent. But accidentally walking into the aftermath of an LA orgy at 10 on a Sunday morning? That's really funny.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iq10bz3PxyY

that video is 75% awesome

your display name is 75% typo-free

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fKI50MhzVM

hahaha

violagirl597 (2 days ago) Show Hide
0
Marked as spam
Reply
omg i am crying its soo sad!

MrNicko109 (2 weeks ago) Show Hide
+1
Marked as spam
Reply
this songs probally the sadest song ive heard

xFULLHOUSExLUVx (2 weeks ago) Show Hide
+1
Marked as spam
Reply
thats os sad

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNsvE33pRSw

awesome

I made the mistake of playing the youtube of the song first without reading the previous posts, thinking that something funny was going to happen at some point along the way.

Uggggh.

the fan video is hilars because dude had to shut down the shoe store to make a crappy youtube video about jesus shoes

Is that Joe Queer playing the good shoemaritan?

Bought tix tonight to see Patton at the beginning of Feb. YESSSSSSSSS.

btw WKIW Patton AND his dog Grumpus anyday. Witness the beast:

http://c3.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images02/28/l_e08ebdb51e8d40e9ae637eed206530a6.jpg

awesome.

Grumpus!

As long as he doesn't try to lick the inside of my computer screen, I'm so cool with Grumpus.

What's WKIW?

would kick it with

Surprisingly, neither urban dictionary nor the first page of Google results knew that. Thanks!

surely you meant 'wiki'

tbqh I'd like the Grumpus Dungeon Master painting even more than the actual dog

I've had his Big Fan movie on my table for a month, but it's gonna hafta wait another week.

Surprisingly, neither urban dictionary nor the first page of Google results knew that. Thanks!

― Jouster, Thursday, 31 December 2009 08:23 (11 hours ago)

cause i invented it and no one knows the secrets of the hoos

That dog is one serious piece of awesome.

GRUMPUS!!!

Holy shit - baby Grumpus, 2 weeks old!

http://c3.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/105/l_3e0a9008b7bfe64195660833a941f5d2.jpg

What kind of dog is it?

French bulldog, I think.

Yes he is a french bull dog and my god baby grumpus was the cutest!

http://pattonoswalt.com/uploads/image/gallery/cheetos.jpg

:/

Is that a real billboard?!

(never mind... just seen that it's from his "fan made" gallery on his website)

Is that man's and baby's face really switched?!

Bought tix tonight to see Patton at the beginning of Feb. YESSSSSSSSS.
― ★彡☆ ★彡 (ENBB), Wednesday, December 30, 2009 9:56 PM (1 month ago) Bookmark

I have to miss this tomorrow night because I have to work and can't get out of it. It's an early show.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHH. I look about as grumpy as Grumpus right now.

:-( Boo.

Oh man, Erica, I'm so sorry about the flu you contracted tomorrow morning.

Unfortunately the flu I've had all week is the reason I have to go in tomorrow. I've already missed two days and there are a couple things that I absolutely HAVE to get done tomorrow. dammit.

patton graduated from my current college! and according to the street he mentioned in his grad speech, he grew up 10 minutes from me (though not at the same time, obviously).

The whole Nick Madson thing has been, how you say, entertaining:

http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=67077201&blogId=533681759

haaaaaaaaaa

I have no personal manager or any one to consult with about my first public scandel (sic)

...implying he will have a second.

http://nickmadson.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/Nick-107-final-1024x699.jpg

this is just too much

AH! in more ways than one

Sick Grumpus on him.

Even Baby Grumpus could eat his eyeballs.

Dear me:

Special Skills
Voice-overs, Accents (French, German, Hungarian, British, Irish, Scottish), rifles, shotguns, handguns, impressions (South Park, Dudley Moore, Ross Perot, The Ladies Man), stilt walking, drives stick, baseball, football, tennis, golf, basketball, snow skiing, conducting, web spinning

(South Park, Dudley Moore, Ross Perot, The Ladies Man)

so topical!

I have a feeling the writer of this article has been going around smacking his forehead.

god what a shitheel

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twW8GgrbWwc

Full disclosure: Nick and I have actually been friends since the winter of 2004

oh boy

Some of my friends," says Nick Madson, "are like, 'How are you a comedian?'

I know these routines verbatim too, but never once did I think about getting up on a stage and passing them off as my own. This guy is an unbelievable asshole.

Madson's stand-up success, he says, is all the more surprising for his not actively seeking it.

"I remember watching stand-up comedy when I was growing up, and just loving it," Madson says. "I would actually record all these random comedians and just watch their sets over and over - how they set up their jokes, how they molded their jokes, how they delivered punchlines - and I just thought it was genius. And I was like, 'I want to make people laugh that hard, so that they just cry and their stomachs hurt.' And sometimes I do."

* Actor * Singer * Dancer *

"... when I retell their jokes."

Happily, in his career as a professional stage performer, finding comedic material is rarely a challenge.

I know these routines verbatim too
― Johnny Fever, Monday, May 3, 2010 12:46 PM

apparently he doesn't cuz he seems to be reading off a sheet of paper on the table

"But my ultimate goal," says Madson, "is to worm my way in through Comedy Central, and do something on The Daily Show, and maybe become one of the correspondents. And as soon as Jon Stewart decides to retire, I'll slip into his chair, and I'll take over The Daily Show."

Read what people are saying...

"...Nick Madson scores as Potiphar."
-Quad Cities Times
"...vocal stand-outs were Bret Churchill as Reuben and Nick Madson as the swarthy playboy Potiphar."
-River Cities Reader

"My favorite numbers were “Potiphar” featuring Nick Madson as a king with a heart..."
-Jami R. Smith - Clinton Herald

"...Madson and Stefanic make beautiful music together during their duets..."
...Madson's quite a fancy tapper with a haunting voice."

Island Sun - Sanibel Florida

he should stick with fancy tapping imo

http://nickmadson.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/001-768x1024.jpg

can I just say LOL at Patton's response? wau

No kidding! "If you were truly presenting an "evening of your favorite comedians", as if you were Hal Holbrook doing Mark Twain, Zero Mostel doing Ulysses or even Gallagher II, wouldn't you have prefaced each bit with a, "and now here's", instead of the bullshit, shyly-peering-out-from-under-your-forelock, can-you-believe-my-crazy-life-and-my-brilliant-way-of-seeing-it demeanor you so grotesquely adopted during this show?"

He looks really familiar, but I don't know who reminds me of. Maybe he's a face plagiarist too.

he kinda has a Ricky Gervais thing going on

I was thinking Seth McFarlane crossed with Pillsbury Dough Boy

Oh yeah, def Seth McFarlane.

(^^ Stealing HI DERE's joekz)

looks a bit like andy richter imo

he looks like Chode #1 in any movie featuring a chode

http://www.cal-entertainment.com/images/frank_caliendo_pic.jpg

http://nickmadson.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/Nick-107-final-1024x699.jpg

http://veggiemacabre.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/chris-burke03a.jpg

This Madson cat resembles a shit I took once, but less charming.

this whole thing is still hilarious 2 me

like i know ppl who come up with these same kinds of face-saving lies habitually but it's like...reading from a sheet and then saying "i write for louis ck and patton oswalt" which means some veteran comedians in their 30s suddenly ask a musical theater major for comedy tips....breathtaking

this guy lives in denver! should I stalk him? and throw tomatoes at him?

Found an online streaming archive of old Loveline episodes, and there's an ep from 2004 where he's on there with Brian Posehn. At one point I was laughing so hard I couldn't see.

A link would be great here.

Check my FB. I added it evening before last.

link for those of us not your FB friends?

http://ow.ly/230n9

looooooool

http://twitter.com/pattonoswalt/status/21008909162

Did they approach you with the role?

Yeah, they approached me.

What drew you to it?

Them offering it to me.

Sooooooo bad. In my mind I can hear this guy chewing while he's asking these lameass questions. What a slob.

dude clearly just googled him an hour before the interview

http://files.llarchive.com/1998/Loveline%20-%201998-04-01%20(Guest%20-%20Patton%20Oswalt).mp3

Patton Oswalt & Brian Posehn on Loveline in 1998

http://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2010/03/science-fiction-trivia-challenge-john-hodgman-vs-patton-oswalt-.html

Last night's Best Show w/ Tom Scharpling was the scene of an epic nerd-off: a science fiction trivia contest between John Hodgman and Patton Oswalt. If the finer points of Dr. Who, majordomos, the Last Starfighter and Alec Guiness impersonations are things that float your boat then this might just be for you.

http://blog.wfmu.org/.a/6a00d83451c29169e20120a922218d970b-800wi

amusing!

