TV’s Top Writers on What Makes a Comedy… a Comedy

Labels like “comedy” and “drama” are fundamentally meaningless — except when it comes to TV awards, when the distinction can mean the difference between win and lose or a nomination and a snub. That’s why the denizens of Hollywood, eager to buck tradition and format for the sake of art most of the year, tend to lose their shit around Emmy season.

The annual debate resurfaced this past summer when The Bear scored 23 Emmy nominations broke 30 Rock’s record for the most for a comedy in a single season. The genre, after all, was long-dominated by sitcoms — Frasier being the all-time Emmy with 37 wins, followed closely by The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Cheers. And while there’s no arguing that The Bear is an incredibly well-made piece of television, as evidenced by the eventual 11 wins in a diverse pool of categories, it’s not exactly brimming with levity. The FX series’ surprise loss to Hacks in the best comedy category was seen by many in the industry as a referendum on its designation.

Nobody’s opinions should carry more weight in this discussion than the people who actually make the shows. So when THR reached out to those populating our annual list of TV’s top writer-producers, we asked them for their take on what makes a comedy… a comedy. A baker’s dozen simply responded with some version of “be funny” — ”Matt, you’re glib!” — but the majority offered up more nuanced thoughts.

“It’s hard to make any sense of what’s a comedy and what’s a drama for awards purposes right now,” says The Old Man showrunner Jonathan E. Steinberg, “except to notice how much TV has changed since that distinction made all the sense in the world.”

That original distinction, of course, was that a drama was roughly an hour long (with commercials) and a comedy ran half the length. The TV Academy, the Primetime Emmys’ governing body, stopped considering runtime in its categorizations of series in 2021. But many feel runtime should replace the comedy and drama labels altogether. “I don’t know why we need to categorize things by anything other than length,” offers Fantasmas creator-star Julio Torres.

From the thoughtful and funny to the sarcastic and philosophical, here’s how some of TV’s top writer-producers — yes, even one from The Bear — responded when given the prompt, “To be a ‘comedy,’ a TV series must…”

“Pass the Bechdel test” — Lucia Aniello, Hacks

“Contain at least one scene where a character overhears something through a door and gets the wrong idea.” — Jenna Lamia, The Perfect Couple

“Combine acute moral pain with, if not laugh out loud moments, at least that amused snort we all crave so much.” — Issa Lopez, True Detective: Night Country

“If Aristotle is to be trusted, the characters in a comedy behave worse than people do in real life, but ironically, per Shakespeare, their shenanigans ultimately don’t cause any permanent damage, and lead to happy endings.” — J.D. Payne, The Rings of Power

“It must risk offense.” — Matthew Read, The Gentlemen

“Achieve exactly 9.4 laughs per minute — any less and it’s a drama, any more and it’s a clown show.” — John Hoffman, Only Murders in the Building

“Make me happy not to be those characters.” — Soo Hugh, Pachinko

“According to George Saunders, ‘Humor is what happens when we’re told the truth quicker and more directly than we’re used to.’ I think a good comedy does exactly that.” — Natasha Rothwell, How to Die Alone

“Be relatable. Have recognizable human qualities in all the characters involved.” —  Richard Gadd, Baby Reindeer

“What do I know? The Sopranos made me laugh as much as any show I’ve ever seen.” — Eric Newman, Griselda

“Not make me need to watch another comedy afterwards to soothe my anxiety.” — Jac Shaeffer, Agatha All Along

“Stay in lock step with audience expectations about the genre. Comedy isn’t about being transgressive or unexpected, it’s about obeying a bunch of rules as outlined by older men with young guy haircuts.” — Graham Wagner, Fallout

“Be a drama about angry chefs.” — Seth MacFarlane, Ted

“This, please, stop.” — Joanna Calo, The Bear