[quote=ââThe Bearâ on Hulu, post:138, topic:29556â]
The general rule of thumb is that comedies are a half hour
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If a 30-minute runtime defines a comedy, the Emmys are the lamest excuse for awards, ever.
I perfectly understand that dramas can have comedic or absurdly funny moments, but IMO no fair-minded person can call the series a comedy.
I guess Iâm not a fair-minded person then. At least not according to you. Oh, well.
Thatâs OK. I know one person who thinks Silence of the Lambs was funny.
If you can watch that movie and not laugh at âsome fava beans and a nice Chianti,â you have no sense of humor. Ditto âIâm meeting a friend for dinner.â
Youâre making my point. Do you consider the movie a comedy? Itâs not even a black comedy. Itâs a horror film that rightly should never have been considered for a comedy award.
MacBeth? Comedy? Saving Private Ryan? Funny?
People can like whatever they want. But The Bear isnât a comedy.
I know this may come as a shock, but itâs not up to you.
These are two different things entirely, and conflating them does your argument no service. There are parts of SotL that are funny. But itâs not a comedy - itâs a thriller.
Of course Emmy categories arenât up to me.
Do you consider The Bear a comedy?
I have posted multiple times that I do. For the reasons I have stated. Multiple times. Scroll up.
You are more than free to say that you donât think itâs funny (I feel this way about a lot of network comedies), but again - you do not make the rules about what does and does not belong in the Emmys comedy category.
OK. Peace.
To you as well.
Iâve not watched the show, but found this an interesting read:
Those who are arguing that the Bear is not a comedy clearly havenât been paying attention in history or literature classes. The classification of comedy versus tragedy (which I am substituting for drama) goes back to at least the Greeks. Comedy did not mean belly laughing humor. Similarly in Shakespeareâs time the classification of comedy to tragedy isnât what some posters think. One of the most famous of Shakespeareâs comedies is The Merchant of Venice which is obligatory high school reading in much of the county. Yâall probably missed the memo that is a comedy with all the hath not a Jew eyes and the quality of mercy is not strained and such.
And those who stand on ancient or very olde conventions or taxonomy would do well to understand that practically no Greek or Shakespearean worksâhowever YOU characterize themâwould be âcomediesâ for Emmy eligibility. The Television Academy considers ANY show of 30 or fewer minutes a comedy.
Still happy with that definition?
The distinction between comedy and drama at the Emmys has grown increasingly murky. In 2015, the Television Academy implemented a rule that automatically classified any show shorter than 30 minutes as a comedy, while longer shows were slotted into drama. However, in 2021, this rigid classification system was abandoned, allowing shows to choose their categories regardless of runtime.
So as far as The Bear goes, blame not the Emmy rules, but the producers for the choice to have it compete as a comedy. (I can only assume they a) believe in it as a comedy and/or b) thought it had better chances there than competjng against other drama nominees. It certainly paid off in spades for the first season, and not too badly this time. I understand they submitted âFishesâ as the ep for Emmy consideration, though, and that was certainly a strategic error as far as the series, vs. the actors, winning in the comedy category.)
Of course. This was completely and utterly, and outrageously opportunistic. But the Academy made the opportunity irresistible. What they did was skin to defining literature as anything with a word count of fewer than 50 words.
Real comedies (that are funny) are exceedingly rare. But even if really bad comedies get nominated, at least they fit the common understanding of the term âcomedyâ. The Bear does not.
