Despite being one of the biggest touring stand-ups in the world, it wasn’t until Nate Bargatze hosted SNL twice that he was given the opportunity to host a major awards show. It’s fitting, then, that Bargatze opened the 2025 Emmys on September 14 with a riff on “Washington’s Dream,” the viral SNL sketch responsible for raising his public profile another notch. In the sketch, co-starring SNL’s Bowen Yang, James Austin Johnson, and Mikey Day, Bargatze plays the inventor of television, making bold pronouncements about what his pioneering device will lead to while fielding questions from his confused colleagues. But the premise is more or less an excuse to make monologue jokes, which Bargatze did about everything from Severance’s confusing story line to the decidedly noneducational programming offered on the Learning Channel. Broadly, the sketch keeps it light. Emmy network CBS is referred to as the “Caucasian Broadcast System,” streaming services are referred to as “a new way to lose money,” and the shows that will one day be nominated for Emmys are derided as “not even close” to the most viewed on television.
Following the sketch, Stephen Colbert took the stage to present the award for Best Actor in a Comedy Series, ostensibly so Bargatze could change into his tuxedo before returning to the stage to deliver his monologue in earnest. But rather than continue to tell jokes, Bargatze spent the majority of his short stint onstage explaining the system he’d devised to keep acceptance speeches short, which he’d already detailed on Jimmy Kimmel Live earlier in the week. He announced to the audience that he was planning to donate $100,000 to the Boys and Girls Club of America but that he would subtract $1,000 from the total for every second an award recipient exceeds their allotted 45-second speech time. (But not to worry: Award winners could also add to the total by going under 45 seconds.) “Don’t go crazy, because I am paying for this,” Bargatze said jokingly in his signature deadpan. It wasn’t the most memorable monologue, but credit to Bargatze, I guess, for putting his mouth where his money is and keeping things short.
Related
The comedian riffed on his viral SNL sketch “Washington’s Dream” rather than tell jokes onstage.
