[Cybsled]

The problem, however, is many times said comedic roles or action roles dont require much in the way of actual acting. Action I really dont need to speak much about..."I really felt that the way Arnold said "Getcha ass to mahs...getcha ass to mahs" truely defined the pinnacle of human emotion and range". Comedy does get nods occasionally (Hey, look at last year...Depp with his Captain Jack Sparrow role), even if actual wins are rare. However, a good bulk of comedic roles usually dont require much in the way of actual acting...a large number of them are usually "starring X as himself", and the roles usually arent too large a leap from their normal routine. This is why character actors, while great at their roles, seldom get selected unless they have a REALLY kickass script backing them up and the movie was tailored for that character role.

To put it in a Counter Strike metaphor...2 guys...both are 30 kills and zero deaths. Guy one camped in a corner with an AWP. Guy two ran around using nothing but a knife. Who's the better player? Both yielded the same results, but one was signifigantly harder to do. Does that mean Mr. AWP cant do anything else but camp snipe? Not nessisarily, but from what we've seen, guy two has more skills. Now if the roles are reversed, and guy one does what guy two did, and guy two isnt as successful with the AWP...then yes, guy one is the better player. But until Guy One is able to prove himself to have a greater range then AWP camping, he carries the stigma associated with that. RL examples would be Tom Hanks or Jamie Foxx or Jim Carrey. All start with comedy...then they take on dramatic, and it turns out they do well in both.

Now while I do agree that some comedic roles are overlooked/not given a fair shake due to the fact dramatic roles net more oscar wins, I think you need to look at the overall picture as to why certain roles get more praise. While both comedy and drama both rely on the quality of the material and the actor's ability to convey that effectively...dramatic roles have the difficulty of having to maintain a evenly distributed delivery, whereas comedy is given the luxury of having points of delivery.