I can't get the stream to work :(

also try this: http://www.wfmu.org/playlists/BS

This should be a direct link to the podcasted episode.

man, i heard that loveline episode recently and loved it. that kids could phone in and get non sycophantic advice is rad. is it a regular show, with rotating comedians?

comedians are only there part of the time. Usually they just have on shitty nu-metal bands.

http://www.lovelineshow.com/

However, they did have on Kristen Schaal this week.

http://www.amazon.com/Zombie-Spaceship-Wasteland-Patton-Oswalt/dp/1439149089

was gonna pre-order but then saw that customers who buy this also like Tim & Eric DVDs and considered a serious life assessment

Not surprised Harlan E is a fan.

I was more put off by the combo purchase option with Adam Carolla's In 50 Years We'll All Be Chicks

Ew.

was gonna pre-order but then saw that customers who buy this also like Tim & Eric DVDs and considered a serious life assessment

― 'wich house (Whiney G. Weingarten), Thursday, October 21, 2010 10:04 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

'alternative comedy' is a small enough retail niche that you should really be able to just be comfortable with your likes and dislikes without having constant narcissism of small differences crises

a life derailed by "amazon.com also recommends"

...signs that you may be overthinking things just a tad...

"'alternative comedy' is a small enough retail niche"

outside of larry the cable guy and dane cook and the rest of the blue collar axis, who's not alt. comedy that people have heard of?

Pretty much anyone who was a stand-up in the '90s, for example.

Outside of David Cross and his circle of pals, of course.

who's not alt. comedy that people have heard of?

um black comics

there are a few out there you may have heard of

you should really be able to just be comfortable with your likes and dislikes without having constant narcissism of small differences crises

― Long live smooth music..... ;) (some dude), Thursday, October 21, 2010 11:24 AM

think you're forgetting who you're talking to here

it seems like a good chunk of black comics would be absorbed into the alt.comedy umbrella through things
like the (oswalt -- louis c.k. -- chris rock) connection. is pootie tang black comedy or alt.comedy?

was sarah silverman ever on the chapelle show? i feel like brian posehn was on it but it feels like brian posehn is on a lot of things.

Just because you have worked with an alt comic does not make you an alt comic though.

Louis CK is definitely not an alt comic.

i feel a definition coming on

was sarah silverman ever on the chapelle show? i feel like brian posehn was on it but it feels like brian posehn is on a lot of things.

neither was on Chappelle.

when I ref'd black comics I was thinking of guys like Katt Williams or Steve Harvey or Cedric the Entertainer. these dudes are huge. they are not "alt".

also FYI Pootie Tang is not a standup comedian

is he not a standup comedian in the same way neil hamburger is not one?

it's a character from a comedy sketch that was made into a movie. Neil Hamburger performs standup comedy on stage. the character of Pootie Tang does not.

they both seem like alt. "concept" characters to me.
i'll grant you the kings of comedy/comedians of comedy schism between black/alt comics but the idea that alt.comics are some embattled minority feels weird to me, when they seem to dominate the landscape.

I dunno what landscape you're looking at - none of those guys bring in the $$$ like Dane Cook or the Blue Collar guys or the bigger black comedians do

oswalt in particular was kind of everywhere for awhile during the ratatouille blitz.

basically they're only outlet is quickly-cancelled shows on Comedy Central, the occasional album, and cameos/voiceover work in shitty movies

lol xp

that's a lot of outlets generally speaking

not when compared to someone like Dane Cook, who gets lead roles in movies, does stadium tours, gets to do his own giant specials, etc.

i mean 'alt' doesn't seem like a going concern these days, outside of consciously avant-garde stuff or whatever. they're all just trying to get on. is it defined by following? associations? venues? content?

It does seem like every Will Farrell movie and NBC comedy is controlled by the Upright Citizens Brigade mafia.

I dunno and I can't say I really care I just think that saying that people like Cross, Oswalt, Silverman, etc "dominate" the comedy landscape is kinda ludicrous when there's a whole lot of people who make way more money than they do and have way bigger audiences. Like, I'm pretty sure none of David Cross' albums have gone platinum, nahmean

this type of steady work for good sized stable of comics with a good variety of comic sensibilities is nothing to sneeze at. they're getting/making the work the carol burnett/mel brooks teams were getting/making 30 yrs ago, scaled down to a world with 1000 cable channels, video games, et al

My sister helped cater at an event at some guy's house in Phoenix, and the guy had paid $2 million to have Chris Rock come do standup at his house. I don't think Brian Posehn is bringing in those kind of numbers.

it's why 'comedians of comedy' c. early 2000's felt like so much smarmy marketing, in addition to being an ok joke title

who's the cheapest marquee alt.comedian you could hire out for say a house-warming party? i don't have $2 million but would totally hire posehn for $100.

From Aziz Ansari's standup, it sounds like he'll come to your house and do his routine for free...if you're Kanye.

we're all missing out on a lot of free stuff by not being kanye it seems.

hope Chris Rock made a 15 min bit to explore all the facets of the ridiculity of being paid 2 mils to perform at a house party.

even if i was as rich and famous as chris rock; i'd still probably be like "damn, really?!" if someone offered me 2 mil to play a house party

i mean 'alt' doesn't seem like a going concern these days, outside of consciously avant-garde stuff or whatever. they're all just trying to get on. is it defined by following? associations? venues? content?

― shecky naw (tremendoid), Thursday, October 21, 2010 5:53 PM (5 hours ago) Bookmark

+following: generally college educated younger white people
+associations: indie rock
+venue: lots of alt comics perform at rock clubs/festivals in addition to comedy clubs/venues
+content: more dick jokes

o god this guy is truly deeply awful http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/12/ff_angrynerd_geekculture/all/1

Meanwhile like three of my fb friends just posted that link talking about how awesome it is. lol

yeah, i had one of my moments where i wanted to say 'guys, have you read this? you know this is terrible, right?' but facebook not really the right place for that conversation. life not really the right place for that conversation.

altho i rebut the notion that patton himself is truly deeply awful. he just needs to stick to the day job.

if there is a legit basis for intense self regard memorizing star wars minutia just cant be it

That’s when we’ll reach Etewaf singularity.

You can feel the entire essay pivot at this point.

altho i rebut the notion that patton himself is truly deeply awful. he just needs to stick to the day job.

― Roberto Spiralli, Wednesday, December 29, 2010 10:07 AM (8 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

my only other exposure to this guy is that reality show where he and three other people w/personality disorders travel the country in a van being cruel and strange to each other so

I agree that the self-aggrandizement is laid on pretty thick here. OTOH, I hadn't thought about "Shade: The Changing Man" in years. I need to dig that out. :)

also max thinks this guy is JUST LIKE HEIDEGGER god could u be more wrong max

from what i have learned about stand-up from listening to WTF, oftentimes a comic will start with an idea and won't really know where to take it, so they'll just run with it 50 times until it starts to click and by the time they record a CD or whatever they have a great, polished bit of material. so i guess he just needed to write this article another 49 times and it would've gone somewhere.

my only other exposure to this guy is that reality show where he and three other people w/personality disorders travel the country in a van being cruel and strange to each other so

comedians of comedy was p good i thought but this is a perfect description. i really like him as a stand-up, his stuff is always funny.

yeah i dont really vibe w/stand up usually so i dont know

also max thinks this guy is JUST LIKE HEIDEGGER god could u be more wrong max

― ice cr?m, Wednesday, December 29, 2010 10:31 AM (13 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

feel like u are displaying a shallow understanding of heidegger here

heidegger has a much deeper understanding of manga than oswald imho

@pattonoswalt
Really, @Gawker? Heidegger? I don't rate a Seneca or at least a Lacan? *Sigh* At least I got to fuck Hannah Ardent. Schnell! 1 minute ago

i don't know which is more annoying, oswalt pretending like underground culture is over just because his 80s interests have been repackaged into stop motion animation on robot chicken or gawker somehow deciding this makes him our generations heidegger. if it's hard to know about something all by yourself it's only because with the internet people with similarly obscure interests are easily accessible. but if you're interested in playing cyberpunk gibson inspired MOOs, you're still going to have a hard time explaining yourself to 99.9% of the people you meet irl.

it is about time someone put faceless internet commentator 'max read' to the sword.

also, i just noticed that max's name is like some terrible braggin pun. should've gone with maxwell for the byline.

kinda feel like a fun thread would be a list of the most niche obscure cultural things people are interested in. i know we have ILM threads about really obscure bands people like, but how about just really obscure genres of stuff?

also woah in giant coincidence... it looks like gpod is done as of today??

