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Description

COVID is definitely not over, but life is still going on. As we emerge from our bubbles (with no lack of trepidation), Andy calls up comedian Patton Oswalt to talk about what life is like back on the road, making movies again and talking to people in real life, not on Twitter. Then Patton and Andy riff on what justice really looks like for people like Alex Jones and Josh Hawley. Can we find humor in their demise? Will either of them even have a demise? Patton and Andy debate that and more in this laugh-filled episode.Keep up with Andy on Twitter @ASlavitt.

Follow Patton on Twitter @pattonoswalt

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Check out these resources from today’s episode: 

• See Patton’s new movie I Love My, Dad in theaters now and on demand on August 12th.
• Watch Patton’s hilarious Parks and Recreation scene mentioned in the interview.
• Find vaccines, masks, testing, treatments, and other resources in your community: https://www.covid.gov/
• Order Andy’s book, “Preventable: The Inside Story of How Leadership Failures, Politics, and Selfishness Doomed the U.S. Coronavirus Response”: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250770165

Stay up to date with us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at @LemonadaMedia.

Transcript

SPEAKERS

Andy Slavitt, Patton Oswalt

Andy Slavitt  00:26

Welcome to IN THE BUBBLE. It’s Andy Slavitt. It’s Monday, August 8th. Boy, we’ve had an eventful couple of weeks. How should we be feeling about things COVID cases are kind of peaking. hospitalizations are peaking. You know, the kind of worst case scenarios that we’ve seen in other countries don’t look like they’re gonna happen here. Monkey pox is raging. And it is now a national emergency here in the US. I suspect that we’re going to have a frustrating couple of months. But we’re gonna get after it. Been spending some time talking to the White House about their plan. We need to basically vaccinate people in high risk groups very, very quickly and get some other tools out. But I think we’re going to head in that direction soon. Lots of other things going on the January 6 hearings. We’re in the middle of and we’re starting to see some of the outgrowth of that. We had last week, a ballot initiative in Kansas, where voters in Kansas were asked whether or not they wanted to train in the Constitution, the prohibition on abortion. And what happened was remarkable. It failed. by 59% to 41%. It failed in almost every county of Kansas, including rural ones. The turnout was spectacularly high off the charts for a primary season, midterm and set a real shot across the bow. Alex Jones, Alex Jones, I don’t talk enough about Alex Jones he hates probably talking about me either. He’s probably one of the most loathsome human beings on the planet knowingly lied about the Sandy Hook shooting. And he’s in trouble. How much trouble we’ll find out. But he’s at least $4 million in trouble. He lied to a judge lied to Congress, there’s gonna be some criminal action, I’m guessing his cell phone records are going to the January fix committee. And of course, we have got a climate bill. If you listen to our show on Friday, we got a climate bill. So there’s a lot to be happy about as what I’m trying to say, there’s some good things going on in the world if we just let ourselves appreciate and enjoy them. And I’m going to talk to our next guests who I’m really excited to have on Patton Oswald, about whether or not we actually deserve to get excited about some of the things that are happening, and whether or not we are moving slowly back to normal life outside of the Covid bubble, whether that’s okay. What it’s like it, it’s sort of a while the it’s not a signal that the pandemic is over by any means. But what it is, is a bit of a symmetrical episode to when we did that, I would encourage you to go back and listen to in April of 2020, or May of 2020 with Tina Fey when she was sitting in New York, and we were talking about what’s it like in 2020 as the pandemic hit, and all the people were feeling. This is a bit of a similar episode, we’re talking to a very talented, funny person with wry observations about what the world is feeling like looking like as he begins to emerge from his bubble. And I think there’s an argument to be made, that there’s an awful lot of stuff going on, that we can appreciate, and if nothing else, what happened in Kansas, the chance to get real climate legislation. And Josh Hawley streaking through the Capitol running like a baby. Those are a couple of the things and we may hit on a few of those with Patton as he comes on. But I do want to say that the head of the pharmaceutical lobby this guy that I know, he publicly gave an interview where he said, any Democrat that votes for this climate legislation, which is, of course, going to put some limitations on the cost of prescription drugs, will basically pay the price. He’s never going to forget them in he’s going to exact retribution. And I think he’s at a point, lobbyists are at a point where they no longer have to hide the fact that they are use their money to try to influence and hurt people’s lives. So I really hope that you do me a favor, call the number that we talked about on our episode on Friday, which is www.callforclimate now.com If you want this bill to pass if you want to do something for the planet, and reduce the cost of prescription drugs for people. Okay, we’re gonna get Patton Oswald, I will tell you this. Now he’s coming to this episode. After a very long day of interviews, he’s promoting a new movie. It’s an exhausting process. So we’re going to begin this conversation with Patton. Be feeling tired. But watch what happens. Listen to what happens. I want you to listen to the whole interview to be fabulous Watch what happens as this interview goes on. It is a great experience. It was really fun. And I hope you’ll enjoy it.

