Vanity Fair piece disappoints…

by Brian McKim & Traci Skene on April 12th, 2005

…but for all the unexpected reasons!

We were ready to hate it. Instead, it’s just… dull and stupid.

As we read it, we began to wonder if it wasn’t written by Alexander Wolcott! Talk about your L-7! If someone had told us it was a Time or Newsweek piece from, say, 1993 or so, we’d believe it. It was very, “In my day…” and it had a lot of lamenting about a bygone era– with a stunning lack of awareness of the present-day comedy scene! We thought VF had a discerning readership. Turns out it’s Tiger Beat for people with post-graduate degrees.

The entire column was Vanity Square.

The only good thing about it was that it quoted from Franklyn Ajaye‘s “Comic Insights,” Gerald Nachman’s “Seriously Funny” and Larry Wylde’s “Great Comedians Talk About Comedy.” It made and remade points that have been debunked time and again right here in the pages of SHECKYmagazine.com. Perhaps Mr. Wolcott should think about getting internet access!

And the whole thing was doubly and triply odd when you consider that this article hit the stands hours after the death of Mitch Hedberg. Hedberg’s existence, his material, his legion of fans, his rock star status– all of it argued eloquently against nearly every insipid point made in this column.

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