If you don't know who Patton Oswalt is by now, sorry, you must be living a life of boredom. Lately, the multifaceted comedian has been everywhere doing everything from writing to voiceovers but at the end of the day, he's just a humbly gifted man that's super talent has made him into a household name. Without going on and on (and on and on), the bottom line here is that Oswalt fucking rules no matter what venture he is dipping his toes into. With a new special “Tragedy Plus Comedy Equals Time” airing on EPIX January 17th, we took the opportunity to toot his horn on his fantastic Twitter skills and to pretty much gush about how fan-boy we are about everything he does. Sorry (not sorry) folks, we sincerely love Oswalt. There, we said it.
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OC Weekly (Ali Lerman): First off, I'm a HUGE fan of “The Heart, She Holler” on Adult Swim. I have to know, when is it coming back? Please tell me it's coming back!
Patton Oswalt: Oh wow! Thanks a lot for that! I don't know when it's coming back and if it does, I feel like I'll be the last to know. Those guys kind of work on their own and keep their own counsel and then tell you right before it starts. That's kind of how it works.
Well I'll keep my fingers and toes crossed it comes back. I'm seriously in love with it. It seems like you do so much, is there an area of your craft that you love the most?
No but you know, obviously my main love is stand-up but everything that I get to do is fun to me. All of it is like, I get to start from zero so I'm never bored. I'm just very fortunate to get to have a career and a life like that.
Totally. And you're everywhere, I love that. You're so great on Twitter. How much do you personally love the banter?
[Laughs.] I think I'm OK on Twitter, there are people better than me but thank you! I like the banter but the thing with me and Twitter is, it's purely fun for me. It's fun for me to both write stuff that amuses me and then to look at people's reactions, It is just fantastic!
I also like that if the tone of a tweet back to you is misconstrued, you have no shame in admitting you're wrong.
I know, misunderstanding the tone is also what's so fun about it! [Laughs.]
How do you feel about the media publicly shaming people into apologizing for things they say on Twitter? I mean, it's all supposed to be in fun…
It depends on the person. There are some people that are such pure sociopaths, it doesn't even bother them. It's all about the, “I just attained what I wanted to get so I don't even care.” The one thing that people are going to have to accept in the coming years is that there is going to be a class of people that are beyond shame. The Wall Street bankers that destroyed lives and get ten hours of sleep at night, the plagiarists that got the attention, all of the men and women that are on reality shows, they just don't care. It is truly “the end justifies the means” and there is no such thing as self-reflection or, “wait a minute, I'm being a horrible person right now! [Laughs.]
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I agree. I think that when the media makes a big spectacle of them it's what they want. They really do win in their own sick way.
Yeah because in their minds, they're the wronged heroes in the epic story of their lives. It's like when everyone is attacking them in their minds they're like, well Gandhi got attacked, Rosa Parks got attacked…they think it's the same thing. But no, they stood on principle and their lives were made harder because of what they did. You made your life easier for what you did so you're not doing anything amazing. You just wanted something and you steamroller people to get it and now, you're like, “The world just tears down artists I guess.” They really have it backwards.
So well put. By the way, I think you might have invented the word “assholery” on Twitter when you were slamming Shia LaBeouf. Brilliant.
[Laughs.] I don't know if I invented the word assholery but thanks. I have a feeling that I've heard that somewhere else before though. Hmmm…I've heard the word “asshole-ish” so maybe I did. Someone should look that up because I don't know if I invented it. Also, that's a sad thing because if that's what I did, invented the word assholery, urghhh. That's depressing!
Ha! I totally disagree. It's great and I will be using assholery every chance I get now. OK off of your Twitter skills and onto “Tragedy Plus Comedy Equals Time.” How long does it take you to prepare for a special?
For me, about a year and a half. I used to be a lot quicker when I had a chance to do more sets but because I'm married and have a family now, I want to be home more with them whenever I can. I try to do stuff at night here in the city which is great and I'm happy that it is like that so, it's fine.
What made you decide to film in San Diego? I'm sure there were tons of venues that were clamoring to have you tape there.
I didn't want to travel as much last year so I figured that if I did my special in San Diego during Comic-Con while a lot of my fans are there, then I can satisfy the most amount of my fans without having to go all around the country. That was my strategy. Whether it worked or not, I don't know. But, I think I got to see a lot of people from different areas that were in the city.
EPIX sent me the screener for your special and it's incredibly funny. I'm sure it'll bring the biggest ratings that EPIX has ever seen. Even bigger than Madonna is what I'm thinking.
Oh thank you, that's so nice. [Laughs.] If enough people can get EPIX, then yes maybe.
Tune in to see “Patton Oswalt: Tragedy Plus Comedy Equals Time,” on EPIX on January 17th at 7pm (PST). For more information check out www.EpixHD.com, www.PattonOswalt.com, and follow him on Twitter: @PattonOswalt.
See also:
Steve-O Found a Way to Work Manginas Into His Stand-Up Comedy
10 Douchiest Guitarists of All Time
10 Douchiest Drummers of All Time
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Ali Lerman knows much about comedy, basketball, and celebrating Wu-Tang Wednesday. She’s been writing for sixteen years and still calls her mom with grammatical questions.