The entertainment industry as a whole is contracting, but over the last several years a particular type of film has been hit particularly hard: the theatrical comedy. We’ve been seeing fewer big-budget rom-coms and bawdy R-rated films in general, let alone in cinemas. But we could argue the undervaluing of film comedy has been happening for decades now, as comedies have been frequently shut out of major awards consideration. Just ask one of comedy’s defenders: Amy Poehler.
Poehler welcomed Oscar winner Olivia Colman on her podcast Good Hang, speaking with Colman’s The Roses co-star Benedict Cumberbatch ahead of the interview. “If you can do comedy, you can do anything. I really do believe that,” Cumberbatch opined. The Saturday Night Live alum obviously agreed. “Of course. You don’t have to tell me, babe!” she exclaimed. “Every single year at the Oscars, everybody [in comedy] gets blanked and all the serious people get up and accept and accept. It’s some hot bullshit! Because comedy is not easy. And I got to tell you, both you and Olivia can do both.”
It wouldn’t be accurate to say that comedy has been entirely blanked. Everything Everywhere All At Once swept the 2023 Oscars. The next year, Da’Vine Joy Randolph won an award for The Holdovers and Emma Stone won for Poor Things. And the biggest winner of 2025 was Anora. These are all comic movies, though each tended to blend genres and include more outright dramatic elements, more so than a straight comedy like Bridesmaids (which was nominated for its screenplay and Melissa McCarthy’s supporting performance). Or take, for instance, Maria Bakalova’s nomination for Borat Subsequent Movie Film, which is an out-and-out comedy, but has a political element that may appeal more to the high-brow sensibilities of the Oscar voter. There’s no doubt we’ve come a long way from Hollywood’s Golden Age when the romantic comedy was revered and a movie like It Happened One Night could triumph in a category where several other comedies were nominated.
On Good Hang, Amy Poehler and Olivia Colman discussed how Colman crossed over from doing comedies to being considered for dramas. It was Patrick Considine, whom she met on the comedy Hot Fuzz, who “totally changed the trajectory of my career” by casting her in his drama Tyrannosaur. “Comedy I never intended, I just found a place and I really loved it,” Colman explained. “And then it felt like there were two lists of actors: funny ones and not funny ones, and you can’t cross over. You’re not allowed. And it takes someone to really put their neck on the line, to go, ‘No I would like them to do that.'” Colman would go on to win an Oscar for her comedic performance in The Favourite.
