Why people are celebrating Hacks’ surprise victory

Last night’s biggest shock came when this HBO show about a veteran stand-up comic starring Jean Smart took best comedy over The Bear. Was it a victory for genuinely funny comedy?

At the last Emmys ceremony in January, delayed from 2023, the Jeremy Allen White-fronted show The Bear picked up six awards in the comedy category; a result that was highly contested by TV viewers who argued that an anxiety-ridden show about trauma in a restaurant’s kitchen was definitely more of a drama than a comedy. 

Cut to last night’s official 2024 Emmys ceremony, and father and son hosting duo Eugene and Dan Levy couldn’t resist a little dig in their opening monologue about the issue, which was clearly still as contentious eight months on: “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 while The Bear did very well again in the comedy categories, winning four awards (outstanding lead actor, outstanding supporting actor, outstanding supporting actress and outstanding directing), it lost the big one – best comedy – in what was the greatest upset of the night. Instead, HBO show Hacks unexpectedly clinched the coveted outstanding comedy series, with not a glimpse of chefs’ whites in sight.

On X, there was delight from some users, in part because of who it beat. Hacks is a genuinely funny comedy that undoubtedly fits its Emmy category, giving some viewers the feeling that all has been made right in the TV world. “I believe three hours of collective live tweeting that The Bear is not a comedy actually metaphysically changed the name inside the Outstanding Comedy envelope to Hacks,” one person commented on X, while another added simply: “The Emmys said The Bear is not a comedy.” 

Leaving The Bear controversy aside, there was a lot of goodwill towards the win for Hacks. “Hacks was next-level brilliant (and genuinely hilarious) this season. I’m thrilled it won tonight,” another Emmy viewer wrote on X. “Hacks wins, there is justice for comedy after all,” another commented. 

That the underdog was seen to have won out – also triumphing over other much-loved comedies such as Curb Your Enthusiasm, Abbot Elementary and Only Murders In The Building – was in keeping with the show’s premise. The series, created by Lucia Aniello, Paul W Downs and Jen Statsky, centres around bringing together an odd-couple, down-on-their-luck duo that span – or struggle to span – the generational gap in Hollywood. 

Jean Smart plays Deborah Vance, an older stand-up comedian (with a strongly perfumed air of Joan Rivers), who finds herself out in the hinterlands of her career because of her ageist industry. Her agent pairs her up with Ava Daniels, played by Hannah Einbinder, a young, ambitious writer who is sacked from her regular TV gig for tweeting something obscene, and who is sent to live in Las Vegas with Deborah to help revive her career and make her relevant again for a modern audience. 

These are two women who have been sidelined by their industries, and they are mad about it – that’s what makes it such a great comedy. Neither is likeable. Deborah is without doubt an abusive boss, both verbally and physically, throwing giant crystals at Ava’s head in just one of her violent confrontations. Meanwhile Ava is grossly entitled, whining about how tough her life is, while simultaneously treating others around her terribly, trampling over anyone if she thinks it might get her ahead. 

That these characters initially come across as awful, but are at heart, multi-faceted people, working their way, however wrongly, through the curveballs life throws at them is another key factor to Hacks’ success. Over the course of the three series, we watch the two women end up in a twisted co-dependent relationship with each other, similar to a mother-daughter relationship, at times maternal and caring, and others – predominantly – bitchy and sniping. The season three finale, without giving too much away, sees a mistreated Ava finally snapping, and twisting the knife into Deborah; she’s learnt from the very best.

Leaving the show’s Hollywood setting aside, the other thing the show does so well is explore the generational divide in a way that will ring true to anyone who fits within the character’s demographics. Deborah, the Boomer, is a foul-mouthed bully, who doesn’t understand why the kids are so offended by her old comedy routines. In season three, she’s taken to task on this when a video of her telling racist and ableist jokes goes viral, and she is “cancelled” by students of Berkeley University from receiving a honorary doctorate there. 

Jean Smart is a tour de force in this role, with whip-smart comedy timing, which is what makes her such a diva-status icon, even off screen. Hilariously in her acceptance speech last night for the outstanding leading actress in comedy award – the third time she’s won it – she mocked HBO and its platform name changes, quipping: “…everybody at HBO. At…Max – I’m sorry. Just what we needed, another network.”. And it is vanishingly rare to see such a prestige show led by a woman in her 70s. “About 20% of our population is over 60,” Hacks’ co-creator Paul W Downs pointedly said in his Emmy speech, “and there are only three percent of those characters on television.” 

Alongside her, Einbinder’s Ava, on the cusp generationally between Millennials and Gen Z, is equally exercised by trying to school Deborah on modern etiquette and frustrated that she can’t fit in with the younger Gen-Z crowd, or even other people her own age, like Meg Stalter’s ditzy nepo-baby assistant, Kayla. While there are laugh-out-loud lines throughout all the series, it’s Kayla who gets many of the real zingers, especially in her pairing with co-creator, Paul W Downs, who also plays the beleaguered agent, Jimmy.

The humour is irreverent, subversive and self-deprecating, and approaches the “culture wars” debate in an intelligent way. “We really feel [comedy] can bridge divides, when you laugh at someone, when you have something in common with them,” another of its co-creators, Lucia Aniello, said in the Emmy speech. But as well as being sophisticated in its themes and sharply characterised, it also often reduces viewers – myself included – to undignified snorts and cackles; and that’s the thing that for many, makes its victory so welcome.