Patton Oswald pulls a Toshio Okada

...now he just needs to start losing weight. (sfx- cymbals crash)

Oswald's rant on the subject of being a Geek pushes all the right buttons this week. The internet nerd-sites are divided in discussing the merits of his argument, while fact checking the accuracy of his name dropping. I don't even want to go near Topless Robot after this one! Mostly he seems to be laying the smack down on a generation of fans while supporting my theory that the amazing internet is actually diluting pop culture. Or at least that's my take on a rambling tirade covering hundreds of 80's references. I don't suppose I'm actually quite sure of the message he is trying to impart, other than he himself has grown tired of pop culture, which translates to meaning you and I should be as well.

What can be said is that, in the grand scheme of things, Oswald's essay on geekdom is a similar cultural touchstone to Gainax founder Toshio Okada's second wind as a far sighted critic of the industry he helped to create. I don't see the comedian reinventing himself as a celebrity fitness guru any time soon, but you never know. At any rate, it's always going to be a big deal when one of the guys who cashed in big on their passion bails on it all just before the big down turn in quality.

I think it's safe to say that time is upon us here in the states, and the proof is that we live in a world were there is new TRON, the incoming year is supposed to be one of the biggest for genre film, ever, and it is an era where even a fellow like myself is busy cultivating an online presence. It's the halcyon days of late twentieth century geekdom, for sure, but it's already 2011.

The 80's is definitely were it's at, and anyone coming at this hobby from the Information Age has certainly been deprived of some part of the experience of discovery. I agree with him on that, and I like that Oswald is willing to cop to seeing The Dead Milkmen back in the day, or that he has never watched, but is aware that lots of people love "Dark Shadows," but the snob geek game of one-upmanship inadvertently makes the case for the the way things are now, where a person can become an expert over night, possibly as a form of geek self-defense. If discussing things geek must degenerate into a string of lame shout outs then I guess it's time has indeed come to pass.