Key Takeaways

• Genre recognition: Horror and comedy are often overlooked at the Academy Awards.
• Industry challenges: Comedy is recognized in its own category at the Golden Globes due to its difficulty.
• Oscar history: Very few comedies have won Best Picture, with notable exceptions being hybrids.
• Community input: Readers are encouraged to share their thoughts on deserving comedy films.

If there’s one genre that just doesn’t get enough love at the Academy Awards, it’s horror. But if we had to pick another, it’s comedy, which is widely ignored at the Oscars despite being one of the most challenging genres to master. They have such a hard time being recognized by the industry that they have their own category at the Golden Globes — you know, so laugh-out-loud knee-slappers like The Martian can thrive.

The topic of comedy movies at the Oscars was brought up on a recent episode of Amy Poehler’s Good Hang podcast, where she had Olivia Coleman on as a guest. Calling in was Benedict Cumberbatch, who declared, “If you can do comedy, you can do anything. I really do believe that.” As Poehler responded (via Variety), “Of course. You don’t have to tell me, babe! Every single year at the Oscars, everybody [in comedy] gets blanked and all the serious people get up and accept and accept…It’s some hot bullsh*t! Because comedy is not easy. And I got to tell you, both you and Olivia can do both.”

Yes, comedy movies have been given some attention at the Oscars but it’s extremely rare, especially in the Best Picture category. Think about it: how many comedies have won Best Picture? If you don’t think Anora deserves to be called a comedy (I sure don’t), Everything Everywhere All at Once is no doubt the most recent (but even that’s a hybrid), but what about before that? Birdman, if you want to count that, but then you’d have to go back to Shakespeare in Love back in 1999 — which only reminds us that it didn’t deserve to win at all! Sure, there are more nominees and other categories to explore, but when it comes down to it, AMPAS has been historically straight-faced.

Whatever the reason — bias against the genre, inability to recognize how hard comedy is, falling for “prestige” and bait — there have been so many comedy movies that deserved Oscar consideration.

With that, we want to hear from you! Which comedy movies legitimately deserved Best Picture nominations? Why do you think AMPAS shies away from proper recognition? Chime in and let us know below.