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The New York Times has a comedy critic now. That’s right. A comedy critic, who joins similar posts for art, pop music, classical music, dance, theater, food, fashion, style, technology, books, and about everything else under the sun (and that’s just the features desk).

I believe comedy has its place in the ranks, however. Especially as Jason Zinoman expressed in his interview with Splitsider, wherein he says:

“…the Times is a national paper, but we’re located in New York and I’m located in New York and I have access to this vast ecosystem of live work. So I think the bread and butter of this column is gonna be what’s going on in improv and standup clubs here. And even when I do stories that are about, say, SNL or The Daily Show, if I can find a local angle, I’ll do it. And a lot of people writing for those shows are performing in NYC so I think to really reflect the theme, to some extent, hopefully I’ll start seeing connections and you’ll start seeing how certain ideas will trickle up and come back. To do this well, I think, I’ll be out seeing shows all the time.”

We have a simliar perspective here at Block Club, where there are some topics that beg to be localized, either geographically or culturally, but there are some themes that touch everyone, subjects and attitudes that anyone and everyone can understand. It’s how you talk about your own local subjects, and put those local details into perspective, that give a topic like comedy some new dimension.

I look forward to how Zinoman intends to write about comedy. I’m sure there will be some great insights into SNL, South Park and the presidential debates, but I’m hoping we get some inspired thoughts on the comedy in food, and the humor in hard times.

Good luck, Zinoman! You have a lot of ground to cover. Go get ‘em.

-Ben