Patton Oswald on Star Wars
I've made some references to funny man Patton Oswald's famous George Lucas comedy skit a few times in the past -- in fact, I just mentioned it in my last post -- but I just discovered that a stealth YouTube user has uploaded it, accompanying a rather remedial but still appropriate video collage from the Star Wars films.
It's worth its own post: This is the defining statement of nerd rage in regards to the quality of prequels. Patton hilariously boils down the problem with Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith: George Lucas is obsessed with showing us what cool things were like before they were cool.
Or, as Patton puts it (in a bit unfortunately cut from this video): "I don't care where the stuff I love comes from! I just love the stuff I love!" Or, to sanitize his famous analogy, if Darth Vader as a kid is cool because he grows up to be Darth Vader, a photograph of Jon Voight naked should be pin-up material for the ardent Angelina Jolie fan.
It's Oswalt, not Oswald.
But yeah, that's definitely the type of stuff he'll talk about.
Although his bit on the KFC Famous Bowls is his best work ever.
My biggest problem with this kind of humor is that it lowers the discourse and under the guise of humor suggests that murder is the best way to solve our problems. It is frustrating to me to hear people that attack one of the few people in the SciFi industry to follow his own vision and not the suggests of an panels that has been promised cookies if they will watch a film and comment on it.
If you do not like Lucas' vision, you do not like Star Wars, you like a couple films. It is irresponsible, even in comedy to say I am not a fan of your work, I wish I could go back in time a brutally murder you.
Our culture endorses violence over conversation too much, and we wonder why we are such a violent society. I only wish more people thought about what they were saying before they said it.