Emmy Awards: Jimmy Kimmel uses fake audience reactions for monologue

Jimmy Kimmel took a pop at Donald Trump during his opening monologue at the Emmys last night, leading a handful of stars who used the virtual show to deliver a political message. 

Walking out to what appeared to be a packed auditorium, Kimmel began delivering his speech before revealing that he was in fact talking to an empty auditorium filled with cardboard cutouts.  

‘Of course I’m here all alone!

Of course we don’t have an audience. This isn’t a MAGA rally, this is the Emmys!’ Kimmel exclaimed, after Trump was criticized for hosting packed election rallies despite the threat of Covid infections.

He was not the only person to take aim at Trump over his response to the virus. 

Jesse Armstrong, creator of HBO show Succession, used his speech to ‘un-thank’ Trump for his ‘crummy’ response to the pandemic; while Mark Ruffalo and Regina King urged viewers to vote, as the latter wore a shirt honoring Breonna Taylor, a black woman shot dead by police.

King also took a moment to pay her respects to Ruth Bader-Ginsburg, the liberal Supreme Court justice who died on Friday, teeing up a bitter pre-election battle to have another judge nominated. 

Kimmel’s targets were not just political, however, as he also took aim at Jerry Falwell for being ‘into Watchmen’ after the TV pastor’s pool boy claimed to have had an affair with his wife while he watched them have sex.   

Jerry acknowledges the affair, but vehemently denies that he participated in or knew about it.

But Kimmel’s opening gag was all about Trump, as he walked out and began delivering his monologue to what appeared to be a packed live audience.

At one point the camera cut away to show what appeared to be Kimmel himself, sitting in the audience, laughing at what was happening on stage.

‘How can I be down there? If I’m up here that means no one is in the audience,’ the real Kimmel said. ‘That would mean that I’m up here all alone.’ 

The house lights then rose on an auditorium that was filled with cardboard cutouts of celebrities, as Kimmel joked that it was ‘just like prom night.’ 

It was then that the TV host had a dig at Trump, before noticing that a real-life Jason Bateman had somehow sneaked into the auditorium.

‘Mind your business, Kimmel, big night for me,’ he shot back.

‘I haven’t left the house in six months, don’t send me back there.

‘I want to be here. It’s ritzy. I want to eat shrimp with the cast of The Crown. I want Mario Lopez to ask me about my pants,’ Bateman said.

Kimmel said that he could stay if he promised to laugh at his jokes, but that was the last straw for Bateman who called a car to pick him up.

Elsewhere, Regina King was sure to make a political statement as she won big at the Emmy Awards on Sunday night.

Regina, 49, won the lead actress in a limited series award for the HBO superhero show Watchmen, in which she stars as lead character Angela Abar.

Wearing a T-shirt honoring Breonna Taylor – the Louisville EMT who was fatally shot by police on March 13 – King also urged viewers at home to vote and gave a shout out to the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

King said from her home: ‘Have a voting plan. Go to Ballotpedia.

Vote up the ballot. Please. Go to Ballotpedia and find out who are voting in your municipal elections. It is very important. Be a good human. Rest in power RBG.’

Ginsburg, the Former Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, died on Friday, and King gave her respects by saying ‘rest in power RBG’ during her short speech. 

Succession creator Jesse Armstrong later attacked Donald Trump and Boris Johnson for their ‘crummy’ responses to the coronavirus pandemic as he accepted an Emmy for his hit HBO series last night.

The British screenwriter sent ‘un-thank-you’ messages to Trump, Johnson and the virus itself after winning the Outstanding Drama Series award at the virtual ceremony last night.

He accepted the award – the seventh for Succession on the night – from a hotel in London after the show beat out Better Call Saul, Killing Eve, Ozark, Stranger Things, The Crown, The Handmaid’s Tale and The Mandalorian to win the prize. 

In the last speech of the night, he berated the US and UK leaders for their ‘crummy and uncoordinated’ handling of Covid-19 while taking aim at ‘all the nationalists and quasi-nationalist governments in the world’.

Armstrong’s show is a portrait of a powerful, back-stabbing family wrangling for control of a dynastic media empire.

The showrunner spoke after the series won awards for best drama writing and directing, while star Jeremy Strong bagged best actor honors.

‘Thank you very much indeed.

This is such a very nice moment and it’s very sad not to be with the cast and some of the crew to share it with you all tonight, but this is a wonderful achievement for the whole group,’ Armstrong said.

