It didn't take long for Twitter to jump to erroneous conclusions about Andy Samberg’s excellent performance hosting last night's 67th Primetime Emmy Awards. Only a few minutes into his monologue he was declared dead in the water because he wasn't getting cacophonous laughter ringing throughout the Microsoft Theater. But a straight-up LoL-o-Meter isn't exactly the best way to judge the substance of his performance. Just as Samberg proved during his terrified and brilliant set at the hilarious Comedy Central Roast of James Franco in 2013, while he may not approach hosting in a traditional way that garners easy laughs, he's an incisive comedic commentator who set the tone for what turned out to be a historic night.
His opening video—littered with stars like Jon Hamm, Kerry Washington, Will Forte, Nathan Fillion, Billy Eichner, Bob Odenkirk, Randall Park, Yvette Nicole Brown, Timothy Simons, and Hannah Simone—tackled the debate over #PeakTV head-on, with an Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt-bunker-influenced musical number that felt a whole lot like the classic Lonely Island joint "Great Day." It's like the most entertaining think piece possible, hinting at the emotional cost of keeping up with so much good television, skewering all the shows with "wives" in the title, and throwing in a superfluous nod to Les Mis for good measure.
The monologue, which was derided with "bomb threats" and tweets about dead air in the room, actually managed to foreshadow many of the issues presenters and winners brought up throughout the night. Samberg didn't have stars rolling in the aisles, but he directly confronted his whiteness as a pre-requisite for hosting, referenced how shamefully long it has taken to get a modicum of diversity within the nominees, and doubled down on the gender disparity in Hollywood with wage gap and age gap jokes. Almost every political topic that got fleshed out over the course of the night can be traced back to Samberg's first nine minutes on stage.
And on the topical front, he jabbed Donald Trump, Kim Davis, and *True Detective'*s lackluster second season with aplomb. His aces Arnold Schwarzenegger Predator reference may have fallen on deaf ears (nobody remembers the nearly 30-year-old action classic?), but the guy closed with a layered joke comparing Uzo Aduba and Allison Janney to Ed Asner that landed perfectly.
Once the monologue was over, he kept the proceedings moving at a reasonable clip, only popping up to deliver a few more jokes. He got in a great dig at Girls. He also wished George R. R. Martin a happy birthday and got Tatiana Maslany some screen time since her nomination was already a Herculean task completed. But most importantly, he stayed out of the way of the bigger moments of the evening, like Aduba, Regina King, and Viola Davis' wins. The second hour of a three-hour awards show is often a drag, and there's always the sense that hosts disappear for huge swaths of time as the rush to give out all the trophies competes with the run time. But producers impressively had everything under control, and part of that involved deploying Samberg for quick reappearances while keeping the presenters going and picking spots to hurry up winners during speeches. (Though what in the world possessed Frances McDormand to channel Merritt Wever's notoriously abrupt acceptance speech remains to be seen.)
The reason Samberg's James Franco roast set is so brilliant is that he takes what is normally a scary, negative space and defied expectations by making himself the butt of every joke. He tried to do the same at the Emmys, calling into question the issues of casting diversity and gender equality that deserve high-profile platforms for discussion within the industry when most hosts would prefer not to rock the boat except when it comes to knee-capping conservative politicians.
The bottom line is this: Don't believe the initial reactions. Andy Samberg did a great job hosting the Emmys, and he's a much better goofball actor and comedian than he gets credit for considering his offbeat digital sketch roots. Given that the third season of Brooklyn Nine-Nine bows next Sunday, hopefully more people will get a chance to see that without needing a year of time and an isolation bunker.
