The (NY) State of Comedy

The New Yorker's view of the world. 

Two articles came out this week about the state of comedy. One was in the New Yorker and one in the Huffington Post, which means only one of the authors got paid. 

Both talked about the state of comedy. The New Yorker brought up the Conan writer's ill fated tweets about comedy getting soft and becoming "Prom King Comedy." Then she said she likes the comedy so who knows what to believe. "I know it's dumb, but I like it." Fine. I can go with that. Plus, that's the slogan for the new Entourage movie. 

Huffington (re)Post went further and tried to define what today's comedy is. 

The Huffpo(ring) article literally says, "Call it artisanal comedy." So there you go. That's what you call hipsters standing in a laundromat, an ice cream truck, a working firehouse or where ever (but never a comedy club) telling humorous stories and god forbid jokes. Jokes have no place in comedy. It shows you're trying.  



Of course "Artisanal Comedy" a terrible name for comedy because comedy is supposed to make fun of "artisanal." It's supposed to make fun of people who buy artisanal cheese not the regular guy who eats cheese. Why not create "stuffy comedy" or "fox news comedy?"

"Artisanal Comedy" sounds more like an insult that a comic would say on stage. 

I think it's not fair to the comedians they featured in the article. A lot of them are really funny not matter where they perform. (Can you tell I might know some of the people in the article?)

I'm not going to wrap up this post. That would be too obvious and hacky. I'm just going to stop. That's what I call "Artisanal Blogging." So there.