Academy snubs class clowns

Can we talk about how amazing it is that “Silver Linings Playbook” was nominated for an Academy Award Best Picture?

I know “amazing” is a word used too lightly, too often, but comedy has always been relegated to the kiddie table when it comes to celebrating film. While “Silver Linings” is an emotional film and a stepping-stone to overturning the stigma of mental illness, it’s also quirky.

Normally, for comedies to be nominated, they have to be some black-and-white period piece twinged with a tragic underpinning (shoutout to “The Artist”). In other words, they have to be close enough to drama to be taken seriously.

There wasn’t always such a damaging bias. For the first 15 Academy Awards, there were comedy nominations with the sole purpose of laughter, opposed to the mixed message of dramadies.

After the emotional destitution of World War II, comedy was trivialized and its recognition as important work fell away. Even though there are iconic comedies referred to as classics, like “Animal House,” and innovative ones that question existentialism and mortality, like “Groundhog Day,” the Academy Awards typically champion “higher-minded” movies — ones less accessible to the general public.

But it wouldn’t lessen the integrity of the awards show to include comedies. Not only are many of these films smart, but also hugely resonant and long-lasting, especially given their quotable potential.

Yet there’s a bias towards comedy — not only as immature, but as less arduous. With the recent improvisational buffoonery of Judd Apatow’s gang, and the fair concession that most of its films are garbage (as in “not funny”), even that’s not always the case. Despite the cultural dialogue that “Bridesmaids” inspired about women in comedy, perhaps prompting the slew of sitcoms then starring female protagonists, it wasn’t nominated for Best Picture.

It crushed at the box office and was knee-slappingly hilarious, but the film wasn’t considered an important enough work for the Academy to recognize as one of the year’s finest. This is troubling, particularly when Melissa McCarthy got a nod for her career-transformative role in the film.

Why isn’t it enough for comedy to stand alone? Since when is making people laugh any less artistic than dramatic turmoil that “says something?”

It is immensely difficult to be funny, and not my-friends-say-I-should-be-a-comedian funny. Writing jokes is actually a process. It’s commendable for a comedic film to climb to the top without relying on lazy, chuckle-worthy stereotypes. When a movie, especially a comedy, rakes in cash and generates buzz, it’s apparent that something about it works. That’s why the Academy needs to open a Best Comedy category. Particularly if men like Seth MacFarlane are hosting the awards, the argument that the Oscars don’t pander to the general public is defunct anyway.

That’s not to say including comedies would be pandering. Last year’s Comedy Awards marked an attitudinal shift toward comedic work. The show honored not only film performances, but TV series, sketches, animation, stand-up specials and tours, writing, podcasts and even Twitter comedians. Nominating more funny films at the significantly wider audience of the Academy Awards will get even more people talking about comedy and increase recognition of smaller movies. Even though the titles will lose initially, the acknowledgement of their capability to be artistic will bring infinitely more attention to a snubbed genre.