The Great ‘Martian’ Debate: Is Comedy a Spectrum?

Should We Think of Comedy as a Spectrum, not a Genre?

Another year, another movie awards season, another debate about a classification the Golden Globes gives (or does not give) to films. Maybe the PR people behind the Globes love the press they get by enraging movie fans with their admittedly ill-defined award categories.Specifically, why combine musical and comedy categories of all things? Maybe the like to court debate and discussion about what is or is not “a comedy”; it has proven to be a lightning rod on the internet forums. From the baffling nominations for The Tourist in 2011; the same year the movies Burlesque and Alice and Wonderland were nominated and lost in that category to the dramedy The Kids are All Right (just a messy year all around). Then there was that time George Clooney won Best Actor for The Descendants and joked that he was baffled because “he thought he was in a drama.” And there was the debate last year about future Oscar winner Birdman with people asking…was that a comedy or drama. Others have tried to fit into the comedy categories so they would be more likely to get nominations (The Help claimed to be a comedy but was turned down by the Hollywood foreign press). But this year brings some of the strangest nominations, and top of the genre debate heads was… The Martian.

Is the Ridley Scott directed, Matt Damon starring The Martian A COMEDY? Well, my honest opinion is…kind of. First, let’s think about how and why this happened. The Martian was highly praised when released and has a high audience and critical approval rating. Then in October of 2015 the foreign press announced The Martian had submitted in comedy category and be allowed to compete. Other debated films, The Big Short and Joy, were submitted as comedies and earned nominations, while Trumbo and The Hateful Eight were denied comedy classification and submitted as dramas instead (this issue never seems to go the opposite way with films submitted as dramas and bounced to comedy).

First, I think The Hateful Eight is a pretty clear oversight because the clear intention (of the filmmaker) is to make a comedic film, and the movie falls into the comedy genres of both satire and parody. On the other hand, one could argue that The Big Short and Joy are far bigger questions than The Martian in this debate of categories and classification. At points, both films dovetail into comedy, but the overall tone throughout most of these films are dramatic. Also in question is the fact that arguably funnier, clear cut and highly praised comedies weren’t nominated in their assigned categories at all (What We Do in the Shadows, Grandma, The Lady in the Van, Mistress America, Tangerine) making a number comedy movie fans feel comedy is being shut out of its own category and undervalued. So, the question is, should these on-the-border comedies be allowed to compete with clearly examples of purely comic films?

Arguably, the big question is how comedy is defined by critics and the public. Usually, we look at it like it is just another genre, the same way we see musicals, horror, thrillers, heists, fantasy, or sci-fi. But really, comedy and dramas are the opposite ends of a tonal spectrum for narratives. And while most films fall within a or several “genres,” the genre doesn’t determine whether it is comedic in tone or dramatic. This year, we had The Martian AND The Revenent in theaters…two survival stories about injured men left for dead in unlivable locations who have to fight elements to survive. The stories are similar, but tonally, the stories are intending to be told differently…and elicit different reactions from audiences. If audiences had been laughing at The Revenant, the movie would have been a failure as a drama, but had they been crying at The Martian rather than smiling, that too would have been a failure. Likewise, we had Spectre, Spy, and Mission Impossible…all spy genre films, but told differently. Sure Spy is a pretty clear example of a comedy, but wouldn’t Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation fall closer on the comedy side of this tonal spectrum than on the dramatic side? Isn’t the intention clearly closer to the reaction audiences have at a comedy, and be judged by how successful it is at that? Creed, Slow West, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Inside Out, and yes…The Hateful Eight, shouldn’t be penalized and boxed out, come awards season for choosing to tell stories with a lighter, comedic tone…despite our current tendency of valuing dark, moody and serious over light, joyful and silly…whatever genre the film fits into. But do this it seems because we still think of comedy as one genre.

