Faith, Beer, and Other Things That Interest Geoff

There Should Be an Oscar for Best Comedy

Of course the author covers the eventual pitfall:

The only real potential problem stems from Hollywood's seemingly unending ability to make blandly predictable films in pursuit of awards. There's always the possibility that studios will simply come up with a new formula for "Oscar-worthy comedies," with big stars squeezing out tears between half-funny punch lines. We will call this the Patch Adams perplex. My solution: Create a "comedy branch" and let comedy screenwriters make the nominations, just as the other branches put forth their nominees.