Who reads Vanity Fair, anyway?

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

We’ve heard from two different sources that James Wolcott has condescended long enough to write about standup comedy. We were over a friend’s house on Sunday– a friend who actually subscribes (which, we suppose would answer our own question posed in the title of this post)– but we forgot to read it, and the local library only has the April issue of VF. Which means that, as distasteful as it may be, we might have to shell out the $15 or $20 and actually buy a copy of Vanity Fair. (Yeah, we know… we’re exaggerating on the price.) In the meantime, people are emailing us and telling us we gotta read this piece, entitled “Wit’s End.” The blurb on their site goes:

The comatose state of stand-up comedy was brought into high relief by the death of Johnny Carson, who broke in a generation of comics on The Tonight Show. Hacking through the kudzu of cheesy clubs and self-referential routines, James Wolcott can’t find the edge of laughter.

Cheesy clubs? “self-referential routines?” (Note to Mr. Wolcott: Who the hell else are we going to reference?) Don’t you just love it when the intellectuals go all Baby Huey on standup? This is just the blurb and Mr. Fancy Pants already has his claws out! We can tell that we’re not going to like it. But, unlike ol’ Thurston Howell the Turd here, we’re going to keep an open mind.

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