Why people are celebrating Hacks’ surprise victory

The biggest shock of the night was that this HBO show about a veteran stand-up comedian starring Jean Smart won best comedy over The Bear. Was it really a win for funny comedy?

The final Emmy Awards ceremony in January, postponed from 2023, will feature the show “The Bear,” starring Jeremy Allen White. It won six awards in the comedy category.; A highly controversial result By TV viewers He argued that the unsettling show, which depicts a traumatic experience in a restaurant kitchen, is more drama than comedy.

Last night’s formula 2024 Emmy Awards Ceremonyand father-and-son host duo Eugene and Dan Levy couldn’t help but make a bit of a sarcastic remark in their opening monologue about an issue that’s still clearly contentious eight months on: “I know some of you are expecting us to make a joke about whether or not ‘The Bear’ is actually a comedy, but at the very essence of The Bear, we’re not going to make jokes.”

However, while “The Bear” again performed well in the comedy category, Four awards (Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress and Best Director), but in the biggest upset of the night, the show missed out on the big prize, Best Comedy, with HBO show “Hacks” unexpectedly winning the coveted award for Outstanding Comedy Series instead, with no whites of the chef’s eyes to be seen.

X elicited cheers from some users, in part because of who it beat: Hacks is a genuinely funny comedy that undoubtedly deserves an Emmy category, giving some viewers the impression that all is well in the TV world: “I believe that three hours of collective live-tweets about The Bear not being a comedy actually metaphysically changed the title on the Outstanding Comedy award envelope to Hacks.” 1 person commented In X, The other is simply“The Emmys said ‘The Bear’ isn’t a comedy.”

“The Bear” controversy aside, there was a lot of goodwill for Hucks’ win: “Hucks has been otherworldly awesome (and totally hilarious) this season. I’m thrilled with tonight’s win.” Watch Another Emmy Awardsr wrote to X: “Hux wins. After all, there is justice in comedy.” Another comment.

That the underdog appears to have triumphed — and that it has beaten other wildly popular comedies like “Crazy Entertainment,” “Abbott Elementary” and “Only Murders in the Building” — is in keeping with the show’s premise. Created by Lucia Aniello, Paul W. Downs and Jen Stutzky, the series centers on the bonding of an odd, hapless duo who are bridging, or trying to bridge, the generational gap in Hollywood.

Jean Smart plays Deborah Vance, an older stand-up comedian with a strong Joan Rivers vibe, whose career has stalled due to an ageist industry. Her agent pairs her with Eva Daniels, played by Hannah Einbinder, an ambitious young writer who is fired from a TV regular job for tweeting obscene things and is sent to live in Las Vegas to help Deborah’s career bounce back and become relevant to modern audiences again.

The film’s great comedy is about two women who are marginalized by the industry and resentful of it. Neither of them are likeable characters. Deborah is an overly verbally and physically abusive boss, hurling a huge crystal at Eva’s head in one violent confrontation. Meanwhile, Eva is wickedly arrogant, whining about how hard her life is while simultaneously treating those around her badly and trampling anyone she thinks will get ahead.

These characters may appear terrible at first, but deep down they are multifaceted people who, no matter how wrong they are, continue to move forward through the unexpected events that life throws at them. This is another key factor in the success of Hacks. Throughout the three series, we watch the two women sink into a twisted codependent relationship, mother-daughter, sometimes maternal and caring, and at other times mostly spiteful and bitter. In the final episode of season three, without giving too much away, the abused Ava finally loses it and pulls a knife on Deborah. She learned from the best.

Aside from the fact that the show is set in Hollywood, another thing the show does well is explore generational divides in a way that anyone in the characters’ age group can relate to. Baby Boomer Deborah is a foul-mouthed bully who can’t understand why kids are so upset about her old comedy routines. In season three, she gets called out by Berkeley students for “rescinding” her honorary doctorate after a video of her making racist and ableist jokes goes viral.

Jean Smart is outstanding in the role, and her witty comedic timing has earned her diva status off-screen. In her acceptance speech for Outstanding Actress in a Comedy Series last night (her third), she mocked HBO and its platform name change, quipping, “…HBO folks. …Sorry about Max. What we really needed was another network.” And it’s highly unusual to have a septuagenarian woman leading such a prestigious show. “About 20 percent of our population is over 60,” Hucks co-creator Paul W. Downs pointedly stated. He said in his Emmy Award speech“And only 3% of characters on TV are like that.”

Alongside her, Einbinder’s Ava, who sits on the border between millennial and Gen Z, struggles to teach Deborah modern etiquette while also feeling frustrated by her inability to fit in with her peers, including Gen Zers and Meg Stalter’s clumsy young assistant, Kayla. There are plenty of laugh-out-loud lines throughout the series, but it’s Kayla who delivers the most of the funniest lines, especially in her scenes paired with co-creator Paul W. Downs, who also plays the beleaguered agent Jimmy.

The humor is irreverent, subversive, and self-deprecating, and it approaches the “culture war” debate in an intelligent way. [comedy] “When you laugh at someone or have something in common with them, it helps to bridge the gap,” says Lucia Aniello, another collaborator. He said in his Emmy Award speechBut while its themes are sophisticated and its characters sharply drawn, it also often reduces audience members, myself included, to undignified snorts and chuckles, which makes it such a welcome triumph for many.