'The Bear' Isn't A Comedy, And FX Should Do Something About It

At the 2024 Emmy Awards , cohost Eugene Levy delivered the best joke about “The Bear” when he addressed the elephant in the room at Sunday’s ceremony.

“I know some of you might be expecting us to make a joke about whether ‘The Bear’ is really a comedy,” he said during his opening monologue alongside cohost and son Dan Levy. “But in the true spirit of ‘The Bear,’ we will not be making any jokes.”

The lighthearted yet honest jab pointed out that the dramatic FX series — a story about a chaotic group of chefs working at a Chicago restaurant — was up for at least 15 comedy awards out of its record 23 nominations this year, making it the most nominated comedy in Emmys history.

However, Levy’s joke also highlighted what many are calling “category fraud” after “The Bear” won several awards over more explicit comedies like “Hacks,” “Abbott Elementary,” “Only Murders in the Building,” “Curb Your Enthusiasm” and more.

“The Bear” was described as a “half-hour comedy series” when FX gave it a full season order in late 2021. (The series is produced by FX but streams on Hulu.) The series premiered in the summer of 2022, and FX has also submitted the show under comedy categories at award shows like the Golden Globes, Critics Choice Awards and the SAG Awards.

Those submissions seemed reasonable, given the handful of humorous moments in the show’s first season — like Richie’s (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) accidental butt-stabbing after a heated argument with Sydney (Ayo Edebiri), or when he and Carmy (Jeremy Allen White) catered a kid’s birthday party with a blow-up hotdog sporting a T-shirt with their restaurant’s name on it for free promotion.

Yet Season 2, which was darker and more dramatic, collected more comedy awards at Sunday’s