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Last Week Tonight continued its well-deserved Emmy domination on Sunday night. After sweeping the Outstanding Variety Talk Series for seven years in a row, they were shuffled off to the Scripted Variety Series category at last year’s awards (which were held in January), and now they’ve won against SNL in back-to-back years (or eight months apart). John Oliver and his merry band of mischiefs cannot be stopped! A great show is a great show, however you label it. And when you think about it, John Oliver winning an award in primetime is really a gift to us all, because we get to enjoy him stumbling through delivering another acceptance speech in his endearing, awkward grace. This year was no exception. Oliver landed the requisite barb against business daddy HBO, inadvertently renamed his son while thanking his family, and then dedicated the win to the most worthiest of floofs: his family’s recently departed dog. But it’s John Oliver, so the moment didn’t go off without a hitch, or an f— bomb.
Oliver’s Last Week Tonight won outstanding scripted variety series at the 76th annual Emmy awards on Sunday, Sept. 15. While accepting the win, Oliver gave a speech thanking his team and family — but one slip up brought extra laughs from the audience.
“Thank you so much,” he began. “Thank you to my staff — some of them are here, others are in Brooklyn — whether they’re watching this, I know they are in Brooklyn, I hope you’re having fun. I’d particularly like to thank Liz Stanton and Tim Carvell. I’d like to say thank you to HBO for not canceling us over the last decade, that was never a guarantee, I appreciate it, please carry on.”
He continued: “I’d like to thank my wife, Kate and our kids, husband — ‘husband’ — Hudson, his name is Hudson. Ouch. That’s gonna come back to haunt me.”
Laughing at himself, Oliver, 47, dedicated his award to another family member.
“I also want to thank, may be silly, our dog,” he said. “We had the most fantastic dog, and she was at our wedding and she got us through a pandemic. She was with us, two pregnancies.”
As he spoke, playoff music came on, making the moment resemble a sad dog commercial.
“Perfect choice of music,” he said. “We had to say goodbye to her.”
“F–k you,” he joked. “I feel like Sarah McLachlan right now.”
Singer Sarah McLachlan famously starred in a tear-jerking commercial for the ASPCA set to her hit song “Angel.”
“She was an amazing dog,” Oliver added, despite being ushered off the stage. “This is for her, this is for all dogs. All dogs, you’re all very good girls. You’re all very good boys. You all deserve a treat. Play me off now. Thanks so much.”
Let’s start off with Husband Oliver. ‘Husband’ is not the craziest baby name to come out of Hollywood! I realize the faux pas was in not remembering his son’s actual name, but I thought I’d throw Father Oliver a bone there. Especially after hearing him tell ET reporters that he’d only had an airline-proffered parfait ahead of the ceremony?! Heaven knows what would come out of my mouth if I got up on stage during a live broadcast without having ingested any solid food, is alls I’m sayin’. (And for the record, Oliver does also thank his second son — I’ve listened to the clip over and over and the best I can make out is ‘Marzy?’ Please chime in if you have better ears!)
But of course the big heart-wrencher was Oliver thanking his dog. Being only 37 days out from saying goodbye to my own pup My Girl, I was right there with Oliver. I loved the way he honored his very good girl as a genuine family member, because that is who our pets are. And yes, I also enjoy laughing at messy situations playing out on my TV, so I got a kick out of the orchestra sad-violining during the speech at exactly the wrong moment, and in turn watching Oliver react to that fumble. And seeing as how I failed to win an Emmy yet again this year, I appreciate Oliver extending his dedication to all the dogs out there, who do indeed all deserve treats. Though I’m still imagining My Girl sassily flapping her angel wings thinking, “I want a Golden Globe win in my honor or you never really loved me, Lady.”
