The Bear cast is over the comedy question

As sweeps award show after award show—culminating in —an age old debate has reached a fever pitch: is this show a comedy? The cast and crew of think so, and they seem a little bothered by the question. Just listen to the tone of stars and Jeremy Allen White’s voices after winning Best Comedy and being asked if people “find a lot of laughs in your show.” “Yes,” they both answered emphatically, as in, yes, .

But what is a television comedy and a television drama is not as obvious as you might think. “I think the show is true to life, and sometimes it’s funny and sometimes it’s real,” executive producer Josh Senior told press at the Emmys, noting that the writers want to “tell the truth and make people feel things.” He added that “The show is roughly a half hour long and that fits in the box of a comedy.” Similarly, said that “We got bunched in, we got into comedy because we’re half hour.” Here’s the thing: a half hour television show does not a comedy make.

That to be the Emmys’ rule from 2015 to 2021, when the Television Academy was figuring out how to categorize content in an era of increasing dramedies. But we’ve also been living through an era of evolving television form, and the time limit on TV categories (30 minutes for comedies, 40+ minutes for dramas) boxed out some straightforward comedies like or .

So in 2021, the as a consideration for categorizing shows. Now, the responsibility falls to a show’s producers to decide in which category their series will compete, “with the stipulation that the Television Academy’s Industry Panel reserves the right to review the producer’s preference.” The only guideline is that “the content is primarily comedic for comedy series entries or primarily dramatic for dramatic series entries.” is undoubtedly funny—Moss Bachrach and Edebiri both justifiably pointed towards the first season episode in which the restaurant gets a C grade from the health department as a comedy stand out (per )—but is the show “primarily comedic”? Much of the Internet would disagree, especially compared to a competitor like .

is a clear example of a show that’s “primarily comedic,” while exists in more of a gray area. How do you decide whether comedy or drama is the “primary” characteristic of a show? As Moss Bachrach pointed out, these lines are getting blurred all over television, not just on . “Between, like, and and our show, I feel like these ideas about comedy and drama are a little bit outdated,” he said in the Emmys press room (via ).

“We’re all just trying to reflect the mess of being human, which is deeply hilarious and we’re all suffering.” will certainly not be the last time the comedy vs. drama debate will rear its head, especially if one or two shows continue to dominate the awards conversations at the expense of others.

(By the way, those 10 wins were for the season of , so you can expect them to be back in the mix at next year’s ceremony for the critically acclaimed second outing.) The way forward is unclear. Should Emmys voters be looking at jokes per minute? Should the Television Academy introduce new categories to allow for more nuance? Categorizing by program time didn’t work, and judging the content by its “primary” traits hasn’t solved the issue.

Seems like it’s time to go back to the drawing board for new solutions..