Finest Hour

As laugh luminaries have proven, parenthood makes for some awesome jokes. Patton Oswalt entered fatherhood before recording his fourth album, and his new muse proves sidesplitting—especially when he brings in jokes about parents in sweatpants. He also revels in the hilarity of how his own mother and father use their newfound grandparent roles to defend the outdated parenting methods they practiced on Oswalt and his brother in the ‘70s. But those jokes are just the tip of the iceberg; Oswalt’s at his best when sharing the kind of jaded acrimony that would make Louis C.K. blush. Trying to describe the hilarity that ensues when he opines that a monkey in a Napoleon hat should advertise Jennifer Aniston’s next romantic comedy would prove futile; you have to hear him tell the joke with his unapologetic aging-hipster cynicism. Other notable moments are like Oswalt’s version of MAD magazine’s “Lighter Side” column. Nobody is safe from his sardonic wit, especially circus folk, strippers, the morbidly obese, goths, Axl Rose, and Jesus.