'The Bear' broke Emmy nomination records. Why is it considered a comedy?

The Bear Season 2 received a record-breaking number of Emmy nominations for a comedy series. Now, viewers are rehashing an old argument about the series: How is it considered a comedy at all?

The show, which is notoriously stressful, has lighthearted moments sprinkled throughout heavy themes of suicide, grief and emotional abuse. Indiewire declared that The Bear might be “the most-dramedy of all the dramedies,” but that’s not an official genre. Rolling Stone wrote that creating a “dramedy” category would “solve exactly nothing” because too many current shows might fit the bill anyway.

The Bear is officially a comedy instead of a drama simply because the producers decided that it should be. That’s just how the Television Academy works these days.

The debate about The Bear’s comedy status peaked after the 75th Emmy Awards, where the show dominated with 10 wins. Now it’s being rehashed again ahead of the 2024 ceremony in September. The year before, the Television Academy eliminated a distinction that designated sitcom episodes as less than 30 minutes long and drama episodes as more than 30 minutes long.

In the 2010s, that rule drummed up controversy — shows were assigned a genre according to their episode length instead of just their content. In 2015, Orange Is the New Black, which is widely considered a dramedy, was booted from the comedy category to drama against Netflix’s wishes. There were debates about whether other dramedies like Transparent, Shameless and Better Call Saul would fall, as well. More recently, Succession and The White Lotus had to pick sides, ultimately landing on drama.

Now that streaming services have vastly done away with the need to fill a certain time slot, episode running times vary broadly for certain shows. Most episodes of the second season of The Bear, which aired in June 2023, clock in under 30 minutes — but one is over an hour long. That episode, “Fishes,” happens to be standout episode of the season at the Emmys, earning three nominations for guest actors as well as directing and writing nods.

“It’s short-sighted to think that just because a series deals with stress, tension, and trauma, that it isn’t brilliantly reflecting the humor required to get through life,” wrote the Daily Beast’s Sarah John.

Is comedy that faces the darkness of real-life still a comedy? It could be. Ultimately, The Bear will remain a comedy because the people who make it say it is, but that could change over time.

The way we talk about genre is constantly shifting as streaming services challenge the typical TV show format, and it is possible that the Television Academy will adapt its rules to fit the times as the organization has in the past.

Now, back to arguing about whether or not The Bear’s two leads belong together romantically or whether Season 3 is actually good.