Amy Poehler Calls Out the Oscars for Never Awarding Comedy Movies: ‘It’s Some Hot Bulls—. Comedy Is Not Easy’

https://variety.com/2025/film/news/amy-poehler-oscars-comedy-movies-1236521054/

30 comments

  1. > “Every single year at the Oscars, everybody [in comedy] gets blanked and all the serious people get up and accept and accept,” Poehler said. “It’s some hot bullshit! Because comedy is not easy. And I got to tell you, both you and Olivia can do both.”

  2. I agree it’s not easy, and that’s why 99% of comedies movies are forgettable. How would they stand a chance at the Oscars?

  3. I love you Amy, but there’s a big difference between the comedies of today and The Apartment

  6. Horror is harder than comedy stop it. Toni Collette shouldve been nominated for Hereditary at the bare minimum.

  7. If any comedic performance this year deserves an Oscar nomination, and I’m not kidding, it’s Pamela Anderson for the *Naked Gun* reboot.

  8.  A comedy film can be amazing, but not the best film of the year or even in the top 10 films that year.

    The same way you can be great as the lead actress in a comedy film, but not one of the 5 best performances in film that year.

  9. Anora, Barbie, Banshees of Inisherin, Poor Things, and EEAAO are darlings by the Academy while also being comedy. While most of those can be dubbed as a Dramedy, that doesn’t remove the fact that they do have comedic elements or are just straight up meant to be funny. And I consider those more difficult to pull off since you need to be both a serious and comedic at times.
    As much as I do believe some comedies (maybe traditional comedies?) get overlooked, it isn’t like Comedies haven’t been nominated or even won in over a decade. If anything, I’d say Horror should be a genre reevaluated by the Academy since a lot of great films and roles get overlooked.

  10. If there was a plethora of great comedy being released right now that deserved award recognition I would agree with her but I can’t remember the last good comedy that came out. We are in a serious dry spell right now.

  13. I think a good example of comedy not being easy is how a lot of dramatic actors don’t do great in comedic roles but comedic actors a lot of the time do amazing in dramatic roles.

  14. Oscars are unimportant. Just create a category for everyone and every genre.

  15. Plenty of dramas are forgotten too. Oscar’s is supposed to be for the best of the best. Comedies are not easy but some really breakthrough. What is she talking about? A real pain was nominated. Anora, coen brothers movie, Wes Anderson. Tv is a better format for comedy generally. Horror is the big oversight for awards show imo but it seems to be changing a little.

  16. All the best drama actors started in comedy because it’s so much harder.

  17. Decades ago, Burt Reynolds said about the lack of recognition for comedies in Hollywood:
    “You don’t get awards for comedies. You get them for suffering.”

  18. Those smug pricks always give comedies shitty ratings too. Like look at the greatest comedies ever and see what the critics said. Like they’re supposed to be fucking citizen Kane.

  20. She’s very right that there is an imbalance but American Fiction is a comedy and won best original screenplay two years ago. I hope more are recognized.

  22. Stuntmen and comedies not having awards is insane.

  26. A lot of people have pointed out examples of comedies from recent years (or at least drama comedy’s). It’s also worth noting Billy Wilder absolutely cleaned up at the Oscar’s with mostly comedy.

    The apartment is a dramedy, but primarily a comedy. William Holden’s best actor win was in Stalag 17 a war oriented comedy. Jack Lemmon picked up multiple nominations in Billy Wilder movies as well, including some like it hot which is entirely a comedy. Shirley MacLaine was nominated for the apartment as well. Not a Wilder movie, but Marty won both best picture and Cannes and it’s a comedy romance. Additionally Blazing Saddles got a best supporting actress nomination…

    Horror on the other hand doesn’t have this same thing. The closest horror has probably ever come to best picture was the exorcist. Hitchcock’s movies have a track record of nomination but they’re much more in line with thrillers rather than horror. He also never won best picture. Psycho is probably his best/most horror oriented work and it did not get nominated for best picture. It did at least get director and an acting category.

    If the ask is to throw a nomination to like Happy Gilmore 2 then I don’t think that makes sense? I don’t think it’s a historically or presently discarded genre though.

  27. Pulp Fiction is absolutely hilarious and won best screenplay. People need to try harder at weaving comedy into drama.

  29. Dumb and Dumber, Tropic Thunder, Stepbrothers, and some others are definitely movies I can say are worth of Best Picture/Writing awards.

  30. Please listen to the clip from the podcast episode with Olivia Colman. It’s in the first five minutes of the episodes and she’s completely joking around. In fact she was complimenting how funny Benedict Cumberbatch is, even though he’s known for drama roles.

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