President Donald Trump may not have been in the auditorium during the 69th Primetime Emmy Awards. But he dominated the entire telecast.
That’s because from host Stephen Colbert’s opening monologue, the 45th president was the No. 1 topic of jokes and acceptance speeches. The barbs started immediately in Colbert’s opening musical number which included the line about Veep: “imagine if your president was not beloved by Nazis.”
Most incredibly, former press secretary Sean Spice made a surprise appearance, complete with a moving podium just like Melissa McCarthy used to spoof him on Saturday Night Live.
“This will be the largest audience to witness an Emmys, period. Both in person and around the world,” Spicer said, in a parody of his now-famous comments about the size of the crowd at Trump’s inauguration.
But few people on social media — on the right or the left were laughing.
My sentiments exactly.
The man is a traitor to our nation, lying through his teeth daily.
Shame on the Emmys for giving Spicer exposure. https://t.co/RPEjlFgIL5— Legion Soldier (@Legion_Soldier) September 18, 2017
@POTUS what the hell Sean Spicer going along w Colbert’s hate-Trump monologue on Emmys! So disgusted w Spicer. Traitor! RINO! Ahole!
— Myrna ?? Trump2020 (@inthecopa) September 18, 2017
But the anti-Trump hate parade was just getting started. When Alec Baldwin won the award for best supporting actor in a comedy series for his Trump impersonations on Saturday Night Live, he joked, “I suppose I should say at long last Mr. President, here is your Emmy.”
That Trump, the former host of The Apprentice reality series, often lamented that he never won an Oscar was a recurring joke throughout the telecast.
And when the original cast of 9 to 5, Jane Fonda, Dolly Parton and Lily Tomlin, reunited on stage, they drew a parallel between “the sexist egotistical lying hypocritical bigot” who bossed them around in that film and the sitting president.
When it came time for the annual coronation of Julia Louis Dreyfus as best actress in a comedy, she quipped that she HBO series’ final season was originally going to feature an impeachment storyline, “but we were worried that someone would beat us to it.”
This article was featured in the InsideHook newsletter. Sign up now.