Summary
Patton Oswalt: We All Scream is a hit-or-miss special that might be a little too preachy.
We are tired of hearing about the pandemic in these stand-up specials, but I’m typically okay with it if the comedian offers a unique take on the entire thing. By ‘unique,’ I don’t want to hear about how they felt politically, didn’t want to wear the mask, etc. Patton Oswalt: We All Scream funnily tackles the pandemic, bringing up how we all made a list of things we would learn to do and all the things we set out to accomplish and ended up doing none of them.
I thought it was a carefully crafted opener that didn’t cross the line of annoyance.
Alright, while I watched Oswalt deliver these jokes on the stage, including one about “pubs,” I realized that this was basically an hour special of dad jokes or jokes intended with some folks who have some years on this earth.
You know, nothing is wrong with that, but I felt like you need to know what to expect from Oswalt. You get some funny jokes and some not-so-funny jokes, and nobody will laugh harder than some 55-year-old man on his couch who will point to the screen and say, “That was me.” Dad jokes are cool, just not for an hour straight.
My favorite bit of the entire special was about a would-be home invasion. It was one of the better, more well-thought-out jokes about being locked up I’ve heard since comedians started adding jokes about COVID.
He talks about how the AC guy came over to the house, and his daughter saw a strange man in their backyard, leading to his wife going off the deep end. It had the perfect delivery, followed by a great punchline at the end.
Remember how I credited Oswalt for his carefully crafted opener that didn’t cross any lines? Well, Oswalt decides to go off the rails and get a bit preachy on COVID/vaccines. Look, I get it, I understand bringing up COVID, we all lived through it and dealt with it.
But as Whitney Cummings said on Kevin Hart’s podcast, about specials, you can’t tell if they are running for office or not. It’s taxing hearing this over and over again. It almost makes you want to turn the special off.
Overall, Oswalt is a veteran in his craft that worked on the material during the pandemic. However, I felt like some of these jokes weren’t fully fleshed out and that he could’ve maybe used a few more passes at certain ones to make the landing better.
It isn’t a groundbreaking special by any stretch, but it’s at least a watchable one.