Is this an excerpt from his new book or a stand alone essay I wonder?

Any declaration of 19XX: The Year Things Changed is an automatic deduction of points in my book.

(No, really. I have a book in which I keep track of points.)

esp when it was clearly 1992.

i was thinking about picking his book up but this piece put me all the way off.

Bennigan's was cool in the mid nineties: 150 beers!

I've never heard of this Oswalt guy; a friend sent me this article twenty minutes ago with the note, "Is he retarded?"

he just RT'd a zing on max from one of his followers. dude, pls keep us up to date with any hate mail you get.

i don't know which is more annoying, oswalt pretending like underground culture is over just because his 80s interests have been repackaged into stop motion animation on robot chicken or gawker somehow deciding this makes him our generations heidegger. if it's hard to know about something all by yourself it's only because with the internet people with similarly obscure interests are easily accessible. but if you're interested in playing cyberpunk gibson inspired MOOs, you're still going to have a hard time explaining yourself to 99.9% of the people you meet irl.

― Mordy, Wednesday, December 29, 2010 11:46 AM (48 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

none of the things hes interested in are obscure and max was joking

at least he got to fuck hannah ardent

ly

I love his stand-up but could not care less about what he seriously thinks about stuff.

wrestlingteam Wrestling Team
@pattonoswalt @Gawker "Hey, anyone in here take a freshman philosophy class? You? Ok, write a blurb on Patton Oswalt."

this is a v low qual zing

lol u went to college

I used to be a major Oswalt rep, but the quality of material over the last few years seems directly correlated to success going to his head. I'm totally bummed out by this non-stand up condescending persona that's started to emerge since 2008 or so.

"if you're interested in playing cyberpunk gibson inspired MOOs, you're still going to have a hard time explaining yourself to 99.9% of the people you meet irl."

in patton's day you would get physically beaten up for suggesting this
today you would maybe get cyberbullied

PROGRESS!

also
IRONIC!

#opinions4u

none of the things hes interested in are obscure and max was joking

really??? he doesn't actually believe oswalt is our generation's heidegger????

Really, @Gawker???

it's the banality of snarkiness

i don't know which is more annoying, oswalt pretending like underground culture is over just because his 80s interests have been repackaged into stop motion animation on robot chicken or gawker somehow deciding this makes him our generations heidegger.

― Mordy, Wednesday, December 29, 2010 11:46 AM (48 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

really??? he doesn't actually believe oswalt is our generation's heidegger????

― Mordy, Wednesday, December 29, 2010 1:04 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

lol

i tried to write another response to ice cr?m but i couldn't think of anything so idk. dasein instead of thinking maybes.

He had a kid, guys. His funny days are over.

Louis CK has kids

Burn him.

Yeah, well, sorry guys. It is the law.

soon i'm not going to be funny anymore :'(

I am sorry. Enjoy fatherhood!

Wait, Mordy, do you have a kid on the way????

Bits on Patton's (post-kid)album from last year are still hilarious.

And I’d consumed so many single-issue guest-writing stints of Gaiman’s that when he was finally given The Sandman title all to himself, I was first in line and knew the language.

Total bullshit, Gaiman didn't do any single-issue fill-ins on anything until after Black Orchid had finished and Sandman begun.

xp I do!

:D congrats Mordy!!

He just made reference to Beebe, AK, instead of Beebe, AR, so now he's on my shit list too.

Congrats Mordy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ja0We0yLEhU

love 95% of his standup, but his new book is absolutely terrible

you should really be able to just be comfortable with your likes and dislikes without having constant narcissism of small differences crises

― Long live smooth music..... ;) (some dude), Thursday, October 21, 2010 11:24 AM

think you're forgetting who you're talking to here

― am0n, Thursday, October 21, 2010 1:07 PM (2 months ago) Bookmark

lol

love 95% of his standup, but his new book is absolutely terrible

I just started it, but I enjoyed the movie theater story a lot! (That's the only one I've read so far...)

The book's not bad! Read the whole thing in the store last week (I...had some free time). Best part is when he talks about the comedy clubs and the people he encountered there.

Hate the forced whismy of his tales of youth (he's done all the Virginia culture sucks stuff so much better in short stand-up pieces), the greeting cards/scripts/etc. in between stories are just horrible, and the zombie/spaceship/wasteland essay is as ridiculous as his Wired essay.

About 2/3 of the way through I ran into two good ones - the last page or two of re-encountering the comedians he opened for as a struggling stand-up, and then his two weeks in Vancouver with a douchebag club owner.

A year ago I would have put Patton and Louis CK neck and neck, but Louis has moved well in front, IMO.

A year ago I would have put Patton and Louis CK neck and neck, but Louis has moved well in front, IMO.

otm

Man people keep raving about Louis CK. I need to check him out. I've only heard one clip which was very funny though.

A bunch of his older stuff is on Youtube.

A year ago I would have put Patton and Louis CK neck and neck, but Louis has moved well in front, IMO.

100% OTM

I think Hannibal Buress might be sneaking up on Patton for second place for me

Recommend me some specific youtubes please. The one I watched was the one where he was on Conan (?) and is talking about how everything is awesome yet people are miserable.

I'll post some to the Louie thread

Hard to think of favorite bits, but here are a few:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8nWpBQZueA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8NI1pcIeYI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzbURUrgQao&feature=related
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCbc6XbFIDU&feature=related

Suck A Bag of Dicks is the BEST :)

sorry - I should have done the same as milo and posted on the Louis thread. whoops

forgot how funny Bag of Dicks is

Back to the Louis CK/Oswalt comparison: I think the big difference for me is their delivery. Louis is always smiling and seems to be just as amazed as the audience at the crazy bullshit coming out of his mouth. It never feels like he takes anything for granted and his hard work is paying off in spades. On the other hand, Patton's act is starting to feel condescending, preachy and maybe a bit mean-spirited. The Comic Con Dennis Miller routine is starting to feel pretty stale, imho.

Yeah, like I'm a staunch agnostic, but when Patton does the "LOL the bible is FAKE, you guys, seriously" stuff i roll my damn eyes. there is one bit on the new CD where he tries to make some spaghetti monster-style metaphor and its just bad.

who would have thought six years ago that we'd be having a conversation about funniest comedians in US and Cross' name doesn't even enter deliberation (fwiw, i think that's a great thing)

Is there a general stand-up comedy thread?

there's this one which is kinda all purpose: Rolling US Comedy Thread (or what to watch now How I Met Your Mother and 30 Rock aren't on?)

Yeah not specific enough. I just want to watch stand-up youtubes.

I think Hannibal Buress might be sneaking up on Patton for second place for me

Aw. I haven't seen Hannibal lately, but I have a rooting interest in him since he performed a couple times at this variety show I used to host back in like 2004.

I like Hannibal but I think he is going to get a lot better than he is now.

several x-posts The Sky Cake bit is less insulting than the usual Flying Spaghetti Monster-style stuff.

There are some great bits on that album - the orgy, the dropped rat, whisky and porn v. exercise. Would love to go see his new material in Austin this weekend if I could, but his public persona/writings/book are getting pretty heavy on (as Darin said) Comic Con shit.

Totally forgot until just now that I have a ticket to a Patton book signing thing this Saturday. Maybe he will bring Grumpus! Maybe I will get a picture! Will let you know how it goes.

I love Grumpus!

Me too lady, me too.

I would say I've lolled more at youtubes of baby Franch bulldogs than Patton routines, but that's just setting an unfair standard.

Yeah well baby frech bulldogs are amazing.

http://30.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lhu8tyEJHO1qhyhwto1_500.jpg

The venue and location he is performing at is as far from the louche/pulp atmosphere of that ad as is possible. (Imagine an anonymous building in a light industrial park...)

75¢ admission is pretty sweet, though.

Imagine an anonymous building in a light industrial park...

LA then?

HIYO

http://cdn.picapp.com/ftp/Images/d/7/1/4/Businessman_pulling_collar_b3ac.jpg?

