The Emmys "Solved" Diversity and Sexual Harassment with Its Opening Number
Hi. Hello. How are you? Good? Well, that's likely not the case if you watched any bit of the intro for the 2018 Emmys, which elicited hesitant applauses and awkward stares from the audience.
To kick off the Emmys, whoever wrote the opening bit decided to poke fun at how little diversity there is in Hollywood. The skit had Saturday Night Live stars Kate McKinnon and Kenan Thompson start out with the acknowledgment that the Emmys have the most diverse nominees ever this year and encouraged people to shout, "We solved it."
Boom. Racism is solved.
Then they went on and started talking about sexual harassment and sang, "Pat yourself on your back, but don't touch your neighbor," making an obvious reference to the many sexual harassment cases that have taken the entertainment industry by storm in the past year.
And in a super self-aware move, the Emmys had Ricky Martin join in and say they didn't solve anything because the skit was "too white." Then Andy Sandberg came on and asked if there was room for a white man to join the skit.
Predictably, the bit was met with a lot of criticism online.
There are A LOT of white people in this audience. Yay, diversity. 🙄#EMMYS
- Tre'vell Anderson (@TrevellAnderson) September 18, 2018
The #Emmys are so cringe right now it's incomprehensible. Touting "diversity" undercuts merit (especially in the lens that if a non-white does deserve to win, it will be seen as a diversity win, not a deserved win).
And we wonder why Hollywood is dying a quick death.- (The Unapologetic) "Filthy" Rich Kon (@DrunknSoberPod) September 18, 2018
The opening number at the #emmys was a skit on “diversity” saying they “solved it” with a diverse Emmy celebration, but I didn’t see any black women in that number 🤔 #emmys
- K.Foxx (@TheRealKFoxx) September 18, 2018
Hey @TelevisionAcad - would have loved to see an actor with a disability in your opening number about solving diversity on TV #Emmys
- Heather (@TheHeatherRepor) September 18, 2018
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