The Martian wins 'Best Comedy' Golden Globe and totally confuses Twitter
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- David Cornish
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The Golden Globes is a tricky beast.
Besides a preference for headline-making hosts and unlikely award snubs, its voting structure - which sees less than 100 members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association decided the award winners - can produce some baffling results.
Case in point: last night's winner for 'Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy' was... The Martian.
Twitter was understandably befuddled.
Matt Damon on "The Martian": “No, it’s not a comedy, it’s a musical" https://t.co/AlH8imnBmc pic.twitter.com/h3tDmvn5Ox
— The New York Times (@nytimes) January 11, 2016
But the funniest Ridley Scott movie is still the one about the alien
— Lindsay Zoladz (@lindsayzoladz) January 11, 2016
The Martian is much deserved as best comedy. When he ran out of oxygen I was on the floor.
— Albert Brooks (@AlbertBrooks) January 11, 2016
They are adding a laugh track to The Martian. Now it will be like watching an episode of The Big Bang Theory. #GoldenGlobes #NerdistGlobes
— Jeff Dwoskin - Hashtag Roundup (@bigmacher) January 11, 2016
The Martian wins best comedy at #GoldenGlobes - also, Trainwreck nominated for best foreign documentary pic.twitter.com/4CmxHXOELa
— Paul Nazareth (@UinvitedU) January 11, 2016
I haven't seen "The Martian" yet, but I constantly overhear young comedy nerds quoting wacky lines from it on the subway.
— Brian Stack (@BrianStack153) January 11, 2016
So long as the members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association deem a film to fit the category of 'Comedy or Musical', they can vote for it.
The Martian isn't the first film to have benefited from this blurring of genre boundaries: 2008's decidedly unfunny Vicky Cristina Barcelona won the award over Mamma Mia!, while other dramas (some possibly black comedies at a push) to have received nominations include 2013's The Wolf of Wall Street and Her and 2011's My Week with Marilyn.
While the Golden Globes continue to lack clear definition on how a film can qualify as being a comedy, the presentation of the award itself may prove funnier than the winning movie.
(Image: Rex)