John Oliver shocked viewers with his acceptance speech at the 77th Primetime Emmy Awards. His words were bleeped out twice. He won Outstanding Scripted Variety Series. He began by thanking the network and the crew. But he soon turned it into a profanity-laced outburst targeting Nate Bargatze, the awards show’s host and comedian.
Here’s what Oliver said.
John Oliver takes a dig at host Nate Bargatze during Emmy-winning speech
After winning the Emmy for Outstanding Scripted Variety Series at the 77th Primetime Emmy Awards, John Oliver quickly took the stage and delivered an acceptance speech characteristic of his style.
“Thanks to HBO, especially thanks to Casey [Bloys] and Elana [Loewenthal], thank you to our staff, especially,” Oliver said, seemingly breathless on the stage as the crew joined him (via EW). He also thanked his family and friends.
“F*** you Nate Bargatze, that is a lot of money for you,” he added in a shocking twist. This was bleeped out on television. “You can add a fk to the swear jar as well,” he added before leaving the stage, saying, “That’s got to be enough…. Thank you, good bye.”
The exaggerated fast speech and the joke were a response to Bargatze’s plan to shorten the speeches while supporting a charitable cause. He teased on Jimmy Kimmel Live on Wednesday that he was going to donate $100,000 to the Boys & Girls Clubs of America after the awards ceremony.
The exact donation amount depended on whether the award winners at the Emmys went over or under their allotted speech time.
“Everybody gets 45 seconds to do all the thank-yous,” he explained to Kimmel. “So what I came up with is I’m going to donate $100,000 to the Boys & Girls Club… That’s what the show’s starting at. When everybody uses their 45 seconds, if someone goes over, $1,000 is deducted for each second beyond the limit.” He added, “If you go under, we will put a $1,000 back on — so you can give it back!”
He even explained this during the Emmys, and it led to several winners stressing out about keeping it short. Some, like John Oliver, also had some fun with it.
Originally reported by Sourav Chakraborty on ComingSoon.
