'The Bear' Isn't A Comedy, And FX Should Do Something About It

At the 2024 Emmy Awards, cohost Eugene Levy delivered the best joke about “The Bear” when he addressed the elephant in the room at Sunday’s ceremony.

“I know some of you might be expecting us to make a joke about whether ‘The Bear’ is really a comedy,” he said during his opening monologue alongside cohost and son Dan Levy. “But in the true spirit of ‘The Bear,’ we will not be making any jokes.”

The lighthearted yet honest jab pointed out that the dramatic FX series — a story about a chaotic group of chefs working at a Chicago restaurant — was up for at least 15 comedy awards out of its record 23 nominations this year, making it the most nominated comedy in Emmys history.

However, Levy’s joke also highlighted what many are calling “category fraud” after “The Bear” won several awards over more explicit comedies like “Hacks,” “Abbott Elementary,” “Only Murders in the Building,” “Curb Your Enthusiasm” and more.

“The Bear” was described as a “half-hour comedy series” when FX gave it a full season order in late 2021. (The series is produced by FX but streams on Hulu.) The series premiered in the summer of 2022, and FX has also submitted the show under comedy categories at award shows like the Golden Globes, Critics Choice Awards and the SAG Awards.

Those submissions seemed reasonable, given the handful of humorous moments in the show’s first season — like Richie’s (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) accidental butt-stabbing after a heated argument with Sydney (Ayo Edebiri), or when he and Carmy (Jeremy Allen White) catered a kid’s birthday party with a blow-up hotdog sporting a T-shirt with their restaurant’s name on it for free promotion.

Yet Season 2, which was darker and more dramatic, collected more comedy awards at Sunday’s Emmys. For its most theatrical episode yet — the holiday flashback “Fishes” — guest stars Jamie Lee Curtis and Jon Bernthal and director Christopher Storer each earned Emmys.

In the weeks leading up to the 76th Emmys, FX Chair John Landgraf defended “The Bear” as a comedy in an interview with Variety, saying, “I’ve never seen a better season of any television series, let alone a comedy, than ‘The Bear’ Season 2.”

But as Season 2 and Season 3 have grown more emotionally exhausting, with hardly any jokes between them, it’s become much more difficult to defend “The Bear” as a flat-out comedy. Even calling it a “dark comedy” feels like a stretch at times, despite the silly hijinks of the Fak siblings working as comedic relief in Season 3.

With big victories at the 75th and 76th Emmy Awards this year, viewers have started calling out how “The Bear” is making it harder for the actual comedy competition to thrive.

Comedian and former “The Talk” host Loni Love even spoke out against the show’s triumphs on Sunday, writing that, while excellent, “The Bear” is “halting true comedic wins.”

For the record, “The Bear” is a compelling series worthy of awards for its exceptional writing, directing and performances. No one wants to take away from White, Edebiri, Moss-Bachrach, Lionel Boyce or Liza Colón-Zayas’ successes, or those of the series’ creator, showrunners and writing team.

However, it’s unfair for the cast, crew and “The Bear” itself to continuously get recognized under the comedy umbrella when there’s virtually nothing funny about the best part of their work (save for Moss-Bachrach’s work as Richie). The same goes for viewers who are beginning to resent the show because they’d rather see other series get those comedy awards.

It equally doesn’t make sense to ask TV comedies that have humor as a core part of their DNA and charm to compete in the same categories as “The Bear,” as their material is almost incomparable.

Currently, the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, which hosts the Emmys, doesn’t enforce an exact description of what makes a show a comedy, according to Forbes. Those decisions are left to a series’ producers; Landgraf told Variety that he believes the voting body should “decide the answers to these questions” about Emmy categorization.

During award season, this tedious debate over “The Bear” has often been directed at cast members, who all have their own perspectives.

When asked to pick a side on the 76th Emmys red carpet, a flustered Boyce told Variety his show could be categorized under both comedy or drama or simply “real life.” Meanwhile, Moss-Bachrach told the outlet, “Comedy, drama, I mean… who cares?” before Edebiri weighed in on the discussion.

“I think people care,” she said. “It is an important conversation to have, but I think [‘The Bear’] is funny, and I also think the work is good, and we’re celebrating a lot of really amazing shows, so I’m not really interested in discourse that’s insulting to anyone, really.”

There’s seemingly blame to go around this year as to who let “The Bear” get this far as a comedy contender. Some point to FX for miscategorizing the show (perhaps so “The Bear” wouldn’t have to compete as a drama next to FX’s other Emmys darling, “Shōgun”). In contrast, others criticize those who voted for “The Bear” to win awards in the comedy category. HuffPost reached out to FX for comment on the matter but did not receive an immediate response.

As long as “The Bear” continues to score nominations as a comedy, true comedic acting and writing will keep getting the short end of the stick, and TV comedies could stray further from their humorous roots.

“Abbott Elementary,” which is arguably only getting funnier by the season, walked away with zero Emmys this year after snagging impressive wins at the 74th and 75th ceremonies. Meanwhile, “Curb Your Enthusiasm” ended its 12-season run with the most Emmy nominations for outstanding comedy series ever, at 11, without a single win on Sunday. And if not for “Hacks” taking home awards for writing and acting, plus the big victory, for Outstanding Comedy Series, many would’ve felt that comedy got robbed, too.

Maybe complaints from viewers who tuned into the 76th Emmys can convince FX to submit “The Bear” for drama awards moving forward. Hopefully, then, members of the Academy will vote for more appropriate comedy contenders in future ceremonies. Or perhaps this will prompt the organization to roll out new criteria altogether to settle the great comedy-versus-drama debate once and for all.

We can only hope the next Emmy Awards doesn’t repeat this year’s errors.

Related...

• All The TV Shows That Earned Top Honors At This Year's Primetime Emmys

• 'Abbott Elementary' Writer Seemingly Shades 'The Bear' Emmy Nominations

• 'The Bear' Season 3 Had A Few Things Missing