TV Guide displays profound ignorance

by Brian McKim & Traci Skene on August 30th, 2006

SHECKYmagazine columnist Paul Ogata sends along the following listing from the August 28-Sept.3 TV Guide (Lost‘s Yunjin Kim and Daniel Dae Kim are on the cover). It’s their enticing description of Live At Gotham on Comedy Central:

Why risk becoming part of some stand-up’s act in a comedy club when you can laugh at home?

Why, indeed! Where do we begin?

The losers at TV Guide are still frozen in the 50’s mindset that comedians are constantly locking horns with The Heckler. That standup comics (Oooohhh, we hate it when they call us “stand-ups!”) do little but trash the people in the front row. When was the last time the author of the above actually went to a comedy club? The vast majority of comedians have what we call an “act.” It usually consists of “jokes,” or “stories” or “material.” Which is not to say that comics who “go into the audience” are lacking in those departments. Or that some terrific fun can’t be had by all when one does go into the audience. To the contrary. It is usually a thrill to the audience when a comic interacts with an audience member. In fact, the whole spectacle of a performer (a comedian) actually conversing, interacting with a comedy club patron might be one of the prime reasons for attending a show at a comedy club, as opposed to staying home and watching it on the television!

Oh, the irony: The show is called Live at Gotham, but TV Guide is discouraging folks from seeing comedy live at Gotham!

TV Guide is, of course, all about TV. (And we’re primarily about live comedy.) But must they present the choice in such a way? We wouldn’t dream of telling someone to exclusively consume live standup and eschew the broadcast form. We say it’s a big world, get it when and where you can… but go for the live whenever possible. As Jake Johannsen said:

The difference between watching an HBO special and seeing live comedy is like the difference between watching a porno and actually having sex. It’s a big difference.

TV didn’t kill comedy… perhaps TV Guide might!

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