Andy Slavitt  06:33

All right. Well, I’m so thrilled to have you here, Patton, welcomed to in the bubble.

Patton Oswalt  06:38

Thank you. Thanks for having me.

Andy Slavitt  06:40

Hey, now, I have a good understanding that you’ve entered this thing called real life now. Outside of Twitter. Where you’re actually going on the road and like talking to people and seeing them face to face. I got I got a few questions about that. Because I’m a little […]. Like, I have an authority that like people wear pants that don’t have elastic on some occasions.

Patton Oswalt  07:04

It’s weird. Yeah, there are when I’m out when my outside pants. Sometimes the waist can get a little uncomfortable because they don’t have the giant rubber band in them. But it’s weird. You do get used to it after a while. But those first couple of days were like, Whoa, am I walking okay, it felt very strange.

Andy Slavitt  07:23

So you mean you’re saying you can eat more? And your pants don’t open? That’s weird.

Patton Oswalt  07:27

Yeah, it’s weird. And when sometimes when you eat more, your tummy part hurts, because it’ll press against the pants, which that was a weird sensation. I thought like, oh my god, am I turning into the Hulk? Nope. Just ate too many Cheetos.

Andy Slavitt  07:43

Wow. Okay, so that does feel like a difference, to be honest with you from like, pandemic times.

Patton Oswalt  07:48

Oh, yeah, that was a massive difference for me. Yeah, definitely.

Andy Slavitt  07:51

I mean, the other thing is like, I mean, I know you, like me have lived a lot of your life on Twitter. And so get kind of kind of used to that. Do people in the real world hate each other as much as they do on Twitter?

Patton Oswalt  08:04

What’s really good, and I’m quoting my friend Bobcat Goldthwait on this when you go out on the road, you realize Twitter and the internet are not the world. And that is such a refreshing thing to embrace that. Twitter isn’t, is an amplified slice of the world. But the world for the large part are people trying to get along and be nice to each other and just live normal lives tonight.

Andy Slavitt  08:26

And like talking like actual conversations and stuff like exactly snipey little, you know?

Patton Oswalt  08:33

People out there aren’t trying to constantly own each other.

Andy Slavitt  08:38

How does it feel to like actually be out there touring seeing real people? You’re promoting a movie, which we’re of course going to talk about. Is it strange? Does it feel different?

Patton Oswalt  08:50

It just feels really happy. Everyone. The comedian and the audience are both so happy to be there. So happy to be out. Talking to people, just right now, it’s kind of a nice little sweet spot for comedians. Everyone’s happy to be back out. For however long we can be before the monkey pox explodes.

Andy Slavitt  09:08

Yeah. Well, you know, always something to laugh at. Right? So I’ve got a few topics I want to cover with you. So, look, you’ve won a Grammy. You’ve won an Emmy. Which, by the before the pandemic used to be considered a really big deal. Any one of those. Post pandemic like it’s all up for grabs, I’m assuming it’ll still be important. But you know, you never know, right? So I asked our audience well, what did some of their favorite Patton Oswald moments are? And a lot of people came back with Veep. A lot of people came back with Veep.

Patton Oswalt  09:47

Damn. That’s look, that is flattering because Veep is nothing but scene stealers, every person in that show. So for me to be memorable from that show means a lot.

Andy Slavitt  10:00

Oh no, it was like either one of the comments was Patton Oswalt, was brilliant, I think a lot of people went into that show already knowing you and liking you and baby were centering on you. But you were amazing. The thing that I find really interesting about that show, wondering if you reflect on it is I think you guys thought you were satirizing politicians. But isn’t it amazing how many people were like, no, no, you’re just actually accurately describing politics.

