Review: Patton Oswalt - Werewolves & Lollipops

It's been a long time since I've received a cd to review--I think it may have been the last No Doubt cd for a site that will remain nameless. So it was a very pleasant surprise that some comments on Patton Oswalt here in the past had been the catalyst for getting his newest release. Werewolves & Lollipops (the title bears no obvious relation to anything on the disc) is a combination cd/dvd from Subpop Records, Oswalt's second album/concert performance. If you liked his first disc, Feelin' Kinda Patton, from a couple years ago, well, you'll like this and also this is 100% new material. Actually, there are a few jokes you may first have seen in The Comedians of Comedy documentary, but for the most part this is new material.

Oswalt mines most of his material from his life as a pop-cultured obsessed geek, and that leads to wonderful bits like, "At Midnight I Will Kill George Lucas with a Shovel," in which he travels back about 15 years in time to hear Lucas tell him about his plans for the Star Wars prequels, unwittingly pointing out their key flaws. Oswalt has a gift for mixing cultural references together without it being pretentious, like, say, Dennis Miller, because he a) is much more self-deprecating, b) doesn't go too highbrow, and c) his bits usually have an underpinning of empathy. Case in point is "America Has Spoken," which makes great fun of KFC's lunch bowl of their menu items popcorn chicken, potatoes and gravy, and corn, all lumped together. He portrays the type of person who would order this, rather than separate items on a plate, with dignity, as someone who has basically given up on life. Oswalt can get a laugh from a well-chosen word like "hillock" to describe the mound of food, gets some degree of difficulty points for somehow working in a reference to seminal '80s studio group This Mortal Coil's brooding It'll End in Tears album, and even approaches poignance for his recognition for the societal melancholia that could allow this entree to be a success. He's really that good.

It's not all making fun of food, though. Oswalt's rage at the Iraq War and current administration continue unabated in the savage, "The Dukes of Hazzard," which cuts off at two jokes instead of the classic trio as if Oswalt would bust a vein if he didn't move onto other topics. He also doens't suffer fools gladly, even paying ones, as evidenced by, "I Tell a Story About Birth Control and Deal with a Retarded Heckler." Also, even as his career gets better and better (he's the voice of the lead mouse in the new Disney/Pixar film, Ratatouille), he just seems to be getting good material out of it rather than losing his touch, as heard in "Beautiful People and a Bridge Troll" about his discomfort at the Batman Begins career, and "Best Week Never," about his meltdown about Paris Hilton ("she needs to get AIDS of the cancer of the leukemia of the brain") that cost him a cushy gig on VH1's Best Week Ever.

Patton Oswalt continues to be one of the best standup comedians working, and this at a time when comedy is finally boiling up again with tons of talent. He's as funny as ever, and his latest rocks.