The truth is, comedy genres– in terms of film studies– are pretty narrowly defined by a core set…populist, dark or black, satire, parody, romantic, screwball, and personality. These genres have conventions which impact narrative, style and character more than tone, and once clearly identified gives viewers are shared short-hand of conventions and expectations. But when we think of award films, we look for the best made films, and usually comedies within the most traditional comedy genres are underappreciated as too predictable, commercial, and simple. It’s rare for these films to be nominated because films which succeed within a narrowly defined genre, rarely are considered award worthy, regardless of their genres…even if the category was made to honor what was being overlooked. One of these few genres is “the musical”…the dumbest part of the Golden Globe Award category dispute.

Musicals are “a genre.” But there are just as many comedy (tonal) musicals (genre) as there are dramatic (tonal) musicals (genre). But wherever they fall on the spectrum, they are all being lumped together in the umbrella comedy-musical category. And since that categories creation, the award has been poorly defined.

The first time the Golden Globes gave out this award, 8 years after the Awards started, was specifically to honor the artistic achievements of An American in Paris with an honorary award (no other nominees). Before this, several comedies competed with dramas for best pictures (including wins for Going My Way in 1944, and nominations for Harvey, Cyrano De Bergerac, Born Yesterday opposite All About Eve and Sunset Boulevard in 1950…the same year they began splitting the acting awards between comic and dramatic). When they split the award with musicals and comedies in, eligible musicals have dominated. In 1952 all five nominees were musicals, followed by no awards in 1953 (the same year as comedies and comedy-musicals award-winners The Actress, Roman Holiday, Lili, and Call Me Madam), and honorary awards for the musicals Carmen Jones, Guys and Dolls, and wins for The King and I, Les Girls followed the following years. With the rise of “sophisticated comedies in the late 50s and 60s, the Golden Globes wisely split the comedy-musical into two awards. From 1958 to 1962, a comedy AND a musical were honored with nominations and awards. This led to some weirdness with musicals that also happen to be comedies (Auntie Mame won best comedy), but it was a cleaner method…lumping musicals in with special categories like best animated, documentary and foreign films…special genres they want to champion.

Then in 1963, with the downfall of the musical film starting in Hollywood, the two combined. And while some of these musicals were also comedic (Bye Bye Birdie, Irma La Douce, Grease) other musicals had clearly dramatic tones (The Sound of Music, Fiddler on the Roof, Cabaret, Fame). And as musicals, regardless of their dramatic or comedic tone, continued to get included within the comedy category, there was a shift to favor drama…rather than take musicals genre classification out of the equation. Musicals were given favoritism over all other genres, and comedy narrowly defined as a genre…making the category seem even less prestigious and valued.

Fact is, awards in general have two biases…genre films AND comedy. Rather than honor films which succeed at being funny, generating laughs from audiences, having strong comedic performance, and managing to handler a humorous tone, they see comedy as genre with set rules. And this leads voters to seek out the most dramatic OF these films haphazardly defined as comedies (and often default to musicals). But, seeing these awards as genre specifically has also frustrated movie fans who see exceptionally well made genre films cut out of the race entirely because they are (in terms of falsely defined genres) neither a comedy or drama. Wherever these films fall on that tonal spectrum (regardless of genre), specifically based on the director’s intention, is where that film should compete…which means no more disqualifications from the Globe voters.

If things were done this way, which it might be moving in the direction of, The Martian should rightly be allowed to compete as a comedy, because the tone and approach was clearly to be more comedic than dramatic film within the sci-fi genre. Arguably, Tarantino should also be allowed to submit The Hateful Eight as a comedy…and if critics felt it succeed in its comedic intention and was one of the best movies of the year…it should be nominated in that category. However, any change like this would demand that filmmakers define their intention (and not just based on gaming the system for more awards and nominations…demanding a lot from the honor system here) and critics considering the execution and success the film had at getting the desired reaction of a drama or a comedy. Comedies which only work on a dramatic level would arguably been kept out of the nominations and more film would be considered. And hopefully that would mean seeing more well executed traditional comedies genre films and outside the box films being considered for The Best Comedy film…rather than the comedy-musical category being nothing more than a category to appease movie studios and confuse movie fans.

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