In a sketch that opened the 2025 Emmy Awards, host Nate Bargatze pokes enjoyable on the nominated collection The Bear, calling it a “laugh-out-loud” comedy that can also be a “heartbreaking take a look at the emotional toll of trauma.”
“That feels like a drama, sir,” Saturday Night time Stay star Bowen Yang responds.
“And but it’s not,” Bargatze replies. That’s the joke — there aren’t many jokes in The Bear in any respect. The comic, and plenty of disgruntled comedy followers on the web, know that the collection a couple of traumatized chef and his traumatized restaurant workers isn’t very humorous, although it obtained six nominations as a comedy this 12 months.
However not like its earlier years of complete domination, The Bear didn’t win a single award this time round. Possibly that’s as a result of it’s not nearly as good because it was, or possibly individuals are getting sick of the truth that below present Emmy guidelines, something generally is a comedy so long as the producers say it’s. Lots of its potential wins went to extra overtly wry leisure trade satires Hacks and The Studio. Possibly The Bear is lastly dealing with the results of the discourse that pops up each time it’s nominated: Comedy basically feels prefer it simply isn’t that humorous anymore.
I spoke with three comedians to pinpoint what’s behind the shift from stomach laughs to shrewd cultural commentary. They shared their theories.
Principle No. 1: ‘Humor is definitely fairly goal’
The final feeling that comedy isn’t humorous anymore is extra than simply an opinion — there’s proof. Of the eight exhibits nominated within the Comedy Collection class, none have giggle tracks. Only some conjure laugh-out-loud runs of jokes. Most are simply situationally awkward and amusing.
Michael Halcomb, a writing professor and humorist, doesn’t suppose comedy is subjective in any respect. He tells Yahoo that humor isn’t just a matter of style — there’s construction to it.
“A joke can fail, similar to a wrongly performed notice can,” he explains. “Humor is definitely fairly goal. Now, whether or not people like sure kinds of humor or not, that is actually subjective.”
Whether or not or not jokes land varies from individual to individual, however the truth that exhibits like The Bear are so missing in jokes basically is unimaginable to keep away from. Loads of individuals don’t discover Hacks hilarious, but it surely’s at the least constantly making an attempt funniness, regardless of very severely portraying the mentor-mentee relationship between its 2025 Emmy-winning stars Jean Good and Hannah Einbinder.
Hannah Einbinder and Jean Good in Hacks. (Courtesy of HBO)
Some exhibits may need been designated comedies solely as a result of they’re extra prone to win in that class, or as a result of their runtime doesn’t appear lengthy sufficient to push them into the drama class, Halcomb explains. Emmy nominees don’t essentially mirror your entire state of comedy, however they’re what the Tv Academy has deemed prestigious. That repute bears weight relating to what will get produced at studios and streaming providers competing for clout, which might maintain a present even when it will possibly’t compete with those churning out essentially the most views — largely older, rewatchable collection with acquainted characters.
Principle No. 2: Comedy obtained much less foolish. Blame politics.
Going for laughs lately can really feel like “strolling a tightrope,” Halcomb says, as individuals attempt to keep away from cultural landmines like stereotypes and offensive jokes that even outrageous comedies from the current previous like The Workplace and 30 Rock deployed. For what it’s value, they gained a mixed 21 Emmys throughout their runs.
Possibly a concern of cancellation isn’t what’s driving comedy lately as a lot as a way of responsibility.
Nate Clark, a sketch and improv comic who’s now working towards a PhD within the political science division at UCLA, surveyed comedy writers through the summer time of 2025 in regards to the state of humor throughout President Donald Trump’s second time period.
Due to the time that it takes to put in writing, movie, edit and promote a present, there’s a transparent delay between what audiences are clamoring for and what comedy writers produce for them, Clark tells Yahoo. That’s why there was a rash of status comedies within the final decade that seem extra severe — as a result of that appeared to be what the individuals had been craving on the time.
In his survey, he discovered that comedians stated they elevated the sociopolitical messages of their writing.
“Even when comedy shouldn’t be overtly political … they felt obligated to talk to the fears, cultural and social points that we’re all type of grappling with,” Clark says. “Consequently, comedy obtained much less foolish … however there’s been an actual pushback in opposition to that as a result of audiences are so fatigued by the heaviness and the burden of that content material. Audiences are, for higher or worse, uninterested in it.”
Based mostly on his current conversations with comedy writers, Clark senses that “comedy is trending in a sillier route.”
“Individuals [living through] the second Trump administration are actually fatigued, they usually really feel artistically constrained … as a result of it feels unimaginable to satirize what’s occurring in society or politically as a result of it is already so absurd,” Clark says. “They’re additionally personally and emotionally affected and weighed down by it, in order that they’re searching for extra foolish storylines.”
Principle No. 3: Forgetting the viewers
Mary Houlihan, an actress, author and humorist, says an even bigger drawback with comedy is the truth that individuals are “chasing energy and status,” making an attempt to win extra awards by making the sorts of exhibits they know will attraction to Emmy voters, like collection about “wealthy individuals being wealthy assholes.”
She’s baffled that individuals appear to have forgotten that 30 Rock, a present that’s incessantly giggle-inducing, used to comb on the Emmys a decade in the past. Her idea is that the individuals making comedy TV simply aren’t as scrappy anymore.
Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin in 30 Rock. (Ali Goldstein/NBC/Courtesy Everett Assortment)
“I feel comedy writers are richer than they was. They grew up wealthy and went to elite schools … and haven’t had plenty of time mingling with combined teams of individuals,” she says. “They haven’t had the survival day jobs the place you’re … studying the right way to make everybody giggle.”
Houlihan was moved when Seth MacFarlane, the comic behind a few of her favourite comedies like Household Man and American Dad, informed Ted Danson on his podcast in August that he thinks TV ought to be extra lighthearted and depict the form of individuals you’d hope to sometime be.
“We’re not doing the most effective job proper now telling these tales in a means that provides individuals hope,” MacFarlane tells Danson. He described driving down the road in Los Angeles and solely seeing billboards for exhibits that had been “dystopian, horror, unfavorable [and] pessimistic.” That’s not the TV panorama he grew up with, and he’d prefer to get again to that.
To Houlihan, that’s the purpose of comedy. “We already know society is unhealthy!” she says.
“I feel life is tough, and once I do stand-up, I all the time take into consideration how one particular person on this room had an terrible day … and hopefully I can say one thing that makes them really feel just a bit higher,” she continues. “That’s what TV is — for an even bigger viewers. Persons are drained. They’ve arduous lives. Let’s give them one thing that makes it freaking bearable.”
