charlietodd:

Mike Doughty speaks the truth:

sweetlovehotcoffee:

People in the comedy world: please forgive this klutzy attempt to insert myself into your role in society.

I’ve had a peripheral role in the New York comedy universe for a little while, as a musical guest. I went to the old Luna shows on Ludlow Street in the 90s, and it just astonishes me how it’s grown and mutated. I can’t tell you happy I am that I’ve gotten to have a role on the fringes. 

I’m persistently angry that the NYTimes doesn’t review this gigantic, vibrant subculture NEARLY AT ALL. I’m persistently mystified that the comedians, the producers, and the audience isn’t near-obsessively outraged at being baldly ignored. It’s literally unbelievable that it’s so vital and pervasive, but isn’t covered thoroughly and constantly.

I’m just a fan, and, to a minor degree, a fellow-traveler; I’m sticking my nose into something that’s truly none of my business.

But I had an odd notion for you guys—a zillion people in the comedy universe could pool their dough, buy a full page ad in the Times’ Arts & Leisure section, and write an open letter—signed by supercelebrities, by luminaries of the alternative comedy scene, by producers, by fellow travelers—along the lines of, Um, dudes, what the hell? Are you truly gonna be the paper of record and still not deal with this?

I thought perhaps one of your number could write it (I thought of Eugene Mirman’s amazing open letter to Time Warner cable). I thought it might be something along these lines:

Hi NYTimes—

We’re a cultural phenomenon in this city, yet you don’t review us unless we do something like an off-Broadway one-person show.

We’re not even, like, a developing phenomenon! We’re a vast, complicated, mature, many-faceted artistic movement!

You guys make constant reference to the places some of us work at—The Daily Show, the Onion, SNL. Big ideas that enter the culture through these shows, and go on to have a huge cultural significance, are incubated in the comedy clubs, improv shows, and the alternative comedy shows around the city.

You guys review dance and off-off-Broadway theater, which, God love ‘em, might be amazing, but have very small audiences, and, alas, little cultural impact.

You guys periodically fret about the decline of theater’s audiences. Improv shows all over the city are packed every night. Dudes. That’s live theater.

The Times has a full-time video game reviewer, for crying out loud!

Part of your response might be that it’s difficult to cover, because performers zigzag constantly between shows—it’d take some ingenuity to get a critical overview. Well, yeah. You’re absolutely right. It’d be tough. You’re the paper of record—it would be shocking if you chose to ignore something of great cultural significance because it was too hard.

Yours truly,

Five Hundred Highly Significant, Culturally Influential, Brilliant People

I’m really embarrassed about so enthusiastically barging into you guys’ issues. But I’ve had contact with a bunch of performance and art worlds in New York City, for decades, and none—none, none, none, none, literally NONE—have the power and dynamism of the comedy world.