It was announced this week that the forthcoming Promising Young Woman (my favorite film of 2020) will be campaigned at the Golden Globes in the comedy/musical races. There’s definitely a case to be made for its classification as a comedy, even though it’s very dark. I agree that it’s the right choice though surely some will argue. Similarly, The Flight Attendant, which just earned a season two renewal from HBO Max, is likely to be considered a comedy for the TV categories, an interesting choice given the fact that it’s really a thriller. This isn’t the first time there’s at least been room for debate about what actually counts as a comedy with the HFPA and other groups…
One area that’s worthy of its own thread is the second half of that comedy/musical distinction, with Rocketman being deemed a musical while Bohemian Rhapsody and A Star is Born, both of which contain many musical performances, competed instead in drama. There are also a handful of instances of TV shows that have officially switched genres for awards purposes midway through their runs, like Boston Legal, Orange is the New Black, and Shameless. But I want to focus instead on the tendency for films to campaign as comedies because it’s likelier to boost their chances and, ultimately, their Oscar profiles.
In 2017, Get Out was submitted as a comedy, and director Jordan Peele responded by describing it instead as a documentary. As social commentary, perhaps it was just so heightened and absurd that a comedy felt like the only appropriate way to identify it. The Martian, which won the comedy/musical Best Picture prize in 2015, is a bit of a stretch since it’s more of a sci-fi drama. I can’t comprehend how Salmon Fishing in the Yemen netted enough votes to earn three Golden Globes bids in 2012, and I’d also say that it’s a forgettable lighthearted romance, which did not strike me as a comedy.
While Ryan Reynolds did manage to earn a Globe nomination for Deadpool, which is inarguably a comedy, I remember other lead performers from superhero movies who were at least discussed as comedy contenders even if they were never seriously pushed, like Tobey Maguire in Spider-Man and Robert Downey Jr. in Iron Man. Those aren't remotely comedies in the way that Deadpool was. That supports the notion that popcorn entertainment can’t be the same as drama, pushing anything that isn't a straight drama into the comedy races. I think it does a disservice to true comedies to break things down that way. If Nathaniel is the ultimate champion of performance category fraud, maybe my calling is the strict maintenance of genre? If we’re going to have more categories – which I think is great, since more people get honored that way and there’s more to predict – campaigns may as well be fair and truly representative of what a movie is supposed to be, not what’s likelier to result in accolades.
What say you – should there be a clear definition of comedy, or is the system working as is?