Everyone knows that “The Bear” is not a comedy

When Jean Smart took the Emmy stage last night to accept the award for Best Actress in a Comedy Series, the six-time Emmy winner took her cues from Deborah Vance, the veteran comedian she plays. HackingAlmost immediately, Smart told a joke: “It's really humbling. And I appreciate it because I just don't get enough attention.”

It was the third time Smart had won the award for her portrayal of the electrifying septuagenarian, but the 76th Emmy Awards marked a new milestone for the Max series. Later that evening Hacking was named Outstanding Comedy Series, beating out the expected winner, a show that tests the meaning of the category itself. The beara tense, claustrophobic FX/Hulu series about the staff of a Chicago-area restaurant, broke its own record by winning 11 of the 23 categories in which it was nominated. But two of the biggest awards of the night went to Hackinga comedy to Comedian. Last night’s show may be the first signal that the Television Academy is paying attention to industry discussions and online chatter about a long-running debate: Is The bear really a comedy at all?

At the 75th Emmys in January, which were postponed due to the strike The bear won Outstanding Comedy Series among its six trophies in the main comedy categories. After the ceremony, executive producer Josh Senior, when asked if he would describe the show as a comedy, said, “I think the show is true to life. Sometimes it's funny and sometimes it's real.” That's true, and the show isn't the first dark, moody production to be nominated for comedy awards in recent years. But The bear doesn’t exactly have a high laugh-to-tear ratio, making it an uncomfortable addition to more traditional comedies like Abbott Elementary School And Only murders in the buildingSenior also suggested that The bear qualifies as a comedy due to its half-hour running time, but that reasoning is outdated: The Academy stopped using running time to distinguish entries in the drama and comedy categories in 2021, and there are precedents for moving series from one to the other. Back in June, before the nominations for yesterday's Emmys were announced, diversity reported that “networks and strategists have tried to initiate a review of the TV Academy The bear to move it into the drama series race, where it will compete against its network sibling, Shogun.”

That change ultimately did not happen, but last night's awards ceremony brought the underlying question to light. The highlight of the evening was father-son presenting duo Eugene and Dan Levy – whose own sitcom Schitt’s CreekWinner of the Outstanding Comedy Series in 2020, addressed the dispute directly: “I know some of you may be expecting us to make a joke about whether The bear is really a comedy,” said Eugene. “But in the true spirit of The bearwe're not going to joke.” (The good-natured joke was one of many about Hollywood's idiosyncrasies: Dan also celebrated the Emmys as “television's biggest night to honor movie stars on streaming services.”) In doing so, the Levys laid a comedic foundation for the Outstanding Comedy Series surprise by using humor to convey the confusion – and in some cases disappointment – that viewers experience when watching The bear win so many comedy awards, while sitcoms like It's always sunny in Philadelphia And The other two were rarely recognized.

Part of the public’s confusion about The bearThe comedic approach of stems from the show's rapid release cycle and the inconvenient timing of the previous Emmy Awards. The bear is one of the rare prestige series that does not need several years to release a new season. Until season 1 of The bear swept the comedy categories in January, the second season (tenderer, less cutthroat) had already aired. And in the run-up to yesterday's awards ceremony, which was given out for season 2, the third season of the series had already been released – an unfortunate overlap since, as my colleague Sophie Gilbert wrote of the new episodes, “the meaning and impact of trauma has become the only theme The bear want to explore.” Carmy’s flashbacks and intrusive thoughts were particularly hard to endure, making it even harder to remember the moments when pointed comedy had broken the tension of earlier seasons.

Read: It is easy to get lost in The bear

The Carry The cast's earnestness throughout the evening reinforced the sense that the show is a serious work tackling weighty issues. Liza Colón-Zayas accepted her historic award for Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series with heart and soul, and a sincere Ebon Moss-Bachrach accepted his second consecutive award for Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series. Their speeches and the cast's red carpet interviews tended to deviate from the joking energy of other comedy ensembles – like the cast of Only murderswho exchanged affectionate jibes as they announced Moss-Bachrach’s victory. And in addition to Eugene and Dan Levy’s hosting throughout the evening, viewers were treated to a cheerful Schitt’s Creek A mini-reunion took place where the cast introduced Catherine O'Hara, who presented the award for Outstanding Comedy Series.

Throughout the show, Hacking Acceptance speeches seemed to reflect the audience's appetite for humor: When co-creators Paul W. Downs, Lucia Aniello and Jen Statsky accepted the award for outstanding writing for a comedy series, the three talked about the importance of comedy. “We're making a show about comedy because it made us, as three weird, lonely kids, feel connected to other people,” Downs said before Statsky whispered something unintelligible in his ear. He continued, “Okay, Jen says she was popular, but two weird, lonely kids –” and then revised his opinion again after Aniello whispered, “Okay, so Lucia wasn't U.Npopular, but it made a lonely nerd and two semi-popular girls feel connected to other people.”

Any kind of art can do that, but the Hacking The creators made the case that comedy is a uniquely effective way to build bridges. Humor is not an incidental element of these stories or a bonus for viewers who grit their teeth at anxiety-provoking material; it is what makes them so powerful. As Aniello put it in another speech, “If you laugh with someone, you have something in common with them.” Finding the humor in trauma can be cathartic—and some of the most empathetic scenes in The bear But a series that takes its laughs very seriously – like Hacking – which is clearly the case – is more than just a frivolous pleasure.