Patton Oswalt is a funny guy but I found his book so insufferable as to be unreadable.

i unfollowed him on twitter. he's unfunny and often a dick on it - lots of remarks about how physically horrible or gauche people who are on planes with him are. oh and in-jokes. so many in-jokes. love his stand-up - well last one wasnt amazing, but up til then.

x-post - Yeah. I went to a book reading thing a couple months ago and the chapters he read were really not that funny at all. The banter in between the chapters and the Q&A was good but the book seemed pretty unfunny tbh.

He did not bring Grumpus.

I would read a book written by Grumpus.

same

http://ccinsider.comedycentral.com/photos/uncategorized/grumpus.jpg

Hi, Grumpus.

i love him so much

I found the book to be more entertaining when he was doing straight memoir-type stuff about life on the road in the 90's - that sort of thing. Pretty disappointing overall tho.

Yeah he's growing off me too...there was a time when I loved this disc as well as the two David Cross standups that were out at the time, now I kind of find them a bit insufferable. Patton is way better than Cross but he really has not followed up at all.

Patton's book was even worse than Cross's book. :O

Patton is defs the better stand-up, tho, imo.

I have tix to see Patton do standup in April.

xp Werewolves and Lollipops is easily as funny as Feelin Kinda Patton, but the more recent one where he talks about his baby and whatever else just didn't seem inspired (I can't even remember its name).

Have no intention of reading the memoir. Hoping that now he's got all his "I wanna talk about my life" stuff out of his system, his next album will be full of joeks.

David Cross = awesome actor/sketch comedian, TERRIBLE stand-up.

idk I saw Cross last year and he was still pretty funny

I liked his last stand-up album about 45%, which is a remarkable improvement over the others. (I sort of liked the routine about being Jewish on the first one & I fully liked the one about the restaurant that served him a desert with gold on top on the second, and that's it.)

I haven't heard Cross' stand-up in years, but otm about him being an awesome sketch comedian. He's just a flat out great comic performer. He's usually pretty funny just bullshitting in interviews too.

http://pattonoswalt.com/uploads/image/events/2011-05-14-lg.jpg

I like David Cross's stand-up a lot.

I used to get him and Patton confused a lot!! Cross is okay as a stand-up but seems to be getting worse every couple of years and isn't good at really recognizing irony without being hypocritical. His whole act usually boils down to "fuck Christians man, like, so they seriously believe all that fucking shit? a talking snake? fuck, whatever"

His Twitter feed makes him seem pretty insufferable.

I don't read his twitter but I stand by what I said upthread, he was still really good live last year.

Cross seems like someone who was always kind of on the brink of being a total asshole, and then fame came along and pushed him over the edge

he also strikes me as being the guy you might think was sort of cool until you become friends with his girlfriend, and find out he's a total jerk with an unusual fetish.

new patton special was on the other night. going to watch it in a bit and report back. with some trepidation, thought his last one was pretty weak, although still containing plenty evidence of his talent and some bellylaughs.

well i might not report back, haha, might go to bed after.

Ah this was quite bland again.

i liked it

i also thought it was bland, bad

def some good stuff in there

yeah i dunno if like 5 minutes of material on parenthood that isn't Louie-style "my kids are such shitheads" edgy has forever branded him a lame-o DAD COMIC or what

reminds me of this post on the Louie thread

so should i not watch this one or what? the first few seemed so essential but last week's really..didn't

― TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Friday, August 19, 2011 10:14 PM (3 weeks ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

like patton is def not playing at the same level of intensity as the first two records or anything, but i'm not counting him out.

I haven't seen this one, but everything after his last album/special has been a little too much "LOOK I'M A HUGE NERD, WE USED TO BE SPECIAL."

i didn't get a lot of that from this one, but there was a bit about how he wanted to be the first non-hipster douchebag to take an unironic tour of the spam museum that made me kinda smh given some recent ilx discussions

i feel like it's much the same from the last one. it's not terrible, i don't feel agrieved that i watched it, but i was playing about with my phone halfway through etc. there's no death bed, famous bowls, wackety smackety doo, or anything of that level on this.

I dunno, I think "there's no Keith Richards or William Burroughs of carbs" is up there with "Death Bed."

i didn't find that bit really funny, and i've heard a comic make a similar gag before, though can't remember who.

my main reaction is that a lot of the stuff is jobbing stand-up observational fodder, that isn't necessarily terrible, and still has some imagination to it, but is just really a step-down for him.

did he agree to cede all food jokes to jim gaffigan? that might be the problem.

a little too much "LOOK I'M A HUGE NERD, WE USED TO BE SPECIAL."

― Kiarostami bag (milo z), Friday, September 9, 2011 7:14 PM (51 minutes ago) Bookmark

geek culture in 1 nutshell

The new record is great. So much better than the last one. Unhinged, in the best way.

ehh, i heard & wasn't feeling it; i kinda feel like he's moved into doing the territorial humour he can get from his image, particularly like 'post-fuck-up-Patton', but not necessarily really looking at parenthood or whatever his life must be like - so sweatpants, fat guy, drinking - & into telling stories that don't really resonate outside of their details, & so feel a little disembodied or tenuous. like the last record there was the funny story about the rat, & it seemed different from his previous records because it wasn't, really, like part of his comedian's worldview or attached to a larger point so much as it was a funny incident, well told; & there are some parts of this which are like 'i saw a fat guy in a supermarket' which make you feel like he's pretty limited about what he is offering the audience, you know? like just relaying the kinda incidents that happened in his life, but that there is no motive.

i know this post is an 12" remix of ~comedians relay funny stories~ but i feel like he used to do more & has lapsed into a comfort zone.

he might be good in the new diablo cody film though? he tends to get those parts he looks born to play.

Invisible Anus routine = Flying Spaghetti Monster

Totally thought that at the moment, too.

Am just up to the Invisible Anus bit right now.

Fatherhood stuff is indeed meh, but the gay best friend bit is great, if only because I'm glad finally someone straight (and not a film critic) finally said it.

listening on spotify, I did lose my shit at "her dad must have fucked her in a Garfield mask"

New fave bit on the new one: "I want all the ham."

yes lol

finest hour is aight. this is better.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0h0J1sphPu4

"her dad must have fucked her in a Garfield mask"

^^^

Hit or miss, Patton Oswalt remains my favorite comedian because he seems to me like one of the few who really truly enjoys his life. So many comedians are such depressed, morose motherfuckers. That includes people like Louis CK. Even though he isn't the typical 'Sex, Drugs & Stand-Up' type of comedian, so much of his work with his show and in his stand-up is about how shitty life as a single 40 something, fat unattractive bald guy is. He's really brilliant sometimes but god is he a bummer. Oswalt can be self-deprecating but he still makes it seem like being a short chubby guy who eats delicious food, reads comics, smokes pot, hangs out with awesome people and has a rewarding career is a peach of a life. And it is.

i get so much i guess "comfort" and communion from Louis CK - it feels like if it's cynical it's at least refreshing and heartening and let's you know people are in a similar mindset - that attaching negativity to it wouldn't do justice to the end product. & i feel like there's that slight disdain w/PO that we've maybe gone over before, idk. i feel you though, P.O. has a good lil world going.

louis ck gets real in a way patton doesn't. patton has a more...florid? style. content v.form

Patton seems much more depressed and morose than Louis CK to me.

I tried reading Patton's book and the first chapter was some real bullshit about whining/growing up in VA, being NEAR the DC hardcore scene and the knowing and snide pain resulting from that propinquity. And about how everyone in his horrible non-DC town was an ignorant Philistine who had their head up their ass. Clearly I'm editorializing but disdainful it was and rewarding peach of a life it was not. That said I think he puts on a funny show.

Whining about your hometown is NAGL is what I'm saying, unless you are still a teenager and still living there.

I believe the weight issues these guys have are both depressing and very funny. Louis' are more depressing because they're not really weight issues, but he doesn't know that.

My second favorite bit on the new Patton record. apart from the Garfield mask, is Hubert Selby Jr. at Weight Watchers. "And that's when I looked at myself in the mirror and told myself, it's time to start swimming away from pie."

That last bit about the fallout from the KFC thing is great. "Are chicken legs supposed to be that big?" "No, they're not!"

Well I just wish that Mr. Oswalt could see the smiles on our customers faces as they enjoy our Famous Bowls.

They just added bacon to the bowls btw, they should cross-advertise.

