And Then There Were Ten – in which our intrepid hero goes back and expands the Academy Award Best Picture nominations to ten nominations, and goes about filling those hypothetical slots. This time – it’s 2008. Check out the previous entries here.
Chapter 4: The Quote-Unquote Comedy (A Three-Way Throwdown)
The “Comedy.” If you’re even reading this multi-post treatise of speculative Oscarology, then you’re probably already aware that comedies generally get little respect in this arena. Since the successful days of comedy/musicals in the 1950s, nominations are hard to come by and wins are harder still for comedies. 2008 is no slouch in this judgment, with zero comedies nominated for BP – the funniest of the bunch is probably Slumdog Millionaire, but one would be hard pressed to consider that a chuckle fest – aside from the poo scene – poo is funny.
In this self-celebration of seriousness, comedies are ranked as less significant than traditional dramas. Why do they get less love in this respect than their other genre compatriots? I don’t know yet – so, an analysis of the nomination statistics is in order. And later on, I’ll create my own Sadness Index to figure out a winner.
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