Wednesday, November 23, 2011 at 11:15AM And the Oscar for Best Comedy goes to…
If these are the words that you’re longing to hear then either your name is Judd Apatow or you really need to get out more. In an article that ran in the L.A. Times, Apatow vented his frustration with the academy’s apparent bias against the comedy genre, while advocating the addition of a Best Comedy Picture category.
Apatow was obviously citing the dearth of comedies that have achieved the ultimate prize. No Academy love for such deserving classics as; Knocked Up, Drillbit Taylor or even the memorable Year One.
Going back to the very beginning of the Academy Awards, the definitive award category was originally referred to as the “Outstanding Picture” before it was changed to the “Outstanding Production”, then the “Outstanding Motion Picture”, the “Best Motion Picture”, until the Academy of Motion Pictures finally settled on the term “Best Picture” in 1962. Between 1944 and 2008 the Academy nominated up to five feature films to compete in every year’s proverbial best-of-the-best category, but they increased that number to ten beginning in 2009.
While it is true that the overwhelming majority of past winners were classified as dramas, there have been plenty of exceptions as well. We have seen horror (The Exorcist), foreign language (Letters from Iwo Jima), animated (Toy Story 3) and even science fiction (Star Wars) films receive the coveted Best Picture nomination. In recent years these oft-kilter nominations even led to golden glory for; a fantasy film (The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King), a musical - long after that genre’s glory days (Chicago) and even a few actual comedies (Forrest Gump, Annie Hall). It didn’t matter as each of these films shared a common factor – they were truly extraordinary on many levels.
I would suggest this to Mr. Apatow, start making movies that don’t rely on fart jokes or references to anatomical parts in order to get a laugh. You can choose to go against the current Hollywood trend of spitting out lame, half-hearted, monotonous fare just to make wads of dough or just be happy at the People’s Choice, MTV and Golden Globes ceremonies. It’s up to you.
Reader Comments (9)
It's a little absurd to compare Knocked Up to Drillbit Taylor and Year One. It has a 90% on Rotten Tomatoes, that's higher than nearly half of the best Picture Oscar winners this past decade. If that doesn't indicate an irrational bias against comedies, then I don't know what does.
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In my opinion Knocked Up should have at least been nominated for the best picture... the other two...? No way would that ever happen you are correct that if a movie is based on crude humor it doesn't deserve a chance at best picture. In my opinion I don't think there are enough comedy movies each year for an Oscar dedicated to the category. So that leaves : make more heartfelt movies (like Knocked Up) or settle for Golden Globe awards. So in essence I agree with the post.
I agree that Knocked Up was a good movie, but not Best Oscar material. I included the references to his other work to show that he is more interested in quantity than quality. I happen to love a good comedy myself, but they have been few and far between the last several years.