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Patton Oswalt (born January 27, 1969, in Portsmouth, Virginia, USA) is a comedian, actor and writer who first began headlining comedy clubs in 1996. After writing for MADtv and starring in his own 1997 comedy special for HBO, he went on to garner notable roles in films and television shows including Paul Thomas Anderson's Magnolia and The King of Queens on CBS.

Oswalt's style of stand-up comedy is often described as acerbic and sarcastic, and it covers topics ranging from pop culture frivolity such as comic book supervillains and 1980s hair metal to deeper societal issues like American excess, rampant materialism, foreign policy, and religion (Patton is an avowed atheist himself). Quite a few of his routines are about vice, especially pornography and alcohol. A famous line: "Do you think you have a problem when you refer to all alcohol as 'pain-go-bye-bye-juice'?"

Oswalt has described himself as a "man without a country" in that he dislikes both George W. Bush and hippies. In February 2004, some jokes critical of President Bush got him booed off the stage in Pittsburgh, though in a subsequent tour with The Comedians of Comedy he returned to the city and was well received.¹

In 2004 Oswalt released a comedy album entitled Feelin' Kinda Patton and later that year a longer, unedited version of the same recording called 222, both through the United Musicians collective, and a stand-up special "No Reason to Complain". He is also on a split EP called "Patton Vs. Alcohol Vs. Zach Vs. Patton" with Zach Galifianakis.

Looking for a way to bring cutting-edge comedy to a different audience, Oswalt put together the Comedians of Comedy tour in 2004, using indie rock venues instead of traditional (and expensive) comedy clubs. The tour featured Oswalt, Zach Galifianakis, Brian Posehn, and Maria Bamford. The fall 2004 tour was documented in a 2005 film of the same name; it was followed by a six-episode Comedy Central series based on the summer 2005 tour. This tour featured special guest appearances from comedians such as Blaine Capatch, Bobby Tisdale and Todd Barry. Subsequent incarnations of the tour have included Eugene Mirman and Morgan Murphy.

He has appeared on the television shows Home Movies, Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist, Tom Goes to the Mayor, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, I Love the '80s, Static Shock,Crank Yankers, Reno 911!, The Batman, and The Fairly OddParents as the writer of the Crimson Chin comics. He lent his voice as in the Playstation 2 video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas as a caller on the WTCR show, "The Tight End Zone," where he states incredibly obvious things about sports, and was the voice of a caller on "Chatterbox" on LCFR in the Sony Playstation Portable game Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories. He was also the voice of a reporter on "New World Order," a radio show on VCPR in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories. He also wrote the comic book "JLA: Welcome to the Working Week" and a back-up story in Batman #600. He will voice Rémy, the lead character in the upcoming Pixar film Ratatouille. He's also an uncredited writer on the Borat movie.

He is a 1987 graduate of Broad Run High School in Ashburn, Virginia, and attended the College of William and Mary, where he was initiated into the Alpha Theta Chapter of the Phi Kappa Tau Fraternity.

Oswalt married writer Michelle McNamara on September 24, 2005.

July 2006, Oswalt's comic script "Fruit Pies!" was turned into a short film available at YouTube and MySpace. He also appeared on the Comedy Central Roast of William Shatner.

Trivia

• Oswalt collects comic books.
• Is a fan of rock bands Queens of the Stone Age and System of a Down (as mentioned in his routine topic of 80s Metal videos).
• It is rumored that Patton Oswalt is the true identity of the crazed, sometime Ain't It Cool News movie reviewer Neill Cumpston, but this has yet to be officially confirmed.
• Oswalts famous Quip: ""If you hit a midget on the head with a stick, he turns into 40 gold coins", is remarkably similar to a Folktale told in India in which a Poor Merchant, inspired by a dream, hits a holy monk with a stick, turning him into coins.

Notes

¹: Patton mentioned the warm welcome he received in Pittsburgh in April 2006 on his website's diary area "Spew."

External links

• Official site
• Interview with Oswalt from August 2006 on public radio program The Sound of Young America
• Interview From October of 2005
• Myspace Profile for Patton Oswalt
• Fruit Pies short film on YouTube and MySpace

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