One of the hosts of the 70th Emmy Awards Monday night introduced the category he called “reparations Emmys” for those “TV legends and heroes” who “have gone unrecognized.
“You know, as a black comedian for so many years, our TV legends and heroes have gone unrecognized,” Che explained. “So this year as host, I took it upon myself to finally right some of those wrongs. I present the reparations Emmys.”
“Excuse me, Miss Marla Gibbs,” the host said.
Yes,” Gibbs answered.
“We would like to present to you this reparations Emmy. Your role as Florence the maid is the reason why I got fired from every service job I’ve ever had,” Che joked.
“Well, thank you. I think,” Gibbs replied.
“Is this the real Emmy?!” actor Jimmy Walker of “Good Times” exclaimed when he was handed the award.
“Yes, the real thing,” the “Saturday Night Live” star replied.
“Man, I cannot believe this,” Walker responded. “I just got one word for this thing. It is dynamic! Ha ha ha!”
“Man, your character on “A Different World,” Che said to actor Kadeem Hardison from “A Different World” as he handed him the honor. “I don’t think you realized how many young brothers you actually inspired to go to college.”
“Well, I’m glad you went to college, bro. That’s beautiful,” Hardison replied.
“Yeah. Yeah, because I went to college,” Che answered.
“Steve Urkel was the original black nerd,” the host shared with actor Jaleel White as he handed over another Emmy. “Man, if it wasn’t for you, there would be no Donald Glover. There’d be no Kanye West. There would be no [Barack] Obama.”
“Did I do that?” White replied, delivering his character’s famous tagline from “Family Matters.”
“This is for your amazing work on ‘Martin’ on ‘Everybody Hates Chris.’ and for being pound for pound the best sitcom actress I’ve ever seen,” Che exclaimed when he handed over an award to actress Tichina Arnold.
“So the ?cademy just gave this to you,” Arnold asked.
“Let’s just say I stole this from Bill Cosby,” Che replied.
“Mr. John Witherspoon, I present to you this reparations Emmy,” the “Weekend Update” anchor shared as he handed another award over. “That’s for your lifetime of work on television. You’re a legend and it’s about time you got recognized.”
“1968, ‘I Spy.’ ‘I Spy?'” Witherspoon read. “No, I can’t have this in my house.”
“It’s a reparation Emmy, it’s for you,” Che argued.
“Reparation is not for an Emmy. It’s for 40 acres and a mule,” the star of “Next Friday” replied. “Well get me 40 acres and a mule, I’ll take that.”
“Who are you now? Who are you,” Witherspoon asked.
“I’m Michael Che. I do the news on TV,” the Emmy host replied.
“Like Trevor Noah? You know him,” the “Friday” star said.
“I’m glad you got your Emmy, man,” Che said as he stood up to leave.
“Hey, young fella. With that there funny hat on like you Mr. Big shot. You ain’t played baseball in your life,’ Witherspoon added. “Trevor Noah is the man.”