Patton's book is great in audio-form, since i think its introspection comes across well in the monologue spoken form. Also Michael Stipe shows up to read the chapter titles.

http://i44.tinypic.com/c2brd.png

does he have a jeselnik appearance booked for soon?

omg reading his tweets in context is the funniest fucking thing

ok ok slowgolfclap.jpg i just wish peanutfreemom got half oswalt's attention, she plays twitter like a fucking violin

ppl stopped caring about peanutfreemom when the writer was outed as a bored suburban dude IIRC

i will cop to already feeling vaguely annoyed with his online presence before this but i don't really get why people are waxing so hyperbolic about this. it's funny but that joke structure has been around for a million years, he didn't "rewrite the book on trolling twitter" or whatever

Ha... I read these on Flipboard yesterday totally out of context and out of order. Took me a while to get it.

SOMEBODY MADE THE BLACK ANGUS BIT A GLORIOUS REALITY:
http://imgur.com/a/xDdrd?gallery&fb_source=message#0

AND TOOK HORRIBLE PHOTOS!

Finally unfollowed him on Twitter not bc of his boring fake deleted tweets prank but for RTing a million people lavishly overpraising his boring fake deleted tweets prank.

Including Ricky Gervais.

He's funny

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ueYFY0sVegY/SBF9e-0mlZI/AAAAAAAAAAs/PYEMPRR_ZGQ/S1600-R/point+counterpoint.jpg

About 50% of my timeline this evening has been him RTing white dudes (and sadly Jane Wiedlin) calling him a genius for standing up to 'social justice warriors'. I am not sure why I was following him in the first place (possibly by accident) but, yeah, he's coming across as very unpleasant and insecure.

Most people on the internet do, though.

i didn't realize he was standing up to social justice warriors. maybe i should follow his twitter.

I loled at his 2-part tweet thing a couple times, but I've always been a sucker for for play and Mad fold-in type things, so yeah.

I used to complain that all Patton ever talked about was food and trolls on the way to namedropping a good band for cheap applause, but now I kind of wish he'd just return to that tired formula.

I decided to block him today so I don't have to see him in retweets. :)

Finally unfollowed him on Twitter not bc of his boring fake deleted tweets prank but for RTing a million people lavishly overpraising his boring fake deleted tweets prank.

― Immediate Follower (NA)

same here, plus recent standup has been just remarkably lazy and bad. and by recent i'm meaning 'past several years'. plus even at his best he was not that good at twitter really. he's a year away from turning into kevin smith.

i didn't realize he was standing up to social justice warriors. maybe i should follow his twitter.

people "standing up" to social justice twitter always look really sad and end up bemoaning "political correctness" and sounding like they're about 80 years old

he's really mocking them, and tbf, the only issue w/ that is maybe it's too easy a target

whoa idk anything abt patton oswalt except i really enjoyed the heart, she holler & the guy seems to enjoy riding his edge

he's really mocking them, and tbf, the only issue w/ that is maybe it's too easy a target

yeah he sounds like one of those saddos who, when you say "what you said is bullshit," start yammering about "freedom of speech," as if getting called a dick were somehow equivalent to government censorship

a comedian using marginalized people as props? now there's an idea whose time has come

His comedy has seemed increasingly mean-spirited and whiny, a lot like David Cross post-Shut Up You Fucking Baby.

His twitter persona aside, his stand-up specials have actually done the opposite, no a/v club

whoa

Like his new special is about being a good dad and depression, and not like, ranking on Jackyl and calling audience members cunts

I haven't heard that one yet, I'm thinking of the album where the lead-in to the pretty funny JetBlue attendant speech is about how fat and stupid and rednecky everyone else on the plane is. Then his book that was all about how stupid and terrible everyone in his suburb was and no one GOT Fugazi, man.

I guess I just find the angry nerd persona less than entertaining from any comedian.

yeah he sounds like one of those saddos who, when you say "what you said is bullshit," start yammering about "freedom of speech," as if getting called a dick were somehow equivalent to government censorship

these tweets aren't worth the positive attention they're getting, but he's not joe rogan

I kind of thought it was a little more two-way than just trolling social justice Twitter or whatever. When he was doing things like "Yikes. Had to delete another Tweet. I crossed a line on that one. Also, I thought 12 YEARS A SLAVE and THE BUTLER were brilliant." I kind of thought he was also making fun of the old 'I'm not racist - I have black friends!" chestnut as well.

But he clearly has complicated politics - I think he's a big Jim Goad fan/friend

I think the context of this was that he caught some heat from a few of his Twitter followers for RTing an article by the hard-right commentator Mark Steyn on free speech. He seems to have been carrying a certain amount of butthurt about that.

Oswalt never struck me as being particularly right-wing tbh

he thinks of himself as a 'progressive liberal'

wow it's really cool how "social justice" is a pejorative phrase now huh

Same thing happened with emo. Folks doing nothing but claiming labels for themselves ruins everything.

I think patton's joke is directed at "twitter social justice."

I mean, this whole thing happened. He's doesn't come across as a comic that thinks he has the right to tell any joke without criticism. He just seems to have a beef with "self-aggrandizing bloggers."

i can't believe social justice has become a pejorative. i wonder if that's bc its practitioners are ridiculous human beings

Of course - it shouldn't really have to be explained that the target of the joke here is 'kneejerk response' as a phenomenon. Not any of the marginalized groups mentioned; not people who genuinely want to do good in the world.

yeah he sounds like one of those saddos who, when you say "what you said is bullshit," start yammering about "freedom of speech," as if getting called a dick were somehow equivalent to government censorship

This is pretty unfair and don't really think that's actually the case with this guy at all, as evidenced by that piece linked above and several other sort of 'state of the industry' thinkpieces he's often mentioned in or contributing to - he's one of the most vocal comics when it comes to current discussions of 'what people should be allowed to say,' etc.

(x-post)

can you believe that some victims of sexual assault don't appreciate being needled with jokes about how sensitive they are? such utterly ridiculous people

"being needled" and "allowing something to exist in the world" are two different things. Some people talk as if they don't agree.

i can't believe social justice has become a pejorative. i wonder if that's bc its practitioners are ridiculous human beings

― Mordy, Thursday, May 8, 2014 7:33 AM (9 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

patton thinks Salon writers are ridiculous human beings. I don't think he feels that way about the practitioners of social justice in general.

like the whole performance of "jeez you guys are SOOO touchy i didn't even DO anything LOL what a spaz" is basically straight up middle-school bullshit. the fact that dudes are falling over themselves to defend the veiled antagonism of this "can't-get-mad-i'm-not-touching-you" style of comedy is bewildering and alienating imho

there are no winners because stuff like this

http://www.salon.com/2013/07/13/patton_oswalt_makes_asian_name_joke_in_response_to_racist_ktvu_news_report/

definitely makes a fair and correct point, but clearly exists to manufacture outrage/traffic to Salon more than to bring good to the arc of the universe

both posts otm

i mean by all means though dudes are welcome to defend their self-styled arch-cynic nerd comedian for making not-very-good jokes, it all sounds v cool & worthwhile

Like the reasonable debate would be "Patton, I know it wasn't your intention, but it can still be hurtful and insensitive when you put a racist joke in the mouth of a racist. That type of Archie Bunker/Eric Cartman comedy is probably going to be phased out sooner than later"

But instead it's Salon screeching PATTON OSWALT RACIST CLICK HERE and Patton's Twitter drones screeching back FREEDOM OF SPEECH WHAT IS THIS THE THIRD REICH

Any reasoned and nuanced thought on it gets drowned out by two camps of morons yelling the loudest

salon is the worst

in honesty the phrase (not the actual thing) "social justice" has become a kind of left-wing cliché, often used to signify "people who are right-thinking like me" rather than any consistent notion of justice

(just to show how malleable and meaningless it can be, phrase was also used by the nazis FWIW)

how many articles have they run about that princeton kid this week alone?

i'm not defending or charging anyone, just pointing out that there is social justice and "social justice"

xpost

ime "social justice" is more about complaining on twitter and less about idk economic justice or whatever

and also it's like Tumblr people adopting the language of civil rights because they want the right to be tell their parents they are more comfortable being a dragon than a human

i find that the phrase "social justice" is one of the things that lefties take most seriously, it's like a big gun they trot out when they want to administer a coup de grace, and it always seems to come with a solid wall of self-seriousness

but of all things to complain about in this world...

yeah, seriously, pick your fuckin battles

i don't think "social justice" is synonymous w/ leftism and there are a lot of leftists that aren't particularly interested in social media speech policing efforts (eg the economic left) but maybe more synonymous w/ progressivism? i've been thinking a bit recently about the difference between progressivism and leftism + whether they're even compatible w/ each other at all.

nah "social justice" has already become the new "politically correct" imho i.e. the phrase that folks use to imply that marginalized people's struggle against discrimination is simply & merely over-sensitive and entitled whining

but it matters what the struggle is. claiming that yelling at comedians on twitter isn't important doesn't mean that incarceration rates, class issues, racial discrimination in housing, etc aren't important.

let's not phase out satire quite yet

heh, the old left thinks women's lib and the gay movement are bourgeois splittism, what decade am i in?

i've been thinking a bit recently about the difference between progressivism and leftism + whether they're even compatible w/ each other at all.

