I love Patton Oswalt. If I had to spend the rest of my life with any overweight, nerdy comedian who starred on a mediocre sitcom for nine seasons, I’d choose him. No question. Oswalt’s new movie, Young Adult, comes out today, and he’s getting some serious Oscar buzz. ‘Bout time. Considering he should have gotten a nomination for his role in Big Fan, it’s actually two years too late. But that’s another issue. And a movie, not a TV show.

So, instead, let’s do that we thing we do when we see famous people before they were famous while watching a scene from the “Seinfeld” episode, “The Couch,” where Oswalt tells George that his video store (how quaint!) has rented out all its VHS copies (how quainter!) of Breakfast at Tiffany’s. View it here (anyone who uploads a video to YouTube, but doesn’t allow it to be embeddable should be shot). And speaking of execution by gunfire: the New York Post published an article today about Russia’s “The King of Queens” remake. It’s called “The Newlyweds,” and though the idea of a Russian Jerry Stiller is amusing in theory, this is less so:

The popular Kevin James sitcom has been completely made over for Russian television with a slimmer, trimmer lead actor. “They do have fat guys [in Russia],” Jeff Lerner, an exec with Sony TV, which owns the show, tells The Post. “And they do have funny guys. But we didn’t find the perfect intersection of those two things.” (New York Post)

In other words, Kevin James is an American treasure. After the you-know-what are some clips of when Oswalt guest starred on much better programs than “The King of Queens,” including “NewsRadio” and “Dr. Katz.”

Read the rest of this entry »

Patton Oswalt is one of the funniest people on the planet, so I’m cautiously pleased to report that he’s developing a new sitcom with Fox. I say “cautiously” because, well… it’s been a while, but the scars of “Arrested Development’s” cancellation will linger forever.

Oswalt has teamed with former Mr. Show writer Scott Aukerman to write and executive produce a comedy series in which Oswalt would star as a man whose wife of 20 years splits, forcing him to re-enter the dating world and fend for himself. Oswalt and Aukerman have collaborated before, with Oswalt regularly appearing at Comedy Death-Ray, the L.A. alternative comedy showcase (and podcast!) curated by Aukerman. [Vulture]

FX’s “Louie” — starring my other favorite stand-up comedian, Louis C.K. — has a similar premise, so this couldn’t sound better to a comedy nerd like me. I wish I could have been in the conference room when this was pitched. “Okay, so it’s kind of like ‘Louie,’ but much lighter and with Patton Oswalt in the Louie role. Oh, and we got the writer from “Mr. Show” to — um, is that guy masturbating?”

Read the rest of this entry »

God only knows how many more Conan-Leno posts I’m going to have to write before this whole thing is over, so get used to seeing the same handful of pictures with various cats and dogs Photoshopped into them. It’s the only way I’m going to be able to avoid getting bored with every new development.

Anyway, the big “news” today is that Conan and Fox have been talking, and at the moment it seems there’s a pretty good chance O’Brien could leave NBC. Or, as the New York Post says, he could be Conan “O’Flyin’” to a new network. Ha ha, good one, newspaper Jay.

“This level of sh- – -iness was not expected,” one source said. “He’s done a great job for NBC. He moved his entire staff, he moved his family to LA. And five months later, they repay him like this?” [...]

Conan, an insider said, “may not be operating on [NBC's] timetable [to shift the shows after the Olympics]. He’s not going to be stampeded. This came out of the blue, and it will take him a while to figure out what’s best for him.” O’Brien rep Leslee Dart last night said only that “Conan has made no decisions yet.”

Stay tuned for the next development, when there’s a new rumor about what Conan might do according to one person speaking on condition of anonymity! Yay! I just love the continuous news cycle!

Below: audio (well, a YouTube video that really only has audio) of Patton Oswalt speaking about the situation on the excellent Comedy Death-Ray Radio. He says a lot of things that will ring true for comedy die-hards without attacking the quality of Jay Leno’s work, which is actually kind of impressive. I applaud him for not bringing up that time Jay Leno stole a bunch of babies from an orphanage and ran them over with a vintage car.

Read the rest of this entry »

In case you missed Patton Oswalt’s special on Comedy Central last night, here’s some of the best material from the show, about how the year 2009 would blow the minds of people living in the year 1999.  I especially like the parts about digital music players and the Obama-Biden administration as an ’80s cop movie.

Anyway, I’ll include the disclaimer that this might be a little too political for any of you who happen to be Republicans, but then if you’re a Republican you probably don’t like funny things anyway.  Y’all are generally too busy hating gay people and Mexicans and abortions to laugh about them. C’mon, lighten up — that part about the coat hanger was hilarious.

As expected, Conan O’Brien addressed the Art Deco vs Mario Bros phenomenon on Friday’s “Tonight Show” (clip below).  It wasn’t a particularly funny bit, but I feel like I have to post it since it’s something organic to the Internet.  In fact, after Conan name-dropped Serious Lunch, he asked Andy Richter if he’d seen the image, and Andy said his wife showed him another site that had featured the image.  Was it Warming Glow?  MAYBE!   Which is to say, probably not.

Anyway, you can watch the video below, plus I included Patton Oswalt’s interview because Patton Oswalt rules.  Toward the end of his interview, he introduces the concept of “B-word fat,” which is probably the most original take on a fat joke I’ve seen in years.  I just taunt their labored breathing and diabetes.  Which is why he’s on TV while I’m not wearing pants.

Read the rest of this entry »