Patton Oswalt  10:27

Not only did we think they would think that I know that at the end, they had to run to play catch up with the Trump administration in terms of insanity, absurdity and satire, that reality kept kind of laughing them. And then they had to change scripts and stuff because things got so crazy. They’re like, this crazy thing we came up pales in comparison to reality.

Andy Slavitt  10:50

Was that really fun to do?

Patton Oswalt  10:52

Oh, yeah, I’ve got that show. Just getting to watch Julia Louis-Dreyfus work. And being the center of this hurricane of brilliant comedians just was, I can’t even describe it. It was amazing. I was so lucky to get to do that.

Andy Slavitt  11:09

But you’re actually right. Like, every single person was funny.

Patton Oswalt  11:12

Every single person was funny. And I remember there was a quote saying, everyone and everyone in DC thinks that they’re Frank Underwood, and they’re actually Joan Orion, which is that’s exactly what they are.

Andy Slavitt  11:27

They just like defined whole characters. And look, she seemed to me to be in tell me if this is true, but just as someone watching the show, like a very generous actress, and that she didn’t have to, like she allowed everybody else to be funny around her. And when those scenes often at her expense, right?

Patton Oswalt  11:47

Well, let me tell you this anecdote. It wasn’t that she was generous, she was so confident in what she could do. One time, we did a big table read and we were kind of messing around. And then we all left, she stayed in there with a because she was also producing the show. So there was pretty I left my briefcase at my chair. I came back in after 10 minutes. And she was going through the script, but going to everyone else’s lines and going. Let’s amp this one up that like if we make everyone around me even funnier, and like give them even better dialogue than I might, she knew how funny she was just reacting to people. There’s a scene when her, this is the end of a long day. Oh my god, her body man. The guy from breast development. Oh God, Tony Hill. He’s introducing her to a line of people. And many gets the one person goes his brother is the basis in Rage Against the Machine. And she just doesn’t know how to react. And she’s just trying to nod and has nothing to say. And it is one of the funniest. She was so good at being again, she was amazing at delivering lines, you know, keep the […] but even the scenes where she was up against some something so absurd. She didn’t know how to react to it, she would end up getting the biggest laugh, because she was just so confident what she was doing.

Andy Slavitt  13:12

There’s so much that so watchable and appreciative all about that show. The other thing that our production team likes is a rant that you do about Star Wars on Parks and Rec.

Patton Oswalt  13:25

Yeah, yeah, that Parks and Rec was another show that I loved and still love. And when they asked me to be on it, I was really happy. And for that scene, all I had to do was start a filibuster and then we’re going to cut away. So I said these are my ideas and then I know all the directors writers in the show and they went, don’t yell cut, see how long he talks. So let’s just see what happens. And I went on for eight minutes about what I thought. Star Wars and Marvel are all be combined in this huge collapsing dwarf star of nerdom. And I that just kind of went viral, I guess.

Andy Slavitt  13:59

And you just you basically improvised all that?

Patton Oswalt  14:01

The whole thing. Just a trivia dump when I’m panicking.

Andy Slavitt  14:06

Oh, that’s great. I don’t know if you remember Harris Wittels. God, so funny, and so tragic. So he is actually the inspiration behind this whole podcast that work, believe it or not, that his sister started this podcast that work as a sort of tribute to him called Lemonada Media. How to help people turn lemons into lemonade in life. And all the shows. I mean, this show began as a show, you know, it’s not a top five news show. But this began, it’s a podcast about the pandemic, that help people get through it a real human way. This actually is a very symmetrical episode because April 2020, we had Tina Fey on to talk about living in New York to talk about like, What’s life like during the pandemic in New York when you’re here at Idea frickin mind? Yeah, and it was the episode was entitled, remember to put on pants every day. Kind of funny that we started with pants here too.

Patton Oswalt  15:08

Wasn’t it scary how quickly we adapted to the life of Covid, the life of well, I’m just not gonna bathe today. I’m not like it was actually scary. What wasn’t scary wasn’t the pandemic it was how quickly we adjusted to going to do everything remote gonna have everything at arm’s distance. And people just adjusted. Like that’s what was scary to me. That was really weird.

