CringeHumor

I Had the honor of writing on Patrice ONeal’s VH1 series, Web Junk 20… and to this day (and most likely for the rest of my life) I have never felt more of a sense of accomplishment than hearing Patrice ONeal say to me, “ya that’s f*cking funny, I’ll say that.” Making him laugh gave me a confidence I had no business having at 25 years old with barely any comedy writing experience. To make him laugh made me feel like I could walk in any room, up against any other writer, hired to write for any other comedian, for any other show and hold my own. I carry that confidence with me everywhere I go and to every job I take because I know firsthand that there never was, is, or ever will be anyone as funny - in quite the same way - as Patrice ONeal. For that I thank PO for even letting my corny, white, Jewish, “autistically funny” ass in the room.

I’ve never laughed harder or admired the talent in someone more than I did with Patrice. Having the opportunity to work and write for/with him and to laugh with him on so many occassions was truly a blessing. Gaining PO’s trust meant the world to me and still does… I’ll miss how his brain worked, his lovable hatred for all things foreign to him, his fearless world view, his word choice, his syntax, his phraseology, how he’d destroy me right now for using words like syntax and phraseology in reference to him… but most of all I’ll miss that face he’d make when I pitched him a joke he absolutely hated. RIP Bigman.

- Andrew Goldstein