Supposedly, The Grammys, like all other major entertainment awards are decided by a vote of industry professionals, often gathered under an official organization such as The Recording Academy or, for the Oscars, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences. That said, year after year, there seems to be an egregious snub or an equally mistaken win in a given category of any EGOT award or anything tangential to them.

The Best Comedy Album at The Grammys, in particular, seems to be an especially glaring point of contention as streaming services and networks dubiously release their high profile specials as albums, almost always pushing out any comedians that just had the resources to record an audio-only album and then, pouring corporate money that they only have into a FYC campaign. It has thusly become a high profile popularity contest that really undercuts the intention of the award: rewarding excellence in comedy on a recorded audio platform. Comedy luminary Dan Pasternack goes into great detail about the history of this specific award in an audio doc Obsessive Comedy Disorder: The 60-Year History of the Comedy Grammy Award on SiriusXM.

What should have been in contention and potentially be in a position to win this year were some of the most celebrated and talked about hours of comedy that were released in time for this most recent Grammys including:

Joel Kim Booster: Psychosexual
Jen Kirkman: OK, Gen-X
Sheng Wang: Sweet & Juicy
Ali Siddiq: Domino Effect
Moses Storm: Trash White
Ms. Pat: Y’all Want to Hear Something Crazy

*note that Jerrod Carmichael’s Rothaniel wasn’t released as an album.

All of these albums not only gave a cathartic release in reflecting/processing the horrific time that we live in, but did so in such an incisive, clever, and damn hysterical way.

Instead of those hours getting any recognition, 2022’s most controversial comedy special, The Closer from Dave Chappelle took home Best Comedy Album at last night Grammys after a creatively diminished and somewhat still disgraced Louis C.K. won last year. Transphobic material aside (if you can even just momentarily compartmentalize that), The Closer, despite Chappelle’s own claim that it’s both his greatest work and the greatest special of any comedian today, is maybe passively amusing (especially if you compare it to your favorite Chappelle’s Show sketch or his old stand-up). Of course, judging comedy is always prisoner to one’s subjectivity, but if you’ve watched stand-up comedy closely for the last several years, you ought to know that many of Dave’s premises in The Closer are well-worn by many other comedians that take on some edgelord-ish persona in the name of free speech.

It should be noted at this point that, of course, Dave is more than allowed to be more on his soap box than be about jokes as we are more than allowed to be critical of it. Keep in mind that he’s still a multi-millionaire plenty of times over as he gets to freely complain about being silenced.

The other contenders for Best Comedy Album at this year Grammys included:

Louis C.K.: Sorry
Jim Gaffigan: Comedy Monster
Randy Rainbow: A Little Brains, A Little Talent
Patton Oswalt: We All Scream

In case you didn’t know, there’s a cut off from Sept. 30th every year to be even considered for nomination at The Grammys as well as a-not-always-affordable-for-everyone submission fee. From those several dozen submissions, the “industry experts” at The Recording Academy cull the herd into what seems to be the most recognizable names and, in recent years, one sort of outlier, which was Randy Rainbow for this time around, in a paltry attempt to placate any criticism (the kind that we’re doing right now). We have seen a list of what could have been considered for a Best Comedy Album Grammy in the past and we know it’s a gargantuan amount of work to sit down and listen to every one of those albums. Yet, considering what is at stake, that’s part of what should go into figuring out what constitutes “Best Comedy Album”.

It would seem the problem lies in the voting body in that there is too much to consider from too narrow a perspective. On paper, there seems to be a move towards inclusion and diversity, of all kinds, that is happening at these various arts “Academies”, but that ought to be reflected in a new crop of perennial favorite nominees if we’re to believe that’s actually happening.

If so, let’s see if Atsuko Okatsuka or Sean Patton gets nominated for a Grammy in 2024.