MAY 1994
San Rafael, CA
Whew! Wasn’t that a fun read?
Wait, it wasn’t? You’re mad I left out this as-yet-unfamous sketch group, or those amazing, little-viewed YouTube films, or that struggling-in-obscurity comedian? Wait, there’s an unsigned band I’m too clueless to know about and skipped entirely?
Great! Get pissed off!
Also Read
Daddy Issues
See that picture? That was me in 1994. Doing stand-up. Somewhere. Royally sucking. Vest, shirt tucked in over my already-pooching belly. Hair by DoucheGel.
There were magazine issues like this one. Rolling Stone and GQ and maybe even SPIN doing “state of funny” issues. I was pissed at who they were focusing on and righteous about me and my friends, all of whom thought we were the cutting edge, being left out.
And I know, as I write this, that the next Louis C.K. and The Office and South Park are somewhere out there, struggling to form themselves. I imagine they’re reading this issue and getting righteously pissed the same way? I did. Good.
And if you’re a fan reading this, go out and find those people.Support them. Buy their self-produced CDs, watch their rough sketch shows, download their YouTube videos. Then, ten years from now, 18 years from now, they can guest-edit this magazine and piss off the next wave.
It’s the fuel of funny. Always has been, always will be.
You’re welcome.
— PATTON OSWALT
What Patton Did: Full Stories From SPIN’s “Funny” Issue:
• Funny Is Deadly Serious: Patton Oswalt Introduces SPIN’s New Issue
• Das Racist Cover Story: These Colors Don’t Run
• Why Tom Scharpling and Jon Wurster of WFMU’s ‘Best Show’ Are Punk Genuises
• ‘Portlandia’ Stars Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein Toast Rock’s Great Cliches
• We Like Short Shorts! Online Comedy That Keeps It Simple (and Stupid)
• Dressed to Kill: A Day in the Life of Rising Comedienne Natasha Leggero
BUY THIS ISSUE
Read the entire November 2011 issue of SPIN.