Andy Slavitt  15:32

We adjusted faster. The other thing we adjusted like was like, I love everybody. I’m tired right now. I hate everybody. You’re all my enemies. Like that was like, when did that happen between like a Tuesday and a Wednesday during the pandemic.

Patton Oswalt  15:46

We found out a lot of bad stuff about ourselves. And we also just found a lot of bad stuff about, hey, doing this wearing this simple cloth will help you and your friends now. And why is that? Because, like it was just this weird. I never thought that nihilism would come from boomers. But there you go, right. It’s like because of me. There are death metal bands from Norway that can only dream of the level of nihilism of a boomer refusing to wear a mask. Like that was the level of nihilism we were at.

Andy Slavitt  16:18

Yeah. Speaking of nihilism. After the break, let’s come back and talk about the most nihilistic creature of them all. Maybe he’s getting his comeuppance, Alex Jones. Okay, Patton we’re back let’s talk about somebody who’s just going through an awful time of it. I mean, boy, life just can’t be fun for this guy. talking of course about everybody’s favorite human being Alex Jones.

Patton Oswalt  19:15

Oh, God, that poor guy. That poor sweet summer child.

Andy Slavitt  19:19

Yeah, I mean, I gotta say like for him to discover in the same week that Sandy Hook is actually real.

Patton Oswalt  19:27

That must have been a blow to actually see the people and go oh, wow, they actually existed. That must have been really surreal for him.

Andy Slavitt  19:35

Well, how hilarious is it? I mean, normally like I try to tell myself like not to get happy at someone else’s misery. But it’s awfully hard here that to indulge a little bit.

Patton Oswalt  19:47

I don’t like getting happy to other people’s misery either. But he took visible joy in other people’s misery for years and loved it and loved the thought it was hilarious. Right, the whole thing, he thought he was the cutest thing on the planet. And he thought it was adorable what he was doing because I’m a fun rebel and fine, enjoy it. But here’s where it comes back around I’m sorry, man.

Andy Slavitt  20:13

Right, he’s making all this money on these poor people, just exploiting them and exploiting them and then the torture of putting him in the room with them. And then I gotta love the whole thing with his lawyer sending it directly download of texts were hidden he had just gotten through telling the court that he had never texted on this topic. But here’s the beautiful thing. The January 6th committee has just asked for all of those texts and the lawyers have said we’re going to comply and said all these texts over the January 6th, committee.

Patton Oswalt  20:49

Yeah, well they have to, don’t they?

Andy Slavitt  20:51

I would think.

Andy Slavitt  20:52

By the way, the prosecutors when the defense screwed up, they immediately contacted the defense and said hey, you screwed up you sent us these things This isn’t you know, this is privileged information we wish we were letting you know you can like they let the defense know you can stop this because this isn’t proper procedure. And I guess this, I don’t know what this says about how the defense feels about their client but they’re like nah don’t worry about it. Just keep them, they made no effort to try to stop it, they just nothing.

Andy Slavitt  21:23

Interesting. Like I think in like theology classes like years from now when they argue over is the existence of is there a God like this is pretty good evidence that there might be a god. It’s put me in a pretty good mood I have to be totally honest.  Watching all this happen

Patton Oswalt  21:40

Yeah, but in a way I’m not sure that by him because this is that was one of the things that I kept saying about like, when people would watch my show and these shows were brilliant. Like succession and the White Lotus. Be careful. Having shade and Freud watching fictional rich […] comeuppance, because it rarely happens in real life. And even now, yes, I’m glad that Alex Jones is going to win he’s going to be absolutely deserves it. I don’t think he’s going to end up bankrupt or in jail. These scumbags seem to keep Roger Stone is still walking around free. No one goes away anymore. There’s no such thing as boy did you screw up and there’s always a lower level of orcs you can appeal to for money, and Jones will pivot to that lower level without losing […] asleep. It is pure, peaceful, zen sociopathy.

Andy Slavitt  22:42

I actually think it’s because of what you say which I agree with, that those rare moments when you watch the guy squirm in court, are just beautiful poetic days. I mean, it’s like, Walden Pond, watching him squirm in court. And you’re right. If you live your life, holding your breath, that someday justice will be served, you’re going to hold your breath a long time.

