Over its nearly hundred-year history, the Academy Awards have honored some of the most memorable performances ever put on screen. However, they have tended to favor performances in dramatic films. Performances from films in other genres, like comedy, horror, or sci-fi, have an uphill climb if they want to see their actors honored. Let's look at some comedic performances that the Academy did not nominate for an Oscar, but perhaps should have.
6 Reese Witherspoon - Election (1999)
In this 1999 film, Reese Witherspoon plays Tracy Flick, an overachieving student running for class president. Her election to the position seems like a sure thing... until one of her teachers convinces a popular football player to run against her. Upset that the popular guy who's just coasting through school has the easy path, while Tracy has to work hard for everything, Tracy doubles her efforts to win. Witherspoon runs through an impressive gamut of emotions with her performance. From the aforementioned overachieving, to her holier-than-thou attitude, and even a bit of psychosis when she tears down her opponent's posters (an act she only gets away with because someone else took the fall). Yet, Witherspoon also manages to elicit some sympathy for Tracy when she wins the election and finds out the position is close to worthless. Whatever the role requires of her, Witherspoon delivers with flying colors. Witherspoon was nominated for a Golden Globe for this performance in Election, but she would have to wait a few more years before getting her first Oscar nomination.
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5 Brad Pitt - Burn After Reading (2008)
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Possibly the dumbest character Brad Pitt has ever played... and one of the funniest. Pitt plays Chad, a gym employee whose coworker (Frances McDormand) comes into possession of a CD belonging to a retired CIA agent (John Malkovich). Believing the CD contains highly classified information (it contains only Malkovich's memoirs), the two gym employees attempt to blackmail the CIA agent. Things don't exactly go the way Pitt and McDormand would like. Brad Pitt is an absolute riot, His best scene is easily when he calls Malkovich to tell him he's in possession of the CD, switching between a deep, "mysterious" voice and his normal one constantly. It's incredible how Pitt brings to life the complete and utter idiocy of this man. Burn After Reading came out in 2008, the same year as The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, for which Pitt earned a Best Actor Oscar nomination for. He should have also snagged a Best Supporting Actor nomination for this film to go along with it.
4 Simon Russell Beale - The Death of Stalin (2017)
Who would have ever thought a film about deciding who Stalin's successor would be could be so funny? In The Death of Stalin, written by Armando Iannucci, who co-wrote the script alongside David Schneider and Ian Martin, Simon Russell Beale plays Lavrentiy Beria, the head of the Soviet secret police. Beale's Beria is always in control, always knows where the bodies are buried (quite literally in some cases), and is just an intimidating, despicable human being, much like the real Beria was. It's impressive how Beale makes such a despicable man so entertaining to watch. He doesn't lose it very often, but when he does, the results are often quite funny, especially when he's yelling at all the other members of the presidium about all the dirt he has on them. A fantastic performance.
3 Ralph Fiennes - The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)
In this 2014 Wes Anderson film, Ralph Fiennes plays M. Gustave H, the concierge of the titular hotel, which he runs like a well-oiled machine. He's obsessed with perfume and has a thing for older women, having slept with women older than 85 and not finding anything too unusual about it. Described as "the most liberally perfumed man I've ever met" by Zero, the Grand Budapest's new lobby boy, M. Gustave H is a fascinating character and one that Fiennes has no issue bringing to life. From his snobbish demeanor to his caring side, every aspect of this character is perfectly played by Fiennes. With a flare for the dramatic in almost every action he takes, this performance is a truly memorable one from an actor with a long list of memorable performances.
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2 Jamie Lee Curtis - A Fish Called Wanda (1988)
This hilarious 1988 film, written by Monty Python alum John Cleese (and stars him, too), is about two members of a gang of jewel thieves trying to find their stolen diamonds after one of their members moves it without telling the other members where he hid them. Jamie Lee Curtis plays Wanda, one of two Americans involved in the heist. The other is Otto (Kevin Kline, who won a well-deserved Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his performance), an idiot weapons expert who thinks of himself as a thinking man because he reads philosophy, but doesn't understand it. Believing that their colleague told his lawyer where he hid the diamonds, Curtis' Wanda attempts to seduce the lawyer in the hopes of getting the information out of him. Curtis' performance is wonderful. From getting turned on every time a romantic partner speaks a foreign language to manipulating half the cast of the movie, there is nothing Curtis is not up for. Her funniest scene might be when she blows up at Otto and corrects him on certain inaccuracies, especially ones concerning Aristotle and the central tenets of Buddhism. Curtis received Golden Globe and BAFTA nominations for this performance, but was left off of AMPAS' list.
1 George C Scott - Dr. Strangelove: Or How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb (1964)
Had he been up for an Oscar, George C. Scott would have most likely refused the nomination, but that doesn't change that his performance in Stanley Kubrick's classic Cold War satire is nonstop hilarity. Scott plays General Buck Turgidson, the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He is called in for an emergency meeting by the President when an insane Air Force general orders a nuclear strike against the Soviet Union. This is a performance that is over-the-top in the best way. Just look at the scene where Scott asks to make "one or two points" and instead makes six, all of which advocate for making the situation much worse than it already is and ending with an almost child-like disappointment when he finds out the Russian ambassador is invited to the War Room and will get to see everything, including the Big Board. Scott does so much with just his face and the exaggerated reactions, which he was not a fan of. Kubrick would do one over-the-top take and one serious take, but it's the over-the-top ones that ended up in the final product and make Scott's Buck Turgidson so memorable.