“We will not be making any jokes” — Eugene Levy and Laraine Newman take a dig at ‘The Bear’ for being nominated under ‘comedy’ category at the Emmys

Eugene Levy and Laraine Newman took sly digs at the hit FX show The Bear after it was nominated under the 'comedy' category at the Emmys. The 2024 Primetime Emmy Awards ceremony took place on Sunday, September 15, at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles and was hosted by the father-son duo of Schitt's Creek stars Eugene and Dan Levy.

Eyebrows were raised when The Bear was nominated for best comedy series, despite the show primarily being a drama. The hosts were quick to take a dig at the hit series' nomination during the opening monologue of the night when Eugene Levy said:

"The Bear is nominated for 23 Emmys tonight, making it the most nominated comedy in history. Now, I love the show and I know some of you might be expecting us to make a joke about whether The Bear is really a comedy...but in the true spirit of The Bear we will not be making any jokes."

However, despite bagging a plethora of awards on the night, the show was ousted by HBO Max's Hacks when it came to the 'comedy' category. Hacks star Hannah Einbinder’s mother, Laraine Newman, took to X on Sunday night to simply say "F**K. THE. BEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" before deleting and apologizing for the tweet.

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Laraine Newman thinks The Bear is "not even a dark comedy"

As mentioned earlier, 2024 Emmy Awards co-host Eugene Levy triggered quite the 'Schitt' storm when he made a joke regarding FX's The Bear being nominated for best comedy series, an award that the show took home last year. SNL alum Laraine Newman, who also happened to be the mother of Hacks star Hannah Einbinder, let her conflicted feelings for the show known on social media.

The Groundlings founding member took to X on the night of the awards to reveal that every time she thought of the show being in the comedy category for the Emmys, she could feel "an ulcer developing." Later, when the FX show won a record-breaking 11 Primetime Emmys, she let it all out on X and wrote in a since-deleted tweet, "F**K. THE. BEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

The original SNL cast member clarified in a follow-up tweet:

"I think the Bear is a great show but IMHO it’s not a comedy- not even a dark comedy."

When one X user questioned the comedy star about her previous tweet, she conceded:

"I know. I took it down. Not my best moment."

Meanwhile, HBO Max's Jean Smart and Hannah Einbinder-starrer Hacks took home the award for best comedy series. Einbinder's Hacks not only bested the show her mother swore at but also Abbott Elementary, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Palm Royale, Reservation Dogs, What We Do in the Shadows, and the Selena Gomez-starrer Only Murders in the Building.

As a reply to Newman's tweet, one X user got extremely defensive of the FX show and called the SNL star's tweet "appalling and nasty." The user even said that they were glad Newman's daughter lost out to the Jeremy Allen White-starrer's Liza Colón-Zayas for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series. Laraine Newman replied:

"I regret that post and I think the actress who won is wonderful in that role. But the other people in the various categories that lost to The Bear, In my opinion, we’re robbed."

The FX show took home a whopping 11 Primetime Emmys on Sunday, beating its own record of 10 from the previous year. Apart from its best comedy series win, Jean Smart's third consecutive win in the Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series category gave Hacks its second Primetime Emmy of the night.