Comedy Wins Big at the 2016 Emmys, Here are the Highlights
There’s a consensus around social and professional media Monday morning that Jimmy Kimmel did a pretty good to great job hosting the Emmys Sunday night. Kimmel got big laughs and compliments all around for his show opener which started out as a breaking news alert with footage of the OJ Simpson slow police chase of the white Bronco, and included some Carpool Karaoke gone wrong with James Corden, and a failed attempt to hitch a ride with Jeb Bush, or Veep’s Tony Hale and Julie Louis Dreyfus. While it probably won’t go down in history for any unforgettable moments, we had no complaints either. As Larry David would say, it was pretty good. Our favorite moment in the opener, went to a Corden/Kimmel fantasy Wham sequence, mostly because it took half a beat to figure out it was Kimmel and not George Michael in that wig.
Kimmel had plenty of laughs and ‘cute’ moments throughout the show. At one point Kimmel enlisted the help of the kids from ‘Stranger Things’ passing out PB&J sandwiches that his mom made to the audience in the auditorium. The lunch bag gag had some well written jokes, with the favorite being a personal note in Amy Schumer‘s bag full of compliments– actually meant for Amy Poehler. There was also an extended analysis of Kimmel’s loss to John Oliver in the late night category by Matt Damon.
In the wins and losses column, the best moment of the night came right up front, with a huge win for Louie Anderson for playing Christine Baskets on FX’s new series Baskets. Kate McKinnon‘s first Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actress In A Comedy Series followed quickly after, for her performances on Saturday Night Live this year which have been truly excellent.
Other big wins for the night included a win for Best Writing in a Variety Series for Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, back to back wins for HBO’s Veep in the Best Comedy Series category, another win for Jeffrey Tambor for his portrayal of transgender character Maura in the Amazon series Transparent, a big win for the outgoing hit series Key & Peele for Outstanding Variety Sketch Series and double wins for Aziz Ansari’s Master of None for both writing and directing. Two comedic performers gave very emotional speeches after their wins– Patton Oswalt whose wife passed away suddenly earlier this year accepted the award for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Special for his hour special Patton Oswalt: Talking for Clapping. Patton has not yet returned to performing since the devastating personal loss, but he has said he will be back on stage in September. And Julia Louis Dreyfus‘ speech for her Veep win for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series was a heart stopper. Dreyfus’ father passed away only days ago, and she was visibly shaken accepting her award.
