John Oliver’s Emmys Speech Derails as He Mentions Dead Dog

“Last Week Tonight” once again won the Outstanding Scripted Variety Series category at the Emmys on Sunday night, but host John Oliver’s acceptance speech quickly derailed — thanks to his dead dog.

Of course, things got rocky even before the pup came into play. In taking the stage to accept the award, the HBO host immediately thanked his family, but he also got his oldest son’s name wrong.

“I’d like to thank my wife Kate and kids, husband,” Oliver said, laughing at himself immediately. “Husband. His name is Hudson. Ouch. Ouch. That’s gonna come back to haunt me.”

The comedian then joked that he should’ve gotten his second son’s name wrong too in order “to even it out,” but managed to get it right. Things only got more chaotic from there, though.

“I also want to thank — this is gonna be very silly — our dog. We had the most fantastic dog,” Oliver said. “And she was at our wedding, and she got us through a pandemic, she was with us through pregnancies.”

But, as he continued to discuss their fur baby, the music to play him off kicked in, prompting Oliver to joke that it was the “perfect choice of music” because the dog had to be put down recently.

“We had to say goodbye to her. F–k you,” he said as the audience groaned and the telecast tried to push him off stage. “It is — I feel like Sarah McLachlan right now. She was an amazing dog, and uh, ouch.”

Oliver decided to simply steer into the skid though, opting to dedicate his win to not just his dearly departed dog, but to all of them as the playoff music ended.

“This isn’t just for her, this is for all dogs! You’re very good girls,” he said. “You’re very good boys, you all deserve a treat. Play me off now!”

You can see the full list of Emmy winners, here.