MTV officially declares Melissa McCarthy a “comedic genius”

By Sam Barsanti | April 6, 2016 | 8:54pm

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The MTV Movie Awards ceremony is usually a pretty big event every year—at least as far as teens and the teens-at-heart are concerned—but that doesn’t mean it’s too good to straight-up invent awards so famous people will stop by and say funny stuff. Over the last few years, this has taken the form of the Comedic Genius Award, a special accolade for supremely hilarious celebrities who also have a big movie to plug. It went to Will Ferrell in 2013, which probably boosted the ticket sales for Anchorman 2 a little bit, and Kevin Hart took one home in 2015 thanks to his commanding performances in The Wedding Ringer and Get Hard. (The award wasn’t given out in 2014, presumably because nobody was funny that year/had a movie coming out at the right time.)

This year, with Boss premiering on Friday and Ghostbusters on the horizon, MTV has decided to give the award to Melissa McCarthy. In a press release, MTV Movie Awards executive producer Casey Patterson highlighted not only McCarthy’s comedic performances, but also the fact that she “writes, produces, and directs comedy,” which makes the award “incredibly well deserved.” Patterson also notes “the most exciting thing about Melissa is how brave she is,” adding that “you don’t want to miss her moment in the show.”