MovieChat Forums > The Comedians of Comedy (2005) Discussion > Patton the worst of the bunch

Patton the worst of the bunch

posted 18 years ago by nonsensicle
8 replies | jump to latest

I watched the documentary on whatever premium channel was showing it, and I laughed my ass off at a lot of things. One aspect of the film that I didn't find that funny was the creator himself, Patton Oswalt. A couple times off-stage he made me laugh, and it made me all the more frustrated because he could (from my own POV) be a great comedian if he just channeled his own dorky personality without resorting to the tired wannabe political and controversial comedy material that's been done way better by plenty of other comedians. I mean, Zack had his own thing going that made me laugh. He wasn't concerned about spreading a message or anything. He was just..I guess born with humor in his bones. I beleived fully that he knew what he was doing. And Brian, the other male nerd in the film, was hilarious becuase he wasn't trying to hide the fact that he was a nerd. His performances were natural. And the woman, I forget her name, was excellent. (plus her material seemed to be coming from some place real dark and I could tell she's been thru a war and had experience to spare). Patton was the only one that left me thinking "ehhh, seen that, heard that, much better, before." I'm all about shock-comedians and political comedians, but this guy just totally bored the crap out of me. Not to mention I don't think he ever seemed confident in what he was trying to do on stage. He would laugh after every punchline (which to most people is a pet-peeve with comedians) and his constant Bush-bashing and forced shocks upon the audience, it all just seemed sooo studied. Even when he was doing his bit about pro-comedians having to survive impossible transitions, I just knew knew KNEW he was going to mention Hitler and cancer. And not only did he mention those, but he *beep* laughed after mentioning them, like he was the only person in this world clever enough to come up with something controversial. Imagine Zack or Brian doing a stunt like that, they'd have a less predictacle way of presenting it, not to mention something closer to their own personalities, where-as Patton just seemed to be phoning in everything that's already expected of a so called "shocking" comedian. It's like he's trying to be Bill Maher, Bill Hicks, George Carlin, and...Brian...all at once. Just do your own thing, man!

[–] 18 years ago

[deleted]

[–] hbdale309 17 years ago

We got a couple of hardcore democrats here. Freaking tree huggers.

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[–] 17 years ago

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[–] babyTHIEF 17 years ago

I love Patton Oswalt and I think he is hilarious, but he does rely a bit too much on long winded Bush rants. Ranting about Bush is getting a bit old, there isn't much more to say about him that hasn't already been said. When he goes off on those tangents it kind of bums me out, because he could be focusing that time and energy towards something more interesting and fresh.

I take my coffee like I take my women... strong... black... and proud.

[–] fedexpope12 16 years ago

gotta keep in mind that all of this was filmed before he was ...ugh...re-elected.

[–] Giveadont 15 years ago

I dunno, I've heard a lot of Patton's material and he does, quite often, make fun of the fact that it's too easy to make fun of Bush and whatnot. Plus, as far as the jokes themselves go, I always felt that his comparing them to the Dukes of Hazard guys was too goofy to seem preachy (same goes for his "alternate earth" joke) and, in actuality, his political jokes are a pretty small portion of what he tends to talk about. The rest of the time his jokes are pretty extensive monologues, either portraying/mocking his nerdiness or quite simply relating an observation back to an actual event in his life -- which is, honestly, what I tend to enjoy most out of all his material. However, it does always seem like whenever only segments of his routines are shown his political stuff always seems to be what makes the cut. If you haven't heard Patton's CD "Werewolves and Lollipops", I suggest you give it a listen before you write him off as a "poor political" comedian.

However, in consideration to the "impossible transitions" joke: that's kind of an unfair example. Patton, himself, said that it was a routine he hadn't really developed -- and from what I know, being the sort of cynical, dark-humored person comparable to most of Patton's fans, bringing up something like Hitler or Cancer is pretty-much you're first instinct when trying to be funny. Not that I'm saying it really is THAT funny or very original but, when you're not pulling a bunch of laughs onstage it's just natural to do something of that sort.

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I'm just here to remind you that I'm a *beep* badass.

[–] taumpy_tears 12 years ago

I think Brian's the worst personally. his jokes are just alright & he overdoes his whole "lol i'm such a nerd" shtick throughout the whole doc.

but yes, the pro-comedians joke wasn't that great.

zach & maria are brilliant. patton's pretty damn funny but I find it strange that he's often lauded as one of the best of the "alternative comedy" scene. brian as I mentioned, at least in the film, was pretty generic to me. I'll have to watch more of his stuff because I've never bothered to before this.

[–] Menthol-Love 11 years ago

Zach was easily the least funny to me. In fact, on my second viewing of the movie I had to fast forward through his parts because they actually made me mad they were so unfunny.