John Oliver Curses Out The Emmys For Trying To Play Him Off While Dedicating His Win To His Dead Dog: “F*** You!”

John Oliver must have thought he was on HBO when he delivered his acceptance speech at the 2024 Emmys, because the late night host dropped on fat F-bomb on ABC. While accepting the award for Outstanding Scripted Variety Series, the Last Week Tonight star cursed out the awards show for trying to play him off early — while he was giving a touching speech about his late dog, no less.

“Thank you so much. Thank you to my staff, some of them are here, others are in Brooklyn. I don’t know that they’re watching this, but I know that they are in Brooklyn. Whatever you’re doing, I hope that you’re having fun,” he began, before going on to thank everyone who’s made his show possible, including HBO, whom he gave a special shout-out to for “not canceling us over the last decade.”

As Oliver went on to thank his wife and children, he slipped up and accidentally (and hilariously) called his own son “husband,” before correcting himself and saying his actual name, Hudson, while quipping, “That’s going to come back and haunt me.”

After mentioning his other son, Oliver said he wanted to thank “our dog,” explaining, “we have the most fantastic dog. And she was at our wedding, and she got us through the pandemic. She was with us for two pregnancies.”

As he continued to speak, the dreaded play-off music came on, prompting Oliver to pause, raise his finger and joke, “Perfect choice of music!”

He then told the audience, “We had to say goodbye to her, and uh—” he was censored for what he said next, but it was abundantly clear to anyone with a rudimentary level of lip-reading skills: “Fuck you!” (which was seemingly verified by a viewer in Australia, who posted what they said was the uncensored version).

“I feel like Sarah Mclachlan right now. She was an amazing dog, and uh, ouch, this isn’t just for her, this is for all dogs. All dogs. You’re very good girls, you’re very good boys, you deserve a treat,” Oliver said while clutching the award.

With that, he declared, “Play me off now!” prompting the music — which had been briefly paused after his profane one-liner — to begin once again.

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His bit stirred up plenty of chatter online, where one viewer wrote on X, “THEY ARE PLAYING OFF JOHN OLIVER WHILE HE DEDICATES HIS AWARD TO HIS DEAD DOG #EMMYS,” and another noted, “So this was something. John Oliver wins an Emmy. He starts to thank his dog, who recently died, and they start playing him off stage, which he did not appreciate.”