― Mordy, Thursday, May 8, 2014 11:05 AM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

way to spice up a boring thread

patton is taking the easy road in making a hack joke about 'social justice.' salon.com is taking the easy road when writing outrage pieces about patton tweets instead of something more substantial. everyone is being lazy.

i don't think "social justice" is synonymous w/ leftism and there are a lot of leftists that aren't particularly interested in social media speech policing efforts (eg the economic left) but maybe more synonymous w/ progressivism? i've been thinking a bit recently about the difference between progressivism and leftism + whether they're even compatible w/ each other at all.

― Mordy, Thursday, May 8, 2014 10:05 AM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

are you making a distinction between a Marxist or syndicalist Left and people who are just, you know, left of the current political center? b/c I was using it in the latter sense. i guess I would agree it's a phrase most often used by those folks, but then action you never actually hear from the American "hard Left" unless you are a member of it, since it barely exists now.

you can tell it's a slow news year when we agonize over a stand up's twitter account. almost makes me look forward to a new election cycle.

xpost

and yeah, let's not get deep into this b/c zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

but then AGAIN (not "action")

xxxxxpost

Like the reasonable debate would be "Patton, I know it wasn't your intention, but it can still be hurtful and insensitive when you put a racist joke in the mouth of a racist. That type of Archie Bunker/Eric Cartman comedy is probably going to be phased out sooner than later"

But instead it's Salon screeching PATTON OSWALT RACIST CLICK HERE and Patton's Twitter drones screeching back FREEDOM OF SPEECH WHAT IS THIS THE THIRD REICH

Any reasoned and nuanced thought on it gets drowned out by two camps of morons yelling the loudest

booming post imo

but he does kinda make it worse rt'ing the WHAT ABOUT FREE SPEECH dumbasses

i think we can agree that calling out ppl on twitter isn't by itself going to effect institutional & structural change, mordy, but imho it can help expose some of the ways those structural inequalities become embedded into our daily lives & vocabulary. to see the backslapping endorsements on oswalt's timeline, you just get a sense of somewhat dull people who consider themselves to be very smart and who are happy to make light of social inequality to reinforce that self-conception. i mean you can just say it's one bad offensive joke or you can say it's pointing to something about the (many) people who liked, retweeted, and defended the joke

almost makes me look forward to a new election cycle.

― Darin, Thursday, May 8, 2014 11:12 AM (12 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

please god don't say this.

IIRC Oswald's go-to play in situations like this is to use Twitter to scream about free speech and then, after everyone hates him, he writes a longer, more nuanced blog post that more resembles a thought-out and understandable position, so buckle up because we're only seeing part 1 here

ha ha otm ^

imho it can help expose some of the ways those structural inequalities become embedded into our daily lives & vocabulary

i'm ready to believe that the twitter socialverse serves a function of giving ppl a community in which to feel supported and validated, but i'm skeptical of any claim of value projected outside that community and if anything i think all of this social media social justice has hurt the cause (or obscured what the cause even is).

I think we should turn this thread into a positive one and list all comedians on twitter that are worth following. My current favorite is Guy Endore Kaiser:

If you live to be 100, you should make up some fake reason why, just to fuck with people... like claim you ate a pinecone every single day.
If you are ever at a playground and someone asks you which kid is yours, just for fun tell them you haven't decided yet.
Ha! Major typo on page 28 of the new iTunes agreement. Anyone else catch that?
I would rather cut off fourteen inches of my penis than lie to impress a girl.
I bet when all the Baldwins go out to dinner, Alec makes a lot of eye contact while he reaches for the check.
Know how there's always someone proud that they don't watch TV? Be that guy, but about music. "Favorite song? Oh I don't even own a radio."
If you have quick enough reflexes, whenever someone makes the jerk off motion, you should try to slip your penis into their hand.
A soul patch is a check engine light for people.
It's weird how no two snowflakes are alike, but every single Lenny Kravitz song is.
When gorillas are sleeping, you can hide a bunch of raisins in their fur, and then they'll have an exciting treat the next day.
I bet sometimes when Angelina is giving him shit, Brad just looks at her and casually mouths 'Billy Bob'.
"This porridge is too hot... and this porridge is too cold... but this porridge feels just right." -Bob 'porridge fucker' McGee

nah

that just makes me feel like the lex

idk, those are ok

maybe i'm even too dad joke for dad jokes cos i thought the lenny kravitz one was unfair haha

sure, and i'd readily concede that there are definitely counter-productive ways to engage with social justice issues on social media, though i don't claim to always know which methods are best. it can be tricky & emotions can run high & who am i to claim to know best, ya know? xp

I don't follow any comics except for Sarah Silverman, who mostly tweets about gender politics stuff

oh and I started following Louie for some reason but he's not really v funny on twitter

do you even tweet bro

I get more mileage out of the lesser known comedians on twitter that are willing to drop material. Louie and other established dudes just plug stuff it seems. Norm McDonald use to be fun until he got obsessed with posting about golf.

look we shamed SNL into hiring a black female cast member, don't tell me social justice doesn't work.

and then we shamed SNL when one of their black writers made a joke we didn't like?

Megan Amram is in between "weird twitter" and "writer/comedian" but always makes me laugh.

If they had really wanted to do a realistic wish for Batkid they should've killed his parents

Nancy Grace is what would happen if a Caps Lock key came to life

Just heard about this teacher who had sex with her student. Another reason I won't send MY dog to obedience school

The court ruled it was just a Manslaughter Mystery dinner

‏@DennisThePerrin
Radical Islam won't send us back to the 7th century; it'll be the Earth.

lol yes, that's what this thread is missing. dennis perrin.

do you even tweet bro

uh... yes?

always xp

Good thing Donald Sterling didn't wreck the economy or slaughter people overseas. He'd get a fat check and some medals.

j/k shakes

Dane Cook @DaneCook · May 7
I just bid for my lost virginity on .@ebay.

Dane Cook @DaneCook · Apr 28
I never called myself poor.
I was coin operated.

Dane Cook @DaneCook · Apr 26
Candy Crushed
#VideoGamePornNames

the above lists of jokes don't seem that much better tbh

Shakey click here

i think mordy's distinction between the "economic left" and progressivism is pretty interesting, and it certainly tacks on to something disconcerting about the memeification of social justice a la adorno's thesis about the "central antinomy of bourgeois society": that it it cannot abide an "other," that in order to be at all it must not acknowledge limits but continually expand. there's a kind of flattening effect to how these strategies play out on twitter that seems to preclude real radicalism for the sake of a placid tolerance. i guess? (not really being a radical myself i dont know if that's a good or bad thing, but i think it's there.)

was a little off-putting when Louie sort of exploded and Patton's response was "well, it could've been any of us, but Louie has a better work ethic"

i honestly have no idea why anyone would follow a tweets

i think mordy's distinction between the "economic left" and progressivism is pretty interesting, and it certainly tacks on to something disconcerting about the memeification of social justice a la adorno's thesis about the "central antinomy of bourgeois society": that it it cannot abide an "other," that in order to be at all it must not acknowledge limits but continually expand. there's a kind of flattening effect to how these strategies play out on twitter that seems to preclude real radicalism for the sake of a placid tolerance. i guess? (not really being a radical myself i dont know if that's a good or bad thing, but i think it's there.)

― ryan, Thursday, May 8, 2014 11:16 AM (19 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

adorno is full of shit

that solves your "pretty interesting" btw, you're welcome

sorry guys been reading old books about marxism don't mind me.

i have much love for adorno

I prefer delivery, but different strokes.

