The Emmy awards show was peppered with political jokes and
pointed speeches on Sunday, as host Stephen Colbert took shots at U.S.
President Donald Trump, Sean Spicer made a surprise appearance and Trump
won an Emmy – sort of.
Alec Baldwin, who won a comedy supporting actor Emmy for
parodying Trump on NBC’s sketch series “Saturday Night Live,” accepted
his award on stage and said, “I suppose I should say, at long last Mr.
President, here is your Emmy.”
Trump’s lack of an Emmy win during his long-running stint
hosting NBC’s “The Apprentice” and “The Celebrity Apprentice” has been a
sore spot for the now president, who has bemoaned not winning in
previous years.
Colbert opened Sunday’s Emmys ceremony with a musical number
that touched on climate change, news media and included Julia
Louis-Dreyfus, dressed as her foul-mouthed fictitious president Selina
Meyer from “Veep,” singing “Imagine if your president was not beloved by
Nazis.”
Colbert later poked fun at Trump, calling him “the biggest
TV star of the last year,” and criticizing the television academy for
not previously giving Trump an Emmy award.
“Why didn’t you give him an Emmy? If he had won an Emmy, I bet he wouldn’t have run for president,” Colbert quipped.
Many of the stars taking the Emmy’s stage on Sunday also threw jabs at the president.
Donald Glover, who won two Emmys including best comedy actor
for his FX show “Atlanta,” joked on stage, “I want to thank Trump for
making black people number one on the most oppressed list, he’s the
reason I‘m up here I think.”
Louis-Dreyfus, who won best comedy actress for a record sixth time for her role as Meyer on “Veep,” said of the upcoming season, “We did have whole storyline about an impeachment, but we
abandoned that because we were worried that someone else might get to it
first.”
Former White House press secretary Spicer walked onto the
Emmy stage wheeling a podium and stunning the star-studded audience,
including Melissa McCarthy, who won a guest actress Emmy for portraying
him on NBC’s “Saturday Night Live.”
“This will be the largest audience to witness an Emmys,
period, both in person and around the world,” Spicer said while pointing
his finger at Colbert.
“Wow, that really soothes my fragile ego,” the host
deadpanned, before pointing at Spicer and saying, “Melissa McCarthy
everyone, give it up,” as Spicer laughed and shook his head.
Spicer burst onto the public stage in January as Trump’s
first press secretary, with a scolding rant against reporters accusing
them of lowballing the size of the Inauguration Day crowd. He left the
White House this summer, sparking a flurry of speculation as to his next
career move.
(NAN/Reuters)