Everyone Knows The Bear Isn’t a Comedy

That change didn’t end up happening, but last night’s awards brought the underlying question out into the open. At the top of the evening, the father-and-son hosting duo of Eugene and Dan Levy—whose own sitcom, Schitt’s Creek, won Outstanding Comedy Series in 2020—addressed the contention directly: “I know some of you might be expecting us to make a joke about whether The Bear is really a comedy,” Eugene said. “But in the true spirit of The Bear, we will not be making any jokes.” (The good-natured joke was one of many about Hollywood’s idiosyncrasies: Dan also celebrated the Emmys as “broadcast TV’s biggest night for honoring movie stars on streaming services.”) In doing so, the Levys laid a comedic foundation for the Outstanding Comedy Series upset, using humor to relay the confusion—and, in some cases, disappointment—that viewers feel when seeing The Bear win so many comedy awards while sitcoms such as It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia and The Other Two have rarely been recognized.