King of Queens: Patton Oswalt Delivers Surreal Sarcasm in Werewolves and Lollipops

Perhaps best known as Spence Olchin in The King of Queens, Patton Oswalt is quickly gaining popularity for his acerbic stand-up routines. In his latest CD, Werewolves and Lollipops, Oswalt brings his own brand of sarcastic comedy to life with clever wordplay and surreal imagery. Released eleven days after the Pixar animated film Ratatouille, in which Oswalt gives voice to Remy, the mouse chef, Oswalt successfully maintains his status as a cutting edge comic while simultaneously having a Disney film out at the same time.

On Comedy Central's Last Laugh '06, Oswalt opened his set with the same joke that begins "Werewolves and Lollipops" after his introduction; "America Has Spoken" is a clever breakdown of KFC's bowls of arranged food in a pile, their best-selling item of all time. The track begins with Oswalt reenacting a scenario in which a customer demands a bowl despite the KFC worker's distaste at his choice, and ends on a strange but hightly amusing note, with Oswalt breaking into song as a character who thoroughly enjoys the KFC bowls, still lives at home in his mid-forties, and doesn't want to chew his own food.

"Beautiful People and a Bridge Troll" showcases Oswalt's open willingness to mock himself and his appearance while employing his skill as a storyteller. His bizarre intro to "Clean Filth" (Oswalt rarely uses segues, giving his sets a more surreal feel to them) morphs into an antecdote about his experiences with censorship as a writer. "The Miracle of Childbirth" is a commentary on science's often over-reaching hand in defiance of nature (with graphic descriptions of a character describing a recent achievement in science), and "You Are Allowed 20 Birthday Parties" focuses on significant points in a person's life (as well as the insignificant middle parts).

On his DVD "No Reason to Complain", Oswalt proclaimed his hatred for both George Bush and hippies, stating "I'm a man without a country!...We need conservatives who accept gays, and hippies that shave and bathe, and that'll move us forward!" His distaste for the Bush Administration continues in "The Dukes of Hazzard", with his comparisons to Bush and Cheney to Bo and Luke Duke.

"Can you believe these two guys covered up a child molester for five years? Ain't no way they're gonna get themselves out of this bucket of syrup!" he shrieks in character. Oswalt's disgust for current world events is highlighted in "Alternate Earth", and his focus then turns on his own inability to discipline himself in "Best Week Never", which contains a Paris Hilton insult that simply cannot be printed here.

Patton Oswalt's self-proclaimed nerdiness is highlighted in tracks ten and eleven, "Physics for Poets" and "At Midnight I Will Kill George Lucas with a Shovel". His concentration goes from autobiographical storytelling to observation humor, ending at the fifteenth track "Racist Cell Phones" in which Oswalt reminisces about the first time he doubted an adult as a child.

In the following three tracks Oswalt talks about past dates and his current marriage, and the aptly named "I Tell a Story About Birth Control and Deal with a Retarded Heckler" is a perfectly captured moment in which a comedian deftly handles a ruined joke and quicklly gains the upper hand by mocking the aforementioned heckler. At one point he even breaks into laughter while mocking the unforseen audience member, asking him "You just don't get it, do you?" He manages to finish the story and the joke, moving on to "Great Food Is Cooked by Psychos", concentrating mainly on the strange habits of the chefs at San Francisco's Fleur de Lys French restaurant.

Oswalt's professional career is the focus of the next two tracks, "Wackity Schmackity Doo!" and "Death Bed", and ends on "a positive note", as Oswalt begins his last track "Cirque du Soleil" proclaiming the false identities of red states and blue states, which becomes a personal story about taking two sets of parents to Las Vegas but ends on a hopeful note - that entertainment can help people surpass their own prejudices. It's a far cry from cynicism, and though "Werewolves and Lollipops" certainly has its dark and dirty moments, Oswalt has successfully set himself in the same group of sarcastic and idealistic comics such as Lewis Black and Jon Stewart, while maintaining his own voice and identity.