`typing.Protocol` is explicitly treated as not a `type`

[chet-manley]

Bug Report

At runtime, isinstance(typing.Protocol, type) is True. When type checking, mypy appears to special-case Protocol:

• mypy: <typing special form>
• Pylance/Pyright: (class) Protocol

To Reproduce

from typing import Protocol

class A(Protocol): pass
    
assert Protocol in A.__bases__
bases: tuple[type, ...] = (Protocol, *A.__bases__)

playground (gist)

Expected Behavior

Same as Pyright, Protocol is a class (type), no errors.

Actual Behavior

main.py:5: error: Non-overlapping container check (element type: "<typing special form>", container item type: "type")  [comparison-overlap]
main.py:6: error: Argument 1 to <tuple> has incompatible type "<typing special form>"; expected "type"  [arg-type]

Your Environment

• Mypy version used: 1.0.0, 1.10.1, 1.20.2, 2.3.1
• Mypy command-line flags: --strict
• Python version used: 3.6 - 3.14