A+

def something going on with the larger idea (eh idea seems like a weak word here) that the left = universalism and the right = particularism

and so if your "twitter sjws" are insisting on their own particularity then oh ho look the marxists can tut tut that it's, what would the language be, 'objectively conservative' or something

i think the conflict around "free speech" is particularly telling. sjws like to argue that free speech is only a legal protection from the government, but there is a liberal principle of free speech that underpins the constitutional element and extends beyond just legal elements. it's a liberal ideal to create an environment where speech is protected, not just by the government but in our communities as well. we want to create an environment where ppl feel safe to speak bc the value of hearing a plethora of voices/opinions outweighs the potential downsides (aka hate speech). cf creepy liberalism thread i guess.

there's a performative or declamatory aspect to twitter/tumblr that does rub me the wrong way a lot of the time (i'm white btw)

i'm not in those spaces so idk if anyone active in that discourse (haha i initially wrote "playing that game") has been upfront about how competitive it is?

the people i follow on twitter who could be classed as an "sjw" are more focused on daily conciousness raising type stuff and not battling on twitter. there's always a talk or a conference somewhere, a fundraiser for any number of centers or legal defense funds. someone is always in jail that shouldn't be.

i am friends w/ a lot of radical leftists on fb (occupy ppl mostly) and they post about that kind of stuff all the time, but don't really get involved in the twitter debates that inevitably become salon articles. i guess really my beef is with salon for just being so awful + embarrassing.

every single website similar to salon is basically just awful and embarrassing these days. i just assume every website will soon headline every story in the same way. "Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau appears to be crazy, but what he did next is going to blow your mind"

i just assume salon is doing that too.

has anyone made any tasteless Boko Haram/Procol Harum twitter joeks yet

salon is exceptionally bad - much worse than atlantic or slate which both have their problems but aren't as embarrassing on an article-to-article basis as salon.

from the current salon homepage:

Kim Kardashian “discovers” racism — what’s wrong with that?
Bye-bye, whiny white dudes: Tucker Carlson, Tal Fortgang and the weakening grip of entitlement
Nintendo’s anti-gay cop-out: Why its demented same-sex ban is no game
Dear serial tweet-favoriter: You are a coward
This family’s loss on “Family Feud” is heart-breaking
Confessions of a serial reality TV star

tbf they do occasionally run something cool. this looks neat:
Researchers discover 14 new species of dancing frog just as they’re about to go extinct

the deleted tweets response seems really similar to the recent colbert twitter thing.

the outraged are missing, or ignoring, the basic premise which is that making joke x would be absurd and dumb.
so when colbert tweeted the "ching chong" thing, the joke is about how idiotic his right wing fox tv host persona is. (more specifically it was about the http://images.chron.com/blogs/askacat/hatcat.JPG owner creating a foundation to benefit Native Americans).

and the patton deleted tweets thing is basically the same - the central joke is "only an idiot would make jokes about these topics".

but I don't think either of these are particularly brilliant or "challenging" or anything. sometimes when a whole bunch of people get upset, it doesn't mean you're the new Lenny Bruce, it just means your jokes were kind of clumsy.

like every day they run an article which is just a summary of something jon stewart or colbert said on tv last night + a link to the clip

i have no ide what happened there but it's awesome

we aren't allowed to say redskins on ilx anymore

there's some autoreplace setting that replaces a word, I think it's "post" with a hatcat img

idk don't listen to me

http://images.chron.com/blogs/askacat/hatcat.JPG?

oh i get it - the racistly named NFL team's name autoreplaces to hatcat

What everybody gets wrong about Alanis Morissette’s “Ironic”
It actually *is* ironic, and here's why

Al Roker, please save us from the idiots! Why the future of earth is riding on him

I'm ok with a little quasi-marxist tut-tutting so long as we reserve a right to tut-tut back in the name of something like pragmatism.

meanwhile slate has some legit writers. well, dahlia lithwick. idk who else really. oh, i always enjoy a good anne applebaum piece.

I have no awareness of salon anymore so slate currently makes me
angriest since I still get suckered in clicking on their articles.

the outraged are missing, or ignoring, the basic premise which is that making joke x would be absurd and dumb.

nope.

do we really have to retread the whole "BUT IT'S SATIRE" discussion, i mean rly

the only performative irony in these jokes is that oswalt is pretending to observe & respect the wishes of people offended by his tweets, when in reality -- o ho ho! -- he does not! how delicious

because FREEDOM OF SPEECH

ease up i didn't say any of that

i think the conflict around "free speech" is particularly telling. sjws like to argue that free speech is only a legal protection from the government, but there is a liberal principle of free speech that underpins the constitutional element and extends beyond just legal elements. it's a liberal ideal to create an environment where speech is protected, not just by the government but in our communities as well. we want to create an environment where ppl feel safe to speak bc the value of hearing a plethora of voices/opinions outweighs the potential downsides (aka hate speech). cf creepy liberalism thread i guess.

dude this is such bullshit though! the liberal principle of free speech is exactly that no government should be able to jail you for it or preventing you from publishing/broadcasting your opinions

like you seem to want free speech to mean "no matter what I say, people ought'nt take umbrage, and if they do, they ought not make me feel bad about exercising my right to free speech." people who don't "feel safe to speak" because somebody might call them an asshole..what the Christ, how's that have anything at all to do with the principle in question? nothing.

i think i say this a lot but man i hate shit-talking like this

https://twitter.com/pattonoswalt/status/464096546917580800

no brio yr right, these offended ppl don't understand the joke's secret funny-making mechanism, that's definitely the reason, that plus because they love being offended and hate jokes and fun in general

PO is sorta hacky in general and seems out of his depth on this. however:

I thought the joke was he didn't actually tweet anything offensive so there's no "there" there and so now people are offended that he pretended to have tweeted something offensive. it's pretty clever imo, if perhaps dubious in intent!

why lie? he made a rape joke. this is some sarah palin shit.

So far I've pretty much avoided Twitter. That is to say, I don't have an account, don't follow anyone, don't read feeds or whatever. My thought was that I would just wait it out. Now, I know I'm not necessarily wrong for sitting out Twitter, but am I wrong for thinking I can wait out? Or am I just being lol old person about it?

xps now im confused!

it's a cute trick, "satire" as fig leaf, how by feigning some egregious offense to marginalized groups, he can simultaneously mock them for being easily offended. but really the object of ridicule is the same, they're just being targeted for a different reason

patron saint, i said the jokes were clumsy and that's it's understandable people got upset. i think the premise was more "you know I wouldn't seriously make these jokes" than "i'm sneakily making these jokes" but i can see how that's not clear, and get why he's taking heat.

I guess you're mad that I said people are "missing or ignoring" the premise - i get what you're saying and chose my words poorly.

of course I think people can recognize the "secret funny-making mechanism" and still legitimately be pissed off

i say if you're comfortable being lol old person, just carry on with it

xxxpost

dude this is such bullshit though! the liberal principle of free speech is exactly that no government should be able to jail you for it or preventing you from publishing/broadcasting your opinions

like you seem to want free speech to mean "no matter what I say, people ought'nt take umbrage, and if they do, they ought not make me feel bad about exercising my right to free speech." people who don't "feel safe to speak" because somebody might call them an asshole..what the Christ, how's that have anything at all to do with the principle in question? nothing.

I think I addressed this in the original post, though, right? I mean, you're arguing the very thing that I was trying to push back against - that the principle is entirely about freedom before the law and has no other associated virtues (like the virtue of dissent that argues instead of shutting down the speaker).

i'm sure the subtle nuance between "a rape joke" and "the joke of apologizing an imaginary rape joke" is a really cool thing for rape victims to think about

just opened an article on tablet about privilege + princeton and this paragraph makes this point otm i think:

To begin with, because liberal politics, like all other seriously practiced beliefs, is not just about convictions but also about instincts and moods, its adherents should reject, right off the bat, any conversational strategy, no matter how well-meaning, whose inescapable outcome is the quelling of conversation. This should be particularly true on college campuses, costly little oases of free inquiry where the young ought to be unfettered in working through their ideas. Telling a young person that his or her opinion is tainted by association—with a social class, say, or with an ethnic group—is a heck of a way to start a conversation or promote further inquiry.

open conversation + discussion is a liberal virtue, not just the protection of it under law.

