Patton Oswalt Apology Letter

About

Patton Oswalt Apology Letter, also known as Patton Oswalt Writing a Letter, refers to an image of stand-up comedian Patton Oswalt pensively writing an apology letter in regards to the backlash he received over an Instagram post of him and fellow comedian Dave Chappelle. Oswalt uploaded the "apology letter" image to his Instagram in January 2022 where it was quickly used in memes across Twitter shortly after.

Origin

Background

On January 1st, 2022, Patton Oswalt uploaded a carousel post to his Instagram^[1] featuring photos of him and fellow stand-up comedian Dave Chappelle (primary one shown below). Towards the end of 2021, Chappelle was involved in a controversy regarding his newest Netflix special, The Closer, which was released on October 5th, 2021.^[2] Publications like Forbes^[3] detailed how the comedian received backlash for moments in the special where his comments were allegedly transphobic, alienating that part of the LGBTQ+ community. There was so much outrage that Netflix employee walkouts were organized in reaction to Chappelle's statements.

The "Apology Letter" Photo

When the images of Chappelle and Oswalt on New Year's Eve 2021 were posted to Instagram,^[1] Oswalt received lots of backlash across Twitter^[4] for his support of the canceled comedian. In response to this, Oswalt posted an image to his Instagram^[5] on January 2nd. 2022, that showed him in a dressing room writing a long apology letter in a very serious tone (shown below). In the caption of the post, Oswalt explained how he and Chappelle have been friends for 34 years but differ on their views of transgender issues. The post received roughly 54,200 likes over the course of three days.

Spread

Reactions

Users across Twitter reacted to Oswalt's apology letter and post in the days following. Many of the reactions were negative. For instance, Twitter^[6] user Harry1T6 posted a tweet on January 3rd, 2022 (shown below, left), that expressed Oswalt's Instagram post as "unnecessary." It received 109 likes in three days. Twitter^[7] account VitoGesualdi posted a headline-style tweet on January 3rd (shown below, right). It received roughly 20,500 likes over two days.

Memes

Memes using the image of Oswalt writing the letter started appearing on Twitter going into early January 2022. The first person on the platform to use it as an exploitable was Twitter^[8] user lunch_enjoyer, whose tweet (shown below) posted on January 3rd received roughly 1,300 likes over the course of two days.

Other Twitter users also started following the trend, using the image in their own tweets. Meme creators even started to make video memes using the photo, such as Twitter^[9] user apt_a_1, whose video (shown below) on January 3rd received 69 likes over two days.

pic.twitter.com/gAhsqmOtmP

— “The Punishment” (@apt_a_1) January 3, 2022

Various Examples

Search Interest

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External References