We All Scream

Instead of trying to shock or alienate, Patton Oswalt takes on the cultural divide by treating progressive hyper-awareness and reactionary backlash as symptoms of the same inevitable condition: getting old. His central theory is that nobody stays on the right side of history forever; eventually, the march of time makes everyone look like an out-of-touch prude, whether they like it or not. It is a comforting thesis that allows him to address contemporary anxieties without the anger that has curdled so much other comedy from his peers.

This 2022 Netflix release marked Oswalt’s directorial debut and was filmed at the Paramount Theatre in Denver, Colorado. Coming off the heels of the pandemic, he spends much of the hour looking back at the empty promises of self-improvement made during lockdown. He contrasts today’s vaccine hesitancy against the country’s mid-century fight against polio, mockingly imagining modern anti-vaccine reactionaries trying to run a “plague barge” cruise or an “Alpha-Males-Only Buffet”.

The hour is at its strongest when Oswalt leans into domestic absurdity, particularly in a segment about a false-alarm home invasion where a routine visit from an air-conditioning repairman sends his wife into full combat mode. Critics were split on his broader cultural material, with some noting that his efforts to avoid taking cheap shots at either side of the culture war left the set feeling slightly toothless.