His speech was briefly interrupted by a telephone ringing, with Armstrong quipping, ‘Room service, probably,’ as Kieran Culkin was seen laughing in another video.

‘But for being robbed of the opportunity to spend this time with our peers and with the cast and crew, I think I’d maybe like to do some un-thank yous,’ Armstrong added.

‘Un-thank you to the virus for keeping us all apart this year.

Un-thank you to Trump for his crummy and uncoordinated response, un-thank you to Boris Johnson and his government for doing the same in my country,’ he added.

He added: ‘Un-thank you to all the nationalist and quasi-nationalist governments in the world that are exactly the opposite of what we need right now and un-thank you to the media moguls who do so much to keep them in power.
So un-thank you.’

I Know This Much Is True star Mark Ruffalo also had the presidential election on his mind while accepting his first-ever Emmy for acting at the 72nd Primetime Emmy Awards on Sunday night.

The Kenosha-born 52-year-old managed to beat out ‘beautiful people’ Hugh Jackman, Jeremy Irons, Paul Mescal, and Jeremy Pope for the outstanding lead actor in a limited series or TV movie trophy.

First, Mark thanked HBO, director Derek Cianfrance, the crew, and he vowed to lend his Emmy to his castmates: ‘I’m sending it to you for part of the year for the rest of my life.’

Ruffalo said his wife of a decade Sunrise Coigney and their three children – Keen, 19; Bella, 15; and Odette, 12 – have taught him ‘we are stronger together when we love each other and we respect each other’s diversity.’

‘Our story is about family.

It’s about a man fighting for his brother, who is living with mental illness. It’s a story that’s common throughout so much of the United States in the world today,’ the Dark Waters actor explained.

‘And it asks a big question: How are we going to deal and honor and take care of each other and our most vulnerable people.
And we do that with love. And we do that with compassion, and we do that by fighting for them, and that’s what we have to do today.

‘We have to come together with love for each other. And if you have privilege, you have to fight for those who are less fortunate and more vulnerable.

And that’s what’s great about America – a diversity.’

Mark continued: ‘So we have a big important moment ahead of us.

Are we going to be a country of hate and division and a country only for a certain kind of people? 

‘Or are we going to be one of love and strength and fighting for all of us, all of us, to have the American dream and the pursuit of life and liberty and love and happiness in this great country of ours. 

‘That’s what we’re facing right now.

So get out and vote. Make a plan and vote for love and compassion and kindness.’

After winning, Ruffalo recommended via Twitter that people take on the Sierra Club’s plan of action of writing letters and making phone calls to encourage undecided and non-voters to take part in democracy.

During his opening speech, Kimmel toed a careful line between hyping up the awards ceremony, while recognising it is not the most important thing happening in the world right now.

Kimmel admitted that it might seem ‘frivolous and unnecessary’ to hold the Emmys this year, though he added it’s frivolous and unnecessary ‘every other year.’

He admitted that the Emmy ceremony is not ‘important,’ adding it’s not going to ‘stop COVID or put out the fires,’ but it’s fun and ‘we need fun’ right now.

Kimmel added that through it all, television has ‘always been there’ for us,’ and that while this year might be terrible, television has ‘never been better.’

He then gave Norman Lear a shout-out for being the oldest Emmy winner ever at 98 years of age, which he won at the Creative Arts Emmys last week.

He also made a crack aimed at streaming platform Quibi, which he called ‘the dumbest thing to cost $1 billion’, while adding that he has to show a Schitt’s Creek graphic on the screen, which he joked was indicative of how network TV is dying.

‘HBO can show us a big blue penis, no problem, I can’t say Schitt’s with a C,’ Kimmel said.

Kimmel was judged to have overstepped the line at one point, however, after it was announced that John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight has beaten his own show to scoop the Outstanding Variety Talk Series for the fifth straight year.

‘Congratulations again to John Oliver, I will be reporting him to ICE,’ said Kimmel.

Soon after, many viewers took to Twitter to express their displeasure over the joke amid reports that immigrant women in a Georgia facility allegedly underwent ‘mass hysterectomies.’

‘The amount of white privilege it took for Jimmy Kimmel to get up on stage at a nationally televised event and make a joke about ICE and have not one tell him that that isn’t okay, is absolutely astonishing to me,’ one person wrote on Twitter.