2024 Emmys co-host Eugene Levy cut right to it in his opening monologue. “I know some of you might be expecting us to make a joke about whether The Bear is really a comedy,” Levy said. “But in the true spirit of The Bear … we will not be making any jokes.”
In as much as there’s been any narrative around this year’s Emmys, it’s been this one: Why is The Bear—a show about a tormented Chicago chef working through the trauma of his brother’s suicide while trying to run a high-stress restaurant, staffed with people all dealing with their own hardships—competing in the comedy category? Everyone seems to agree: The Bear is good television and should win several Emmy awards. (Well, almost everyone.) Everyone also seems to agree: It’s weird that The Bear is classified as a comedy.
And at the 2024 Emmys, monologue joke or no, The Bear more or less swept the comedy category. Not only that—it broke its own Emmys record for most wins by a comedy in a single season.
At this writing, the Emmy for Outstanding Comedy Series has yet to be awarded, so there’s still a chance of a come-from-behind Palm Royale upset. But, so far tonight: Christopher Storer won Outstanding Directing of a Comedy Series. Ebon Moss-Bachrach, who plays acerbic Cousin Richie, took home Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series. Liza Colón-Zayas won for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series—which is apt, since Tina saying “yes Jeff” instead of “chef” is the funniest, and perhaps only, joke on the show. Jeremy Allen White, he of the perpetual hangdog look, took home Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series, beating out both Steve Martin and Martin Short in Only Murders in the Building and Larry David for the final season of Curb Your Enthusiasm, which is funny in that it’s basically something that would happen to TV Larry. (Ayo Edebiri was beat out in the Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series category by Jean Smart for Hacks, who proceeded to give a very Deborah Vance thank-you speech; while Best Writer in a Comedy Series also went to Lucia Aniello, Paul W. Downs, and Jen Statsky for Hacks.)
In the non-televised portion of this year’s awards, The Bear also took home awards for Jamie Lee Curtis as Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series; Jon Bernthal as Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series; Outstanding Sound Editing; Outstanding Picture Editing For a Single-Camera Comedy Series; Outstanding Cinematography For a Single-Camera Series (Half-Hour); Outstanding Sound Mixing For a Comedy or Drama Series (Half-Hour) and Animation; and Outstanding Casting for a Comedy Series.
The perceived comedy miscategorization might feel extra acute because tonight’s show is the second time the Emmys have aired in one year—the 2023 ceremony was pushed until this January due to the SAG-AFTRA strike. So this is the second time in a calendar year that The Bear has swept the comedy category, for seasons one and two. When you compare the heavy tenor of the show to the most recent previous comedy winners—Ted Lasso, Fleabag, Veep, Modern Family, it’s a marked change in tone.
So why is The Bear classified as a comedy? It’s simple: FX decided to submit it as a comedy, and there’s nothing preventing that. Back in 2015, faced with dramedy domination, the Emmys tried to split up the categories by time. Anything 30 minutes or under was automatically a comedy, while anything longer had to be considered a drama. This affected shows like Orange Is the New Black, which ended up being forced to compete as a drama instead of a comedy, but that imperfect rule was thrown in the garbage in 2021.
The third season of The Bear, which aired this past June, diverges even further tonally from anything you could call comedy—here at GQ, we even referred to it as a “restaurant-life horror story.” With no rules or guardrails, might The Bear reconsider their head-scratching categorization? Or will they continue to try to convince the world that they’re a comedy? [Mournfully] Please, no, chef.
