The Times, It Is A-Laughing

By Jeff Kreisler on 11/03/2009

I tend to keep an eye on the MSM coverage of comedy. Having been exposed the UK comedy scene - where the big papers and the BBC routinely include comedy and comedians as major cultural forces - I'm curious to see what happens here. The intrusion of the Stewart-Colbert-Maher line into tradition media's role as information provider, the rise of comedy coverage and content online, the steady flow of laid off "real job" holders into the comedy ranks... all must be adding pressure to newsrooms to at least take a look into the ha-ha arts.

The New York Times, for one, seems to have gotten it's comedy groove on recently. David Itzkoff always drops some nice comedy coverage, and there was the recent article about comedians in Queens (including yours truly), but this past weekend the paper landed a surprise 1-2-3-4 punch of comedy pieces:
Nick Swardson Talks About His New Comedy Central Series
It's Not a Bad Time to Be Funny in the City
Clown College, the Manhattan Campus
The Guide on the Laugh Track

Okay, just one little blip, but it does seem like the blips are getting more and more frequent (insert radar / alien invasion / Will Smith metaphor).

That said, I've yet to stumble upon MSM reviewing - critically breaking down and contextualizing - live stand-up or sketch comedy. There are plenty of promo pieces about stand-ups (particularly when they're about to come to town or launch a show or know an editors sister) and there are always reviews of comedy TV shows and movies... but why not the stuff on stage? The stuff that's at the core of all the rest of it? I know it's hard and generally unrewarding - flip through this blog and you'll see my attempts at alienating my peers - but still, if you're covering comedy as part of the arts, you should cover it from top to bottom, in all its manifestations. Readers and fans deserve critical analysis about this genuinely challenging and, methinks, important art form.

What do you think? Am I missing some U.S. MSM reviews of stand-up and sketch? Is the MSM coverage of comedy evolving, or am I delusional? Does anyone know anything fun to do after a show in Milwaukee? No, really, I'll be there this week...