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Brick Wall Comedy
Brick Wall Comedy

No Reason to Complain

Patton Oswalt

Comedy Central · 2004 · 42 min

Patton Oswalt rants about public radio, steakhouses, and horror movies.

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.

The set list

3 bits

  1. Black Angus steakhouse commercials becoming an aggressive, threatening gauntlet of food

    Transitions smoothly into an unhinged two-character scene between a panicked customer and an increasingly deranged, menacing waiter pushing massive portions

  2. All his friends are either getting sober or having kids

    Laments reaching a stage in life where his peer group's life choices have diverged into equally annoying extremes

  3. Voting for George W. Bush to usher in the biblical apocalypse

    Admits to a dark desire to vote for Bush just to witness a massive fiery end when mediocrity reigned

How it plays

Tone
Sharp, absurd, irreverent, and neurotically self-deprecating
On stage
Nerdy, neurotic, confessional, and conversational; casually dressed in jeans and an untucked shirt, comfortably roaming the stage
Pace
Fast-paced yet relaxed, with strong rhythmic cadence and seamless transitions
About
President George W. Bush and politics, Aging and adulthood versus arrested development, Relationships and fear of domestic happiness ruining comedic edge, Consumer culture and aggressive advertising, Pop culture and movies

What the critics said

Praised as brilliant stand-up writing and performance, marking a significant artistic leap forward from his earlier specials through linguistic precision and distinctive nerdy neuroses

In the room: Populated by enthusiastic young hipsters who strongly cheered his political satire and responded with waves of harmonized laughter

Summed up from reviews, articles and listings. Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com, tviv.org, themoviedb.org, popmatters.com, vulture.com, ign.com, dvdtalk.com.

Backstory

Filmed in 2004 shortly before the presidential election, amid the early years of the Iraq War and contemporary cultural debates around the George W. Bush administration

Details

Released
Taped
John Jay College Theater, New York
Runtime
42 min
Where
Comedy Central
Director
Paul Miller
Topics
Before
Feelin' Kinda Patton (2004)
After
Werewolves and Lollipops (2007)

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