I think Whiney actually nails what I was trying to say. Patton was essentially doing a self-serving "you all know I'm cool" thing, so the joke was really all meant to be about him as a comic - and people understandably responded by saying "what are you getting at?" and he had nothing, no real point he was making that made the taboo topics worth poking at, and then cast himself as a victim.

is it too small a distinction to think that telling someone to stfu kinda is the utopian dialectic corrective being sought, above, rather than the thing that quells conversation? like patton oswalt says something stupid & somebody says 'stop doing that', & that is the opportunity for patton oswalt to ~work through his ideas~ with that in mind? it isn't 'stop talking'; it's 'stop saying that', with room to proceed if he at least course corrects to acknowledge the various dimensions others feel about what he said. it feels positive whenever something i'm not knowledgeable about is rebuffed, corrected, improved on ilx, but it involves me kinda reviewing where i started out.

that makes a lot of sense to me.

you can't just leave it at stfu to achieve the utopian dialectic corrective - you actually need the rebuttal and it has to be more complete than "you're a jerk."

yeah, and you may need more space than a tweet for that. you may need a salon.com article's worth of space.

i hardly think sjw's have a monopoly on shutting down discussion around sensitive or controversial topics, in fact i'm pretty sure the dynamic flows the other way just as often if not moreso

I hadn't read his long earlier piece about rape jokes before now: http://www.pattonoswalt.com/index.cfm?page=spew&id=167

Seems like he forgot some of his own conclusions.

it seems to be a pretty huge ethic in the sjw world tho - ppl should monitor closely what they say, what they talk about, who they say it in front of, what their skin tone is while saying it, etc. a lot of stuff surrounding who is allowed to speak that seems illiberal.

i feel like the degree to which everybody itt is able to abbreviate "sjw" & in doing so conjure a schema of what this debate rotates around - either pejoratively or not inferring the various arguments & dynamics of conversations around social justice - suggests that you can say 'stfu' & assume the stfu-ee might be able to extrapolate out what they did wrong. i know you catch more flies with honey & all but it does feel kinda more advanced than that. djp is super otm that this will presumably be suffixed by some kind of ponderous blog post (iirc patton oswalt was a kinda reflex defender of daniel tosh talking shit at women, but phoned in a sort of teachable moment reflection later on), but i feel like the rebuttal kinda writes itself, or after a thousand times gets frustrating to recite. maybe not though. i always loved the insane patience of letter from a birmingham jail, that he's so incredibly accommodating of people who are so obviously on another page, like he'll spoonfeed them if he has to. so maybe there are better ways than stfu. but also at this point stfu isn't unwarranted & any kind of shrug on the part of somebody getting in everybody's face like this seems sorta purposefully insulated.

I think Whiney actually nails what I was trying to say. Patton was essentially doing a self-serving "you all know I'm cool" thing, so the joke was really all meant to be about him as a comic - and people understandably responded by saying "what are you getting at?" and he had nothing, no real point he was making that made the taboo topics worth poking at, and then cast himself as a victim.
― brio, Thursday, May 8, 2014 1:09 PM (13 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

otm

patton is working with salon. he flubs something. they reprimand him in a way that's a bit trolly. he's now the guy who is both wrong and "persecuted by the political correctness police." this gives him the opportunity to show that one can still evolve from this state. he evolves in a lengthy blog post, taking all those he retweeted with him.

it's a project

it kinda boils down to humility. sjw's don't generally demonstrate a tremendous amount of interest in ppl that might disagree w/ them such that the entire argument boils down to a) tell someone to stfu, or b) explain patiently to them why they're wrong. neither of those options leave any room for the possible value of other ideas or opinions - there's no space for discourse or discussion. you either have to let the sjw teach you the truth, or be berated for not accepting it. neither of these are particularly liberal approaches to discussions within the movement. it's not even like i'm talking about arguments between sjw's and the right wing. or even sjw's and more moderate leftists. 99% of the time this is the approach that one sjw has to another. how many times have you heard someone say, "i don't have the time to teach this to you," or "this is blahblah 101, educate yourself," etc, as though there's no space for argument everything has already been settled you need to either get on the page or get the fuck out.

sure, but what other purpose is there for one to call your critics whiners who love being offended (or what have you), other than to disengage from discussion & insulate oneself from criticism?

sjw's do tend to be hyper aware of speech in ~social context~ but in my experience it's only AFTER someone demonstrates themselves to be unapologetic & intractable in their opinion that they will be shouted down & piled upon

His lengthy blog posts are worse than his tweets

i've been guilty of calling sjw's, particularly on ilx, whiners, and obv that's hypocritical of me, tho it stemmed more from frustration w/ what i'm noting above than from an actual attempt to stifle conversation and insulate from criticism. "oh look, a bunch of white people talking about race," or "oh look, a bunch of men talking about sexism" < these are not conversation-openers. they're snide snarks.

open conversation + discussion is a liberal virtue, not just the protection of it under law.

― Mordy, Thursday, May 8, 2014 12:59 PM (12 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

your "sjw" types (and i do think i should put that in quotes, as it is perjorative at this point) aren't unconcerned with open discourse or inquiry or free expression or conscience, they are (imo) more concerned with questions of conflict and power.

there's a question of time here, after all: is public life to be conceived as a space where certain conflicts just kind of roll on in an unseasy truce, forever? or is it a space where one side eventually, in whatever way, wins?

in an american context i can certainly see the virtues of the former approach (esp when the prospect of violence raises itself).

but given two opposed ideas at issue in this discussion "rape can be funny" and "rape can not be funny", well, wouldn't you expect adherence to those to shift over time?

along with time there's the specter of "ideas" vs "identity" being the locus or object of public conflict

bunch of xps of course

I like schlump's notion of "stfu"--particularly insofar as it seems to implicitly acknowledge its own context of expression, "situatedness" or whatever, which kinda brings it down from on high and exposes it to critique as well. not sure it works that way in practice though!

should replace stfu with 'shut your butt' imo

you can't just leave it at stfu to achieve the utopian dialectic corrective - you actually need the rebuttal and it has to be more complete than "you're a jerk."

― Mordy, Thursday, May 8, 2014 1:13 PM (16 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

or you could start rounding them up and killing them

let's all agree that executing ppl for thought crimes is not a liberal virtue

(tho it might be a leftist virtue in some corners)

have you heard of this guy zizek

kill all men, tho

would you consider zizek a liberal?

i don't know, but probably not. what little i've read of him (columns, mainly) makes some really sketchy elisions of or excuses for soviet violence tho.

he's got a lot of stuff about the transformative/transcendent power of violence that i think is probably illiberal

check out VIOLENCE if you're interested in that specifically, perhaps

there's a question of time here, after all: is public life to be conceived as a space where certain conflicts just kind of roll on in an unseasy truce, forever? or is it a space where one side eventually, in whatever way, wins?

in an american context i can certainly see the virtues of the former approach (esp when the prospect of violence raises itself).

this is good stuff! I don't think it's lost on anyone how often the former tends to leave existing power structures etc in place. but neither would I want to subscribe to some zizekian absolute violence.

I think there's an imperative to a certain "one-sidedness" that we are subject to, and we have to be ok with that, in the end. we have to face down these decisions as they come, in each instance, without any assurance that the future will judge us correct in our actions.

wtf, how did a S/D: Slavoj Zizek pop up on a thread about a guy who did the voice of a cartoon rat

zizek is the godwin's law of ilx.

on an ad hominem note and i'm sure this isn't true about all social justice warriors, but so many of them seem like very unpleasant ppl personally - lots of personality traits (disdain, smugness, rage, dismissiveness, cynicism, nastiness) in their conversations that they reject on an ideological level but allow on a personal level. this is probably unfair of me, but i do wonder if twitter warriorness in general attracts ppl who like to fight and yell at each other and are maybe don't demonstrate the best + more ennobling aspects of social justice.

so many of those vices actually get justified in the sjw community. it's good to be smug, it's good to be angry, it's good to be cynical - these are justified + healthy things that are both understandable + even virtuous.

come on that's true of certain types of all stripes

well yeah but no one on ilx self-identifies as a freerepublic bro

i've had that reaction to some of that too, some of ripostes i've seen from those twitters have a ready-made quality to them.

but, that being the case, maybe the discourse just has to be accepted in that mode? you're still learning something about the world by reading it

i mean, i've read my fanon: violence is the the absolute condition of the state, and so the colonized don't have any real compunction to be "moral" (or classy or clear or fair or measured or or or) when going up against it. whether you think these twitter folks have the right to think of themselves as 'colonized' here is probably the whole question in itself.

like schlump said, MLK's self-discipline is amazing. but i get the comebacks of 'respectability' or 'tone policing'