Andy Slavitt  23:04

Out of your mind, that the only way to serve justice is to live a really, really good life that makes you happy in spite of these people saying you should live like this. You don’t mean like, just go no, I’m actually happier here. And I don’t have to ever spend my time in court. No, I don’t have $300 million a year, but I have enough to live on and I have enough to live and know that I’m not a raging asshole. But don’t think for a second that he’s sitting in that courtroom going, Oh, wow. I’m really regretting a lot of my choices. In his mind is like while crying families are confronting him. He’s just thinking temporary speed bump. I’ll talk about this on my show and get even more views. Most he’s thinking.

Andy Slavitt  23:49

Well, he tried to throw he tried to throw a mistrial. I will say this, I’m not giving up hope that the guy ends up destitute, because it keeps me going, man, it keeps me happy. And don’t rob me of that joy, please.

Patton Oswalt  24:03

I’m sorry. That was cruel, man. I mean to do that. I just see so much bad behavior. It’s not even the bad behavior is being rewarded. It’s being I’m seeing horrible behavior being shrugged at ya know, that’s what drives me crazy.

Andy Slavitt  24:19

That’s what we’re talking about what the pandemic it’s like the bar has gone down so far. Totally. And, look, it probably gives you lots of lots of fodder for what you do. So I watched your new movie that it just came out on Friday. Watch the new movie actually got a screener which made me feel very special. That and of itself. I gave it another vote because of that. So the premise of the movie, it’s kind of thing that happens I think probably every day. You know, a boy falls in love with what he thinks is a beautiful woman and Israeli is. So like, I want people to swallow that for a minute. Because his dad is pretending to be a beautiful woman online. And I will get to play a clip in a second. But I want to comment that I knew there were five sentences five, there’s five senses, right? Touch, hearing smell, taste, you know, I think you’ll get most of them.

Patton Oswalt  25:27

isn’t there a vestigial? Or is it vestigial? This digital sixth sense that you can sense when someone is looking at you? There? You can sense when you’re being observed. And I think there’s a name for it.

Andy Slavitt  25:40

People talk about a sixth sense of some sort. I think you might have created a new sense. Called cringe.

Andy Slavitt  25:52

No, I’m sorry. I would love to say that we did not invent cringe. That cringe has been a wonderful tool for risky filmmakers since Charles Vinterberg. And I’m forgetting the guy who played Tony Erdman to bore out to […] with audition.

Andy Slavitt  26:12

Patton, you took it to a new level, you took it to another level, Patton.

Patton Oswalt  26:16

Well, thank you.

Andy Slavitt  26:18

Everybody else that had their name next to cringe Larry David, Borat, they got work to do. I want to play a clip.

Patton Oswalt  26:28

That’s a good review. Thank you.

Andy Slavitt  26:30

Well, we’re going to talk about cringe at a second more, but I wanted I wanted to tell the audience what we’re talking about here. This is a scene to set it up. Where you are being asked by your son, you play the Father. To kiss him online. To literally kiss him online and for the audience to know. You physically have to do; you basically show your son imagining what’s happening online. So for this to happen, you physically have to open mouth kiss. A young boy, youngest boy playing your son. So let’s play this clip. If you’re not cringing already, here we go. Okay, we just watched you. Not only internet kiss your son, but physically open mouth kiss your son. And I want to thank you for that. Because I’ll never be able to forget it.

Patton Oswalt  27:54

Well, then I’m glad that I have given you a memory that I’m glad that that’d be the last thing that flashes to your head on your deathbed is James Morrissey and I kissing?

Andy Slavitt  28:05

How much were you guys going for the cringe? And how much did you actually were you actually cringing even going through the script and go through this whole process?

Patton Oswalt  28:16

Oh, I definitely cringe going to the script, but I got all the cringing out away. Because if you’re cringing while you’re doing it. If you’re giving the audience half an eye like I know how crazy this is it ruins you have to absolutely commit to whatever the event of the scene is, and you have to play it. deadly serious to this character. This isn’t me being wacky and fun. This is my character. This is serious business for this guy. He does not think that this is funny or frivolous. This is the real deal. So and you got to play it that way.

Andy Slavitt  28:50

Okay, yeah, I saw during the scene that you were cryptic, but I did when they said cut whatever you walked into. And they stopped to see, did you guys devolve into like I can’t believe we’re doing this?

