Jimmy Kimmel opened the “virtual” 2020 Emmys with a less-than-tight five, noting earnestly that “the world may be terrible but TV has never been better.”
He also foreshadowed a huge night ahead for Schitt’s Creek: noting that he was going to be saying those words a lot, to avoid stirring ABC’s censors from their midcentury cryo pods, the show’s logo would appear onscreen to show that crucial C. “And that’s why network television is dead.”
Confusingly, Kimmel’s monologue was greeted with effusive laughter from an audience of unmasked, shoulder-to-shoulder stars, from Jon Hamm and Allison Janney to… Jimmy Kimmel? Yes, it was a bit, reusing footage from last year’s ceremony, and the camera panned to a silent Staples Center, empty of all but a few cardboard cutouts and a cranky real-life Jason Bateman, who is nominated for Lead Actor in a Drama Series for Ozark.
Jason Bateman pretending to be a cardboard cutout at the #Emmy awards is a whole 2020 mood.
Perfect timing especially since he deserves many of them. pic.twitter.com/JuRO5CVmRZ
— Clarissa misses traveling ✈️🌎👩🏽💻 (@Clarissa_Laskey) September 21, 2020
“You can stay, but you have to laugh at my jokes,” Kimmel told him.
“I’ll call a car,” Bateman said after a beat, pulling his phone from his tux and placing a cutout of a 30-year-old photo of himself in his seat. “If I win, give it to Cheadle.”
Good to see that even in a pandemic, awards shows stay clunky and self-conscious.
