The real problem with calling "The Bear" a comedy

And what Fleabag, Atlanta, and Louie all had in common.

We’ve got a category problem re: comedy. See: Comedy Writers Conspired to Stop ‘The Bear’ From Winning Another Best Comedy Emmy.

The breaking point for comedy writers might have been when The Bear was nominated in 23 comedy categories last summer, breaking 30 Rock’s record of 22. “30 Rock is held in such high regard,” one sitcom writer told Vulture. “So much work goes into making jokes, and 30 Rock was a joke machine. So when you see a show that doesn’t even actively try to be funny, it’s a bit insulting.”

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My .02:

We don’t have a category for “Human” so shows that are real/truthful wind up labeled as “Comedy.” Fleabag, Atlanta, and Louie were some of the saddest shows ever on TV, yet were called comedies because we had nowhere else to put them. Our desire to categorize the uncategorizable is the issue.

In a perverse way, I still feel like all this is a win for comedy. When something is everything and great, it’s filed under comedy. Nice.

Vaguely related: I often think comedians have a luxury in laughter: a primal, physical response that can be used as a metric of success. So many other artforms wind up being “in the eye of the beholder” stuff. Meanwhile, comedians get a legit, objective data point. That said, hack stuff gets laughs too so you always need to process the context. But still, we’re lucky.

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P.S. Watch/share this damn thing already. It’s good. Promise.