On the face of it, there’s little in widespread between the Trump presidency and Covid — in addition to, in fact, the 18-month interval the place hell itself froze over and the 2 briefly overlapped. But if you consider it, has there been one other matter that has supplied extra fodder to comedians in the previous few years than the forty fifth POTUS and the pandemic? In his fourth Netflix standup particular — titled We All Scream — Patton Oswalt does an admirable job of avoiding each topics, not less than straight. He does, nonetheless, unpack the trauma that they’ve left behind.
Addressing the sudden social divide that they created, nonetheless, is probably as edgy as he’s keen to get in We All Scream — an hour-long particular by which the comic transitions from innocent jokes about rising outdated to an electrical riff about post-war American historical past. And in some way, in typical Oswalt trend, he manages to attract parallels between each, segueing from a bit about breaking his foot whereas stepping over a curb to delivering an insightful sermon of types on the collective societal insecurity that results in individuals like Reagan and Trump being elected into workplace.
Oswalt has at all times relied on his means to relate vividly descriptive private tales that border on the absurd, and regardless of the common jokes about how outdated he has grow to be, the comic at all times seems to be on his toes — not less than so far as his expertise as a raconteur are involved. At one level, he compares his spouse to ‘an outer space sex vixen’ with homicide in her eyes, and on one other event, he pitches a attainable Pixar film that includes family home equipment for the Safdie Brothers to direct.
These are maybe the one two moments by which he reveals his interior nerd — a persona that may usually rear its head in his earlier specials. But through the years, Oswalt’s observations concerning the world have modified. His stage presence remains to be manic (regardless of the scary surgical procedure and the damaged foot), however his commentary isn’t as cartoonish because it was once. We All Screams ends with a number of the most reflective materials of his profession. And the bit is laced along with his trademark self-deprecation and a real sense of gratitude. “Ageing isn’t bad if you don’t take it personally,” he muses, alternating between informal criticism of masculinity and performing a fast post-mortem of the Trump years.
Here’s a person who has skilled actual, tangible grief in his life. But he’s additionally somebody who overcame it. He persevered, and in some way didn’t enable himself to be corrupted by fame or grow to be embittered by loss.
This is the form of maturity that empowers a comic to arrange a joke directed at Joe Rogan — a simple goal, by any customary — after which swerve away so drastically that you simply start to surprise why he even introduced him up. Until he tells you why. Not solely does Oswalt refuse to pile on Rogan, he argues that folks ought to think about empathising with the podcast mogul. And nearly as if to emphasize his level, he makes himself the butt of the joke. It’s a deft bait-and-switch; a terrific little bit of comedian subversion.
But the particular isn’t uniformly sharp, and that’s in all probability a side-effect of the assorted varieties that Oswalt makes an attempt in the course of the hour. An early bit about clown pubes (sigh, sure) bombs — he acknowledges this, by the best way — and leaves him scrambling to win the viewers again. Which he does, in fact, properly earlier than some cracking crowd-work in the direction of the top.
We All Scream has that acquainted yelling-into-a-void vitality that Oswalt at all times appears to be surrounded by, however this time, he is aware of he isn’t alone.
Patton Oswalt: We All Scream
Director – Patton Oswalt
Rating – 3.5/5
