Werewolves and Lollipops

Patton Oswalt turns cultural frustration into a spectator sport on Werewolves and Lollipops. This is the 2007 set where he introduces his critique of American laziness, specifically targeting the KFC Famous Bowl as a precursor to injecting a liquid lunch directly into the femoral artery. He applies the same logic to the federal government, comparing George W. Bush and Dick Cheney to the Dukes of Hazzard escaping improbable weekly predicaments with a Waylon Jennings voiceover.

Recorded primarily as an audio release at Austin’s Cap City Comedy Club for the indie rock label Sub Pop, the album caught Oswalt at a transition point. He was newly married, fresh off a long run on the sitcom The King of Queens, and on the cusp of broader recognition with Pixar’s Ratatouille. The performance drifts from his fury over the Star Wars prequels, which he likens to replacing Angelina Jolie with a photo of Jon Voight’s scrotum, to a methodical dismantling of an impatient heckler. Reviewers at the time noted the recording as a career high, praising his exact balance of pop-culture minutiae and political anger.