Patton Oswalt  29:01

No, we just we were luckily for us, it was such a run and gun production. There wasn’t time to dwell on shit once we got it like next setup now, because we were always fighting against limited resources, limited light, limited money, limited days. So we were very fortunate that we didn’t have time to dwell over what we had done. Thank goodness.

Andy Slavitt  29:27

I bet you that actor will never ever forget you may be his favorite kiss.

Patton Oswalt  29:33

Well, I hope so. He’s very good looking. I hope my quote Daryl Hall and John Oates. I hope my kisses on his list.

Andy Slavitt  29:42

Now, there is an underlying kind of seriousness to the movie. I mean, there is no like there’s a premise. It’s not. This is not just for yucks, I mean, as you said, you know you’re trying to rebuild a relationship with your son, a lot of people, I think it can relate to this sort of whether it’s Covid or other things. And like the whole way we used to have relationships, you’re kind of replacing it with a virtual relationship. There’s some things in here that I think, you know, legitimately reflect what I think people have sort of felt in some respect going through.

Patton Oswalt  30:23

Well, I mean, we definitely kind of, we really dwell on the, especially, when you’re doing like online stuff, texting and you impose on the other person, the inflection, the pacing, the intent of a lot of what they say to you based on what you want them to be. There’s a lot of that in Claudia’s performance. You’ll notice that when they first start texting, she is very flatly non-emotionally saying what it is Chuck is writing. And then as it goes on, her performance changes and amplifies because you’re what we’re watching now is how Franklin wants her to be talking to him. To the point where, during the sexting sequence, she’s almost doing a parody of romantic comedies at that point. She’s so pitched up high, so passionate, and I think that we get in a lot of trouble that way online, rather than, you know, talking to people face to face.

Andy Slavitt  31:21

All right, coming up after the break. We’re gonna continue. Let’s continue talking about the movie. And then I want to talk about someone else who really is begging to be laughed at, Josh Hawley. Alright, so gotta be totally different now. In this sort of moving out of the pandemic, you’re gonna actually do have a big premiere for this movie.

Patton Oswalt  33:09

We premiered on Friday, the fifth and Claudia James and I went to screenings, three screenings in LA. I know that other people, someone just texted me over the weekend, and I’m going to call them later today after this interview to find out how it went. There’s a theater in Knoxville that is showing. I love my dad along with deathbed the bed that eats as a double feature. Oh, perfect that because those are two that’s a movie that I talked about in my standup and it’s also a very cringy weird film. So it’ll be interesting to see because this movie, and I’m not saying this in a producer’s selling it kind of way but more in a in a film buff kind of way. You really need to see this in a theater with other people. It is such an experience.

Andy Slavitt  33:52

What’s it like? What how did the audience react and any surprises and how they react as you watch the audience react?

Patton Oswalt  33:58

What was amazing is James really comedically uses the Hitchcock principle of the bomb under the table where he shows you what is about to happen or shows you the potential for how this is going to go wrong. And then the characters begin the scene. And you as an audience member going oh, no, no, like, you see what’s about to happen. And you want to push the characters out of the way of what’s barreling toward them. And you can’t, and especially to see at the end with the diner when you realize what the two giant avalanches that are headed towards Becca, and there’s nothing you can do. It’s great to watch with an audience. Great to watch the strangers in the dark and hear the oh, here we go. Like it’s really fun.

Andy Slavitt  34:46

One of our producers Jackie Harris said that she was literally praying that they would never get to the diner.

Patton Oswalt  34:55

That’s wow. That’s a compliment. Thank you.

Andy Slavitt  34:58

Yes, it was it. Is all of all of that. And well, then you brought you brought us to, I think, back to where we started this conversation. That that communal experience of going back to the movies of life being a little more normal every week and every month, you know, I’m not, I’m not gonna sit here on the show and say the pandemic is over. Because for a lot of people, it isn’t. But for a lot of people, more normalcy, going to a movie and laughing with an audience. Like those little things that I’ll tell you 2016, 2017, 2018, we kind of knew you could do anytime you want. And it didn’t feel all that special. No, but I’ll tell you that. But we had this experience when we went to see Top Gun. We had Jay Ellis on the show a little while ago. And my wife and I just got totally lost in this because we’re of the age when we remember when the first Top Gun came out. Yeah. And it was a full theater. We were in New York; we wear masks who cares. And it was a blast. And same thing I think you’re experienced people seeing I love my dad.

