The wisdom of Oswalt

by Brian McKim & Traci Skene on March 13th, 2008

“Why Patton Oswalt is no alt-comedy snob” was the title of yet another chat with Patton Oswalt, this time in Vancouver’s Straight.com. (The piece appeared on Feb. 28, but it only popped up on our radar today! It was penned by FOS Guy MacPherson and the occasion was a remarkable comedy weekend in Hollywood North– Patton Oswalt, Doug Benson, Comedy Death Ray, Paul Provenza, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Janeane Garofalo and Lewis Black all appearing at various venues over a long, leap-year weekend! Could Vancouver be the hippest comedy town in all of North America?!)

One item that stood out to us was the quote at the tail end of the article:

The last eight years have been a gold mine for comedians, but the current U.S. administration is no joke for Oswalt– at least, not anymore. He’s done his fair share of Bush-whacking, but feels the topic is now verging on hack.

“Pointing out that George Bush sucks is the least edgy thing you could do on-stage,” he says. “Isn’t he, like, at an 18-percent approval rating or something?”

(Actually, depending on who you read, it’s 31.3 per cent– Pollster.com, AP/Ipsos, CBS/NYT, ABC/WashPo– pretty much everyone says it’s in the low 30’s. Congress, on the other hand, is enjoying a 19 per cent favorable rating. Perhaps the gags should shift in focus to Pelosi, Reid, Lott, et al.)

We declared it to way beyond the verge back in July, in our final Just For Laughs post, when we declared the following:

…precious few of the attempts at getting a cheap laugh by bashing Bush got so much as a weak, oftimes uncomfortable, laugh. Perhaps even folks who might be predisposed to laugh at a W gag might be sensing that it’s played out.

But the most striking feature of the Oswalt interview is his (for lack of a more precise word) egalitarian message (presaged in MacPherson’s title):

“I don’t have any guilty pleasures in comedy,” he says, meaning that if someone is funny, there’s no reason to feel shame. “I don’t look at comedians as mainstream or indie. I just look at whoever’s funny. There’s plenty of amazing, hilarious mainstream comedians, just as there are plenty of amazing so-called indie comics. I just don’t divide it up. I’m not like, ‘I only want to see people that are like me.’ I want to see people that are nothing like me.”

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