No Reason to Complain

The center of gravity in this forty-minute set is an aggressive, theatrical rant about the menu of the Black Angus Steakhouse. It is a memorable bit of culinary outrage, so vivid and intense that when Pixar director Brad Bird heard it on the radio, he immediately cast Patton Oswalt as the lead voice in Ratatouille.

Filmed at the John Jay College Theater in New York and directed by Paul Miller, this 2004 Comedy Central special caught Oswalt in a transition phase. While he was still drawing a steady sitcom paycheck as Spence on The King of Queens, he was also solidifying his stand-up persona as a cynical pop-culture geek. Dressed in jeans and an untucked shirt, he roams the stage with a relaxed, fast-paced confidence that contrasted sharply with his stiff appearance in earlier television sets.

The material focuses heavily on personal irritation and cultural confusion. Oswalt evaluates the simple history of Burbank, laments the unlistenable nature of public radio jazz, and details his girlfriend’s obsession with true crime shows. Other highlights include a joke about why the title The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is a work of genius because it plays a free movie in your head, and a comparison of newly sober adults to infants.