Patton Oswalt  36:00

You’re connecting with strangers in an even if it’s a wordless way, if you all react as a mask, it’s your way of checking in with humanity and going, I do that too. Or yes, that affected me the same way and it makes you more in touch with life. You know, it’s the you get to live different lives. You know, if you live just the life that you live, that’s fine. But if you read books, if you really get deep into a piece of music, if you really are a film buff or a live music fan, you get to live fragments of other lives through that art, and I think it’s beautiful. And I am glad that that’s not being taken away from us.

Andy Slavitt  36:42

Yeah, no, I mean, it’s the physical sensation. I think it’s goosebumps, right? You’re like, why do I feel these weird things on my arm? When I just laugh what everybody else laugh, just saying the ballgame when everybody else saying, and it’s because you’re feeling this kind of connection. Maybe that’s the other six sense, cringe maybe seven, six, maybe that goose puppy thing.

Patton Oswalt  36:59

I remember when I went and saw the last Jedi I got to go to the premiere. And it was really, really fun. And there’s a moment in the movie where Rian Johnson puts in a reference it This is insane. He put in a visual reference to a movie called hardware wars. This guy Ernie Facilis made, that little short hardware wars. Well, there is a glaring visual reference to hardware wars in the last Jedi. And I saw it at the guy where did that downtown theater where they used to hold the Oscars? In LA I forget what it’s called. But anyway, really, really huge, massive theater. I and like to other people in different parts of the theater. When that happened. All you can hear us go ah, because like that was like us. Three alone. The shrine were at the shrine. So it’s just 1000s of people and what you hear three people just kind of going, ah, because we all got that moments.

Andy Slavitt  37:57

Actually, you know what I had? I think America had a little bit of that moment. Josh Hawley, when people saw that little fleeting clip of Josh Hawley running through the Capitol, like right after the fist bump, and whoever did the production, by the way, on the January 6th committee hearings. I mean, who ever put that together?

Patton Oswalt  38:23

Did they hire Walter […] to cut that because that was just top notch editing.

Andy Slavitt  38:28

I’m not inside enough to know who Walter […] actually is but they did hire real Hollywood production people to do this. Instead of saying, hey, congressional staffers slap some stuff together. They’re like, hey, let’s frickin produce this for real.

Patton Oswalt  38:41

But you know, what’s interesting about the Josh Hawley thing? Yes, again, we talked about this earlier, we’re past the age of anyone doing or saying anything that will end their career. So Josh Hawley gives a fist bump to this goblin army. And then on the same day footage comes out of him running, just running in the most cowardly way you could ever see someone run, he always pushes like a woman out of his way, as he’s going down the stairs. He does a clip. And then after this, the night to take him out, he goes to some rally. And he’s saying, I will never run, I will never retreat in talking him in terms of, you know, this, the midterms coming up. And because he does understand something about the times we live in, which is if you just deny reality hard enough, there is always a group of people. That’s like, yeah, that is the reality we want and there’s was an unspoken thing because by the way, that whole audience that he was speaking to saw that clip, ran like a coward. And when he went up and went on never run, never backed down. They were relieved to hear that because it like yes, he’s going to push the lie and we’re going to accept it and we’re going to pretend like that it never happened..

Andy Slavitt  39:49

He raised a bunch of money that night.

Patton Oswalt  39:53

He has a book coming out called manhood because he understands now we are in. We are in the age now of ala carte Reality, where you just pick the parts of the reality that you want, even in the face of seeing it’s complete opposite. In reality it people are like, but just tell us something different. And we’ll follow you along with it doesn’t matter if it’s real or not just tell us it’s different. We’ll do it.

Andy Slavitt  40:17

Here’s what’s different about your telling. And my telling of this. It’s really interesting. It’s like, it’s a chicken and egg thing. It’s like, where’s the last line? Like, what part of the story do you end with? The part of the story that I choose to end with? Is all that’s true Patton. And in addition to that, there was a moment in time, in the universe, when the entire world laughed at his ass. The entire world laughed at his ass. And you know what? To me, like, that as poet, I will take that. It was glorious.

Patton Oswalt  40:50

I understand that. But unfortunately, I’m a child of Stephen King. I want the Greg Stillman moment of holding up the kid. And then they cut to him blowing his brains out because he realizes his life is over. You know, like, you’ll take you’re willing to take less? I’m not well, I will obviously I will also take less. But I’m not going to fool myself into thinking that well bye, bye, Josh Hawley, because he’s not going anywhere.

Andy Slavitt  41:14

I don’t think that, I actually because of that, I realized we have to appreciate those poetic moments. The Walden Pond moment of Josh Hawley running literally people, spontaneous laughter, what made me think of it was…

Patton Oswalt  41:31

At least within amongst his colleagues, there is a certain thing that’s over for him, the fact that an entire room full of his colleagues, and on both sides of the aisle were laughing their ass off when they saw that, that I mean, come on. That’s why he just had to go; I have no choice. But to double down right now. I may as well go out and just go manhood, these people, what other choices he has?

Andy Slavitt  41:56

But that’s right. And that’s it. And that was a beautiful moment. And it was only a moment.

Patton Oswalt  42:02

I envy your ability to live in these moments. You’re like in that movie, afterlife by core ada, where people when they die, they go to that weigh station, you pick a moment of your life to relive and experience a new forever. So you’re able to get unfortunately I can I always go to the pessimistic context of it. Damn, I wish I didn’t have that.

Andy Slavitt  42:25

We should like go to some Eastern Meditation yoga camp and learn how to appreciate the Josh Hawley moment. They’ll be able to teach classes on the Josh Hawley moment and how to really appreciate it versus thinking about the fact that yes, he’s gonna get reelected. And it’s a total. Yes, you know, and all that stuff is systematically chewed. Well, it’s been great. Having you on the show, are you in LA or New York? I’m in LA.

Patton Oswalt  42:48

This was really fun, man. This look, I’ve had a long day of so there’s, there have been some really good interviews, it’s been a lot of bad ones. And this is […] get to talk to someone. Thank you. This meant a lot.

Andy Slavitt  43:00

Hey, same, same here. I really appreciate you doing it after all of this and for you gathering up the energy when it’s gotta be really, really, really hard with what you’re doing.

Andy Slavitt  43:10

Okay, optimism or pessimism, that was the kind of argument that I’ve been having in the last couple of shows, right? One on climate on Friday, is there a case for climate optimism? Now just now with Patton, who is unwilling to take, it’s very hard for him to take joy in some of life’s finer moments. I hope that changes. He was delightful by the way; I hope you enjoyed that. Wednesday, we’ve got a great show. Everything you know about the cover bounce back, that Joe Biden has been through and that people are worried about around the country. And really, we’re gonna get into what are the best treatments for you if you come down with Covid like I did. Bob Wachter, who is a dear friend and beloved on the show. And Tyson Bell, also a physician at the University of Virginia infectious disease doc. That week, great, we’re going to talk about those treatments. More good shows coming up. Tony Fauci, Rich Corsi has been on the show a couple times. It’s gonna be back we’re going to talk about filtration. I know people love talking about filtration. We’re gonna have a show on the origins of Covid. Chris Cuomo is gonna be up on the show shortly Jamie Raskin for the January 6th committee, and more surprises, surprises to even me. All right, bless you all. Thank you, and we’ll talk on Wednesday.

Andy Slavitt  44:44

Thanks for listening to IN THE BUBBLE. We’re a production of Lemonada Media. Kathryn Barnes, Jackie Harris and Kyle Shiely produced our show, and they’re great. Our mix is by Noah Smith and James Barber, and they’re great, too. Steve Nelson is the vice president of the weekly content, and he’s okay, too. And of course, the ultimate bosses, Jessica Cordova Kramer and Stephanie Wittels Wachs, they executive produced the show, we love them dearly. Our theme was composed by Dan Molad and Oliver Hill, with additional music by Ivan Kuraev. You can find out more about our show on social media at @LemonadaMedia where you’ll also get the transcript of the show. And you can find me at @ASlavitt on Twitter. If you like what you heard today, why don’t you tell your friends to listen as well, and get them to write a review. Thanks so much, talk to you next time.