The First Annual Comedy Awards.
First off, this should be called the First Annual Comedy Awards in Film and Television, just to be perfectly accurate as to what they are and aren’t giving recognition too. Second, forget about the significance of snubbing 30 Rock, Parks and Recreation, and Community. There are much bigger snubs at hand and I’ve bolded them for you to cut to the chase.
COMEDY SERIES
COMEDY ACTOR — TV
COMEDY ACTRESS — TV
COMEDY ACTOR — FILM
COMEDY ACTRESS — FILM
LATE NIGHT COMEDY SERIES
SKETCH COMEDY/ALTERNATIVE COMEDY SERIES
STAND-UP SPECIAL
COMEDY FILM
ANIMATED COMEDY FILM
ANIMATED COMEDY SERIES
COMEDY WRITING — TV
COMEDY SCREENPLAY
COMEDY DIRECTING — TV
COMEDY DIRECTOR — FILM
Again, this is being billed as the “First Annual Comedy Awards”, which would denote recognition towards the art of comedy in seemingly all of its various manifestations. Instead, there is only one “nod” towards stand-up, which, whether you like it or not, is still a major component of comedy today.
Even within that nomination, Comedy Central and MTV, limited its scope to a “stand-up special”, which means it had to be aired on TV in order to be considered for an award. This is an unnecessarily exclusionary policy as only stand up comedy that is formatted for TV as opposed to a stand up comedy album, which is usually unfiltered, uncensored, and better as it has no exact time constraints.
Not only is there a kind of an afterthought of a category for stand up at the First Annual Comedy Awards, there’s also nothing recognizing comedy podcasts that either deal with the art of Comedy or just plain funny. What about funny people that Tweet? What about the funniest book? Funniest viral video?
Also, just like the Oscars, there is a separate category for those in the realm of animation. This is yet another unfairly exclusive move on the Comedy Awards and even furthered by having another category for Sketch Comedy/Alternative Series. If you ever want to devalue someone’s award, have a “/” in their category. In considering the BEST in comedy in regards to a series, there should be no dissociation between live action or animation because, in the end, both awards cheapen the other. Just have a Best Comedy Series and whether it be animated, live action, on TV, or on the web, may the best production win and it would have so much more weight and prestige as an award (is that the goal of awards ceremonies anymore?)
The thinking process, unfortunately, is that no one would watch a telecast with sub-genre categories that I just mentioned and there would be numbers to back that argument up. In fact, I would say that most of America wouldn’t care about who is the funniest person on Twitter, etc. Then again, I firmly believe with not just the First Annual Comedy Awards, but also with the Grammys, Oscars, Emmys, and other televised awards show is that none of them should be aired ever.
It’s a specific industry recognizing its peers and we have no real business in dictating or judging how any of that should be carried out. If any of these awards shows weren’t aired, (yes, I understand that’s advertising dollars down the drain, but just go with this argument for a bit longer) there would be significantly less pressure to pander to an audience who have no foundation from which to be a judge of any of these categories. The People’s Choice Awards already exists, so any other awards ceremony like the Comedy Awards should be along on the lines of honoring the best in the art of comedy for those involved in comedy because they would know better than anyone else.
A corollary to an earlier point I made in this article: The First Annual Comedy Awards should actually be called The First Annual Comedy in Film and TV Awards Made Palatable and Relatable for “That” Key Demographic.