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Brick Wall Comedy

Comedy Central Presents

Patton Oswalt

Comedy Central · 1999 · 21 min

Early alt-comedy material delivered in an uncomfortable suit and tie.

Patton Oswalt treats federal marijuana laws with the exact same gravity as a childhood game of imaginary lava. Taking the stage in a suit and tie, a wardrobe choice he looks visibly uncomfortable with, the comedian spends his first television half-hour showing the earliest iterations of his pop-culture obsession. His pacing is deliberate, drawing out concepts like the specific shame of getting thrown out of the Anne Frank House or the peculiar psychology of people who write newspaper obituaries.

Filmed at the Hudson Theatre in New York City for the second season of Comedy Central Presents, the 1999 set captures a transition point in his career. He was establishing himself in the alternative comedy scene but was still figuring out how to translate his club act to a television audience. Oswalt later disavowed the half-hour, saying he softened his material to appease network executives. Even compromised, the recording includes a strong bit about the depravity of early reality television and the frustrations of watching old movies in Los Angeles.

The set list

5 bits

  1. Treating marijuana laws like childhood games with arbitrary boundaries

    Compares pot prohibition to showing up late to a childhood game where someone declared the bike path is lava and the hedges are snakes.

  2. Obituary clichés and PR spin on death

    Questions why nobody ever has a cowardly ordeal with cancer involving satanic pacts, and mocks the generic phrase 'he loved to laugh'.

  3. Watching John Wayne's 'The Searchers' in Los Angeles

    Mocks modern moviegoers applying anachronistic Starbucks liberalism to 19th-century frontier history.

  4. CNN war reporters exaggerating danger from a Days Inn

    Acts out a dramatic correspondent treating an improperly prepared mayonnaise sandwich with life-or-death journalistic urgency.

  5. Visiting Amsterdam coffee shops and getting kicked out of the Anne Frank House

    Recounts feeling like Templeton the Rat exploring coffee shops and finding the perfect spot before a disastrous museum visit.

How it plays

About
reading obituaries, marijuana and pot laws, watching old movies in Los Angeles, cable news war correspondents, visiting Amsterdam and the Anne Frank Museum, reality television

What the critics said

Retrospectively assessed as 'chock full of early Oswalt creativity' and a worthwhile piece for fans, though deemed less fully realized than his later uncut hour specials.

Summed up from reviews, articles and listings. Sources: scrapsfromtheloft.com, paramountplus.com, dead-frog.com, thelantern.com, standuplist.com, gvd.swanlibraries.net, ign.com, hahamusic.wordpress.com, facebook.com.

Backstory

Part of Season 2 of the half-hour showcase series 'Comedy Central Presents'. Oswalt later disavowed the special, stating he had allowed his performance to be changed by network concerns.

Details

Released
Runtime
21 min
Where
Comedy Central
Topics
Before
HBO Comedy Half-Hour (1998)
After
Feelin' Kinda Patton (2004)

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