“There Is No Them”: Patton Oswalt Totally Drops Science at His Old Stomping Grounds

Patton Oswalt is an actor / writer / voiceover artist / comedian perhaps best known, at least to me, for playing “Spence Olchin” on The King of Queens, and the lead rat, “Remy,” below, on Pixar’s animated 2007 hit, Ratatouille.

In short, he’s a funny guy that I notice from time to time, probably once every three months. That’s pretty much it.

At least, that was it. I just read Oswalt’s commencement address to the 2008 graduating class of Broad Run High School in Ashburn, VA, his alma mater, and…whoa…it’s one of the most profound graduation speeches I’ve ever come across.

I hope someone puts a video up on YouTube. I mean…wow. I know there’s no accounting for taste with these end-of-school harangues, but he was actually profound. It was so good, I’m not even going to excerpt it. I’m just going to thank the stupendous Waxy.org for the link, highly recommend you go through it in one sitting, but strongly suggest that you digest his brief, early draft, first. That’s your assignment.