2021 Emmys get political with Newsom recall joke, Mike Pence fly skit

Politics found its way into the 2021 Emmy Awards.

Late-night host Stephen Colbert stepped onstage to present the award for outstanding supporting actress in a drama series but first made a joke about California's recent recall election for Governor Gavin Newsom. 

Colbert said he had the recall voting results after a recount was made for the 2018 winner of the outstanding comedy series category which went to Amazon's "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel."

Luckily, after the fake special revote, Colbert confirmed the winner was still "Mrs. Maisel" and added it only cost California hundreds of millions of dollars. 

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Colbert was poking fun at Newsom, who won his recall election. The revote was sparked last year mainly over accusations that he mishandled his state’s response to the coronavirus. He was originally voted in as governor in 2018. 

Critics took to Twitter to comment on the joke:

"Emmy’s/Stephen Colbert mocking the recall…does Hollywood give themselves awards?" said one user.

"The Emmy recall about joke was his flat as Stephen Colbert and his show most of the time. Y'all should have just left that one out. I'm only watching the Emmys this year because of @bridgerton I haven't watched in 20 yrs because of the political nonsense," another person tweeted.

"Biggest unfunny points of the night so far: Ken Jeong's vaccination remarks, and Stephen Colbert's recall rant (including a Larry Elder did that should have been avoided)," a watcher commented. 

Someone else pointed out, "Don’t think Stephen Colbert’s recall joke landed very well with the audience."

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"Colbert calling out the stupid waste of money Ca had to spend on the ridiculous recall," agreed a user. 

Later in the night, Emmys host Cedric the Entertainer was part of a pretaped skit that featured the infamous fly that landed on former Vice President Mike Pence's hair during his debate last year with current Vice President Kamala Harris. 

"A Mike Pence fly joke at the Emmys….almost an entire year after it happened," said another with a GIF of Adam Sandler giving a thumbs-down.

"When I started watching the Emmys tonight, I just kept saying "When are they gonna comment on the Pence fly, it’s the elephant in the room,'" said one user on Twitter. 

"We’re half an hour behind on the Emmys but we just hit the Pence fly bit and my brain is leaking out my ears just a touch," another pointed out. 

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A third viewer wrote, "So I had to watch a 5 minutes year old fly-on-mike-Pence’s-head bit just for Jean Smart and Jason Sudeikis to get played off the stage during their speeches. Literally screw the Emmys…this could be an hour and a half if they cut the garbage and went back to back with the awards."

"Can’t stop thinking about how they could have cut that fly skit and given the time to Jean Smart. #Emmys," agreed another.