Talking for Clapping

Patton Oswalt takes the stage at San Francisco’s Fillmore to pick apart the absurdity of aging and the shifting social rules he’s trying to keep pace with. Recorded in late 2015, this was his fifth hour-long video special and his first produced exclusively for Netflix. He balances standard observational routines with sociopolitical commentary, looking at the contrast between how language is policed and how actual empathy works.\n\nOne of the standout segments involves his bewilderment over how easily senior citizens can procure heavy-duty narcotics compared to his own struggles to get a minor painkiller prescription. He jokes that if you survive past seventy, you are invited to a pill party that would bring choreographer Bob Fosse back to life and then put him right back in the grave. The hour moves between these medical absurdities, a story about the absolute worst birthday party clown in history, and the humbling realities of raising a daughter who is deeply obsessed with My Little Pony rather than the Star Wars universe he wanted to hand down to her.\n\nReleased in April 2016, the special was instantly colored by tragedy when Oswalt’s wife, true-crime writer Michelle McNamara, died unexpectedly just a day before its premiere. The set itself remains a document of a comic at a creative peak, earning both an Emmy for writing and a Grammy for Best Comedy Album.