Perhaps a little bit lost among other story lines earlier this seek, comedian Nate Bargatze opened the Emmy Awards Sunday night dressed as Utah legend Philo T. Farnsworth.
The award show host introduced his Farnsworth character as “the inventor of television,” while wearing round wire-frame spectacles and a white lab coat — and poked fun and the quirks of modern television.
Farnsworth — nicknamed “the father of television” — was born near Beaver, Utah, in 1906, and studied at Brigham Young University for two years before dropping out. He is credited with producing the first all-electric television image, per Utah History Encyclopedia. At the time of his death, Farnsworth held over 300 patents in the U.S.
The sketch, set 100 years ago, was a play on Bargatze’s “Saturday Night Live” bit, “Washington’s Dream." He was joined by “SNL” stars Mikey Day, Bowen Yang and James Austin Johnson.
While Day, Yang and Johnson attempted to put finishing touches on a television prototype, the unfinished project begins to steam and rattle, tempting the inventor’s assistants to abandon the project.
“We cannot give up,” Bargatze (as Farnsworth) intervenes. “Do not get discouraged. What we create here will one day bring the world shows that inform and educate. Shows that make us laugh, and cry!”
Then, Bargatze poked fun at the convoluted plot of the most-nominated show of the year, “Severance,” which he described as a show “about people who, when they go to work, they switch to different people in their brains who only remember what happens at work!”
He joked, “Many people who watch it won’t (understand)” the plot.
Bargatze also described the History Channel as the place to learn about aliens and the Learning Channel as the place to watch “Hoarders,” “Dr. Pimple Popper” and “all our fun stuff.”
He also joked that one day there will be so many shows on television, they will have to create a new type of TV, called “streaming,” which he described as “a new way for companies to lose money.”
Finally, Bargatze concluded the bit by praising Emmy Award winners as people who have “achieved the highest level of artistry,” but clarified that most Americans would still prefer to watch “football or ‘Yellowstone’” than Emmy-winning shows.
Following the sketch, Bargatze returned to stage and introduced his unconventional plan to keep the award show tightly packed into its three-hour window.
Bargatze vowed to donate $100,000 to the Boys and Girls of America — but there was a catch.
Each Emmy winner was allotted 45 seconds for an acceptance speech. For every second someone talked past their time limit, Bargatze would subtract $1,000 from his donation.
At the same time, Bargatze also committed to adding $1,000 to his donation for every second an acceptance speech went under the 45-second time limit.
By the end of the night, the donation fund was so deep in the negative, Bargatze called the total “embarrassing” and gave $250,000 of his own money to the cause. CBS also gave $100,000, bringing the final donation to $350,000 for the Boys and Girls Club of America.
Bargatze received a flood of criticism for his method to keep the show on track. Time magazine said the comedian “blew it” and made the show feel like a “telethon.” And Rolling Stone magazine said Bargatze’s “bad bit overshadowed” the entire event.
But for The Boys and Girls Club of America, the controversial Emmys bit is only positive. Since Sunday, search interest in the charity has hit an all-time high and donations have more than doubled compared to last week, Lisa Anastasi, the organization’s chief development and external relations officer, told The Associated Press.
“The $350,000 donation will be incredibly impactful to our programs and in the lives of kids and teens who attend our Clubs,” Anastasi said. “But this moment was about more than the donation for us — it was also special because it placed our mission and our Club Kids on a national stage.”