Amy Poehler isn’t holding back when it comes to the Academy Awards. The Emmy-winning star and comedy powerhouse used her platform to call out the Oscars for continuously sidelining comedies, a trend she believes has gone on for far too long.
Amy Poehler accuses Oscar of ignoring comedy
On her podcast Good Hang, Poehler sat down with Olivia Colman, who was promoting her new comedy, The Roses. The episode also featured a brief chat with Benedict Cumberbatch, Colman’s co-star. During the conversation, Cumberbatch praised comedians, saying, “If you can do comedy, you can do anything.”
Amy Poehler quickly agreed, before slamming the Oscars for its infamous comedy snub: “Every single year at the Oscars, everybody [in comedy] gets blanked and all the serious people get up and accept and accept. It’s some hot b******t! Because comedy is not easy.”
You can watch Amy Poehler’s podcast below:
The Parks and Recreation alum has long been considered one of comedy’s biggest champions, with decades of work on SNL, multiple Golden Globe hosting gigs alongside Tina Fey, and critically praised performances. Her comments echo a frustration many in Hollywood share—that the Oscars consistently overlook comedic brilliance in favor of heavy dramas.
Although recent Best Picture winners like Everything Everywhere All at Once and Anora had strong comedic elements, straightforward comedies rarely get the same recognition. The 2025 awards race looks no different. Dramatic-leaning comedies like Yorgos Lanthimos’ Bugonia and Noah Baumbach’s Jay Kelly are generating early Oscar buzz. Meanwhile, traditional comedies such as Friendship, Good Fortune, and The Naked Gun are seen as long shots. Even Johnson’s upcoming Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery faces an uphill climb in breaking into the top categories.
By publicly calling out the Oscars, Poehler has reignited the debate about comedy’s place in Hollywood’s most prestigious awards ceremony.
Originally reported by Devanshi